Review: The Odd Couple (Female Version)

Review: The Odd Couple (Female Version)| Miners Alley Performing Arts Center | Golden, CO | Curtain Up! | Eric Fitzgerald

Now on stage at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden, CO, Director Warren Sherrill’s production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple (Female Version) has an effortless sparkle—that kind of staging that reminds you why this play keeps finding new life. Sherrill emphasizes the emotional undercurrents without ever losing the comic edge, resulting in a lively, beautifully balanced evening where the jokes land, the friendships feel genuine, and the whole production resonates with a truly contagious confidence.

At the center of the evening are the impressively synchronized performances by Emma Messenger as Florence Unger and Sheryl McCallum as Olive Madison. Messenger captures Florence’s swirling anxieties with bright, almost surgical precision, while McCallum responds with natural ease and genuine wit that feels truly authentic. Together, they create a rhythm that makes the whole production click—timing that can’t be faked and chemistry that can’t be forced. Of course, they deliver the kind of perfectly crafted dialogue only Neil Simon could write, language that still snaps, sparkles, and lands with the confidence of a master who knows exactly how people collide and connect.

Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple (Female Version) follows the combustible pairing of Olive Madison (Sheryl McCallum), a sportswriter whose apartment is a cheerful disaster, and Florence Unger (Emma Messenger), a newly abandoned wife who copes by cleaning, cooking, and alphabetizing anything that sits still long enough. When Florence moves in after her marriage implodes, their opposite temperaments—Olive’s breezy chaos and Florence’s precision‑engineered order—ignite a series of comic skirmishes that threaten to undo their friendship.

Though Miners Alley’s production is entirely contemporary in its staging and sensibility, the play itself remains firmly rooted in the 1980s (note the landline telephone), and that period setting gives the comedy a delicious extra layer: self‑help language, shifting gender roles, and the unmistakable hum of women reinventing themselves.

And that’s precisely why the female version feels so relevant now. Simon’s rewrite doesn’t just flip the genders; it exposes the emotional labor, caretaking, and impossible expectations women still navigate today. The play’s heartbeat—two women trying to rebuild their lives while negotiating space, identity, and friendship—lands with a clarity that feels startlingly current. In 2026, the story’s mix of reinvention, resilience, and beautifully messy female friendship couldn’t feel more at home.

Enter the Costazuela brothers, Manolo (Josh Levy) and Jesus (Damon Guerrasio), arriving just in time to heat things up in the second act. Their presence gives Simon even richer terrain for his excellent dialogue and opens a sly window into the ongoing battle of the sexes. Both Levy and Guerrasio are superb comedic actors, fully alive to the rhythms of the scene, and they spare no instinct in charming the ladies—or the audience, for that matter.

And the cast wouldn’t be complete without the “girls” (hey, it’s the 1980’s) who gather for Trivial Pursuit (Simon’s clever update from the original poker game). Each one is adept, offering a perfectly pitched sounding board for Flo and Olive and their escalating domestic quibbles. Mickey (Adrian Egolf), Renee (Annie Dwyer), Vera (Candace Orrino), and Sylvie (Dana Hart Wright) form a lively, textured quartet—sharp, funny, and wonderfully attuned to the shifting emotional weather in Olive’s apartment.

Warren Sherrill’s direction shapes the production with both clarity and sparkle. He has that rare talent to honor Simon’s structure while allowing the actors room to breathe within it, guiding the evening with a touch that’s both confident and playful. Sherrill knows precisely when to embrace the chaos and when to let a moment settle, drawing performances that feel natural rather than mechanical. The result is a production that moves smoothly and purposefully — nothing forced, nothing overly detailed, just a director fully in sync with his cast, his audience, and the unique joys of Simon’s world.

The physical production benefits greatly from Jonathan Scott‑McKean’s scenic design, which creates a warm, inviting apartment that works beautifully for the play, even if its vibe feels more like suburban Long Island than Manhattan. It’s a charming space, thoughtfully arranged and easy for the actors to inhabit—but it doesn’t quite have that unmistakable New York City spark. Crystal McKenzie’s costumes, meanwhile, capture the period beautifully, and Vance McKenzie’s lighting subtly and steadily guides the evening’s tone shifts. Jonathan Hauser’s sound design completes the scene with clean, simple support.

Under Warren Sherrill’s splendid direction, The Odd Couple (Female Version) finds its rhythm through the exceptional performances of Emma Messenger and Sheryl McCallum, whose acting gives the production its heart, humor, and lively energy. They are the reason the evening resonates with clarity and charm, and why Simon’s world feels so vibrant. The Odd Couple (Female Version) runs through March 8 at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden, CO, and it’s definitely worth seeing before Florence and Olive pack up their quibbles and call it a night.

For information and tickets: https://minersalley.com/shows/odd-couple/