Jessica Stone Cast as Cecily Pigeon in The Odd Couple Revival

By: May. 25, 2005
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Casting for the Pigeon Sisters in the upcoming revival of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple is now complete with Jessica Stone taking the role of Cecily alongside Olivia d'Abo's Gwendolyn. The two sisters, both named after the female leads in The Importance of Being Earnest, encounter Oscar (Nathan Lane) while stuck in an elevator. Matthew Broderick, of course, will play the other half of the mismatched pair.

In the original production of The Odd Couple, Carole Shelley was Gwendolyn while Monica Evans played Cecily.

Stone's Broadway credits include The Smell of the Kill, Roundabout's revival of Design for Living, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (as a replacement Rosemary), and the 1994 revival of Grease (as Frenchy). She was the assistant director of last year's Match.

d'Abo, who is best known for her role as Karen Arnold on The Wonder Years, has appeared on screen in such films as It Had to Be You, The Velocity of Gary, Kicking and Screaming and Greedy; she will make her Broadway debut in The Odd Couple.

It was recently announced that Brad Garrett of Everybody Loves Raymond would play Murray the Cop. Aside from the five leads, no casting has been announced.

The Odd Couple, written by Neil Simon, relates the platonic love story of two very mismatched men--neatnik photographer Felix Unger (Broderick) and sportswriting sloven Oscar Madison (Lane). Sharing a room, their initial warm feelings for one another are tested when their lifestyles clash.

The original production of The Odd Couple opened at the Plymouth Theatre on March 10, 1965, and ran for 966 performances. Directed by Mike Nichols, the show starred Art Carney as Felix and Walter Matthau as Oscar. The show won 4 of its 5 Tony nominations, including the Best Author (Play) Tony for Simon. A classic 1968 film version would have Matthau reprising his role as Oscar, with Jack Lemmon as Felix. A revised female version opened in 1985, with Rita Moreno as "Olive" and Sally Struthers as "Florence." There was also a hit TV version that starred Jack Klugman as Oscar and Tony Randall as Felix.

The revival will be produced by Emanuel Azenberg, Ira Pittelman, Jeffrey Sine, Max Cooper and Ben Sprecher. Directed by Joe Mantello, The Odd Couple will open on October 4th at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre for what is likely to be a limited run.


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