The February 2002 issue of Footlights newsletter is now online. Some of the topics in the new issue include plans for a members' banquet, auditions for Lie, Cheat and Genuflect, nominations for life members and submission deadlines for people interested in directing next season.

Posted 2/2/02

The Port Arthur Little Theatre will present the female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple in dinner-theater format beginning Feb. 14. It will continue Feb. 15 and 16, with dinner beginning at 6:30 p.m. and the play at 7:30 p.m.; and again as a matinee on Feb. l7, with lunch beginning at 12:30 p.m. and the show following.

The dinner theater will be held at the Garden Terrace Tea Room, 1035 Nederland Ave. in Nederland,. Tickets are $22 for the dinner and the show. For reservations, call the Tea Room at 729-4832 or the PALT reservation line at 724-1840.

Neil Simon's popular comedy was a movie starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau and later became a successful television series starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. The female version of the play premiered starring Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers.

In PALT's production, actresses Ida Steele and Rosie Einkauf star as the odd couple. Ida Steele plays Olive Madison. Olive is a slob who works for a television sports show and has an ex-husband who is always trying to borrow money from her. She has a group of ladies who come over weekly to gossip, laugh and play trivia. Enter Florence Unger (Einkauf), who just broke up with her husband and is a compulsively neat suicidal hypochondriac, among other problems and neuroses.

Olive and the trivia ladies try to help Florence solve her problems, as they try to solve their own romantic dilemmas. Olive even arranges a disastrous blind date evening inviting over two Spaniards who live in the apartment building. Romance blooms in the happy ending.

The ladies who play trivia each week at Olive's apartment are played by Pattie Daniel as Mickey, the cop; Janice Terrell as the naive Vera; Terri Harley as the romantic Vera; and Nora Copley as the feisty Sylvie. Phillip Gray and Michael DeRouen will play the two Spaniards Olive invites over for a romantic evening.

Neil Simon's Odd Couple has been presented several times in the past by area theaters, in both the original and the female version. This is early Simon comedy, when his plays were very comical and less serious in tone. It's perhaps the most famous of the playwright's works, and its popularity has made it an audience favorite.

For the Valentine's Day performance there will be a special presentation of prizes for romantic couples in the audience. The Sunday matinee is a new feature for PALT's dinner-theater productions.

Parties of six or more may reserve a table and are requested to pay in advance at the Tea Room.

This is the second dinner-theater collaboration between PALT and the Garden Terrace Tea Room, which began with Steel Magnolias last fall. Paula Talent, manager of the Tea Room, and PALT President Phillip Gray hope to plan more in the future. It is a combination of good food, a nice atmosphere and spacious accommodations.

Posted 1/30/02