Neil Simon penned "The Odd Couple" decades ago, at a time when there was a gentle innocence in the land, when buddies were real buddies, when a New York apartment was let for less than $300 a month. Today that wouldn't get you half a closet. Yet Simon's "...Couple" still happily resonates with today's audiences. The times may be different but the 40-plus years that transpired since the original opening still allows smiles to flourish over some very funny lines. It was sophisticated for its time.

"The Odd Couple" is what happens when two longtime friends, bachelors through marital failure, stumble into a friendship of "marriage." Oscar is a slob and Felix is an obsessed neat freak. The one is behind in alimony payments, the other just kicked out by his wife and in need of a place to stay. The pair assumes the friendship can overcome their differences so they combine their resources. But it's not a good assumption. Though they share the rent, Felix cannot help but antagonize everyone through his obsessive behavior and drives Oscar to the border of mayhem.

Broadway West established a delightfully intimate setting that easily provides the sense of a man-cave; that place set aside for testosterone carriers to be natural, as knuckle-draggers. Oscar's apartment is the nexus of nonsense: the never-missed Friday poker game; the living room doing double duty as a clothes hamper; and Oscar and Felix in constant battle over the fussy and the chaotic.

The play comes with a bit

of baggage, though nothing of concern. Vying for attention are memories of past incarnations; from the parings of acting legends Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon; Walter Matthau and Art Carney; and the televised icons, Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. Today we have Kyle Smith and Drew Campbell.

Smith as Oscar and Campbell as Felix struggle a bit to find their center but successfully present Simon's inside joke two men, incapable of managing their marriages, try to have a married friendship. Smith seems to understand Oscar and enjoys the carefree haphazard manner to which he treats the world around him. He wasn't overly nice nor was he hard and bombastic. He played a good Oscar. And he had some great lines. When serving food at the poker table he says, "I've got brown sandwiches and green sandwiches." Vinnie asks, "What's the green sandwich?" to which Oscar replies, "Either new cheese or old meat."

Campbell's Felix found his stride midway through the first act, when his woe-is-me, little-lost-boy personae morphed into a man obsessed with neat. Then Campbell engaged Felix's oddities with energy. One scene treat occurred when Felix shared his love for his children with the Pigeon sisters, good time gals from an upstairs apartment, and brings them high from laughter down to a good cry. As the production continues, Smith and Campbell should bond their characters closer together.

Playing well together as an ensemble and supporting that never forgotten poker gamer were Vinny (Jim Coryelle), Speed (David Shawn Covert), Roy (Greg Small), and Murray (Ross Arden Harkness). The guys performed their parts agreeably, without glitz or problem. They were a band of brothers bound by a code of testosterone to help one another. That, and to drink beer and play poker.

Enter the Pigeon Sisters, Gwendolyn and Cecily, played by Rosie Ricca and Kerry Smith, two lovely ladies of good humor living above the boys. They come down to Oscar's for a party and have the giggles. The delightful English duo was spot as simple gals who enjoyed laughing. And their laughter was much shared by the audience.

Broadway West's "The Odd Couple," directed by Drew Campbell, is entertaining and plays through April 19 at the Broadway West Theatre. The stage is located at 4000 B Bay St., Fremont. For box office and reservation information, call (510) 683-9218.

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W. Fred Crow is a local music director and frequent attendee

of the arts. Contact him at wfredcrow@yahoo.com.