Derricks & Kostroff Join Reprise! 'The Odd Couple' with Short & Alexander

Reprise! Broadway's Best, headed by artistic director Jason Alexander, is announcing casting for the staged reading of The Odd Couple.

Cleavant Derricks (Vinnie), Wayne Knight (Murray), Michael Kostroff (Speed) and Patrick Warburton (Roy) are announced to join Martin Short and Alexander in the staged reading of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple – which has two performances January 25 and 26 at the Wadsworth Theatre.

Tickets are on sale online at ticketmaster.com, by phone at 213-365-3500 or 714-740-7878, or by visiting Ticketmaster outlets, and at the Wadsworth Box Office, located on Wilshire Blvd, just west of the 405 freeway on the Veterans Administration grounds in West L.A.  For more information visit reprise.org. 

During its original Broadway run of 966 performances, The Odd Couple won the Tony Awards for Best Play (1965), Best Director Mike Nichols, and Best Actor Walter Matthau, who playing opposite Art Carney, fully established his career as a major American actor. The very successful film was made with Matthau repeating his stage triumph opposite Jack Lemmon, followed by an even more successful television series with Jack Klugman, who had originally replaced Matthau on Broadway, and Tony Randall.  Immediately following the last season of the primetime series, two animated dogs – Spiffy, voiced by Frank Nelson and Fleabag, voiced by Paul Winchell -- were The Oddball Couple, seen on Saturday mornings for two years.  Later a second TV series that paired Ron Glass and Desmond Wilson ran for 13 episodes.