Saturday, June 10, 2006

The Odd Couple

Integrity Productions
June 9, 2006; closes July 2, 2006

A faint breeze through an otherwise stale, old-school script (Sex and the City this isn’t), sometimes evoking more pity than pith, doggedly dodging signature Neil Simon ricochet until the second act, wherein John San Nicolas and Casey McFeron – with high energy and impeccable timing – are hilarious as the Costazuela brothers.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found myself asking, in what time period could such a script NOT feel dated or artificial?

In the 80's? Maybe.

As is, this was like a portal to another planet. Definitely not a west coast story. Did anyone else wince when the cleaner whipped out her toolbox of industrial chemicals to do battle?!

Probably not the reaction Simon was looking for, but hey, this is Portland, and those sprays did not look organic or all natural! Could have been DDT...

From the junk food these people ate to their bland, ethnicity-free, manufactured culture (playing board games sold by large corporations), to the all around indoorsy vibe of stationary office workers, what I saw here was a sad story of people alienated from their surroundings and culture, searching for something to call their own. This theme was much stronger for me than the supposed "I'm a mess and she's real clean" ploy.

The brothers were indeed funny. Stole the show.

Anonymous said...

Outside of the brothers, you successfully avoided talking about the SHOW, just the script. Care to expand?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Huh -- who were you asking? the anonymous poster, or followspot?

Anonymous said...

Didn't even notice it applies to both; I was refering to anonymous 9:59.

Anonymous said...

well if i interpret followspot's original post correctly, i'd say there was a lot of feedback on th performance:

faint breeze = nice try; couple chuckles
more pity than pith = tone was off
doggedly dodging ... = timing was off
high energy and impeccable timing = something missing from the first act

but then if you looked at the ad in the oregonian for this show, all you saw was "...hilarious..." and an incorrect Web site address

Anonymous said...

You know, I was reading the WW review of this show and I noted that BW nailed the company founders for "casting themselves"
Now admittedly I know both Boggus and Sorchi, but I gotta tell ya Ben: you are a clown.
Without much effort, I came up with this list of companies around town whose founders/artistic directors cast themselves in their shows:
ART
B'way rose
stumptown
lakewood (at least they used to until they got too old)
3rd rail
public playhouse
imago
mt hood rep

so ben, why is it you cannot seem to think of anything relevant to say?
why is it you rely on naive sophomoric drivel to fill out your reviews?
hmmm?

Anonymous said...

Wow, dude! Way to strike when the iron is red hot! It just now occurred to you to comment in this thread?

Anonymous said...

Because drivel is drivel be it written yesterday or today.