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Tony Randall and Jack Klugman reprise The Odd Couple.

Forever Felix

Tony Randall
appears in the
"Odd Couple"
to benefit
his National
Actors Theater.

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

ony Randall will be doing
it one more time. Tour-
ing with The Odd Couple, that
is. He will be reunited with
costar Jack Klugman in a two-
month tour this spring and
summer. Once again fans will
be able to see Randall play
Felix Unger, the fastidious,
depressed, compulsive divor-
ce, and Mr. Klugman play Os-
car, the sloppy, poker playing
roommate. Unfortunately, the
duo will not be appearing at the
Fox Theatre May 31-June 5 as
scheduled due to logistic conflicts.
"I love the play and it's a plea-
sure to be, working with Jack
again," Mr. Randall said from his
theater company's rehearsal hall
in New York City. "He has such
performing energy."
The Odd Couple, which is
based on Neil Simon's award-
winning play, first aired as a TV
sitcom nearly 25 years ago. Sur-
prisingly, the show did not be-
come a phenomenon until it went
into syndication almost a decade
later.

"We were on the air for five
years and never had a high rat-
ing," Mr. Randall admitted.
"Every 13 weeks we were
dropped, but a man at the net-
work named Marty Starger kept
rescinding the cancellation. He
thought it was a good show and
wanted to keep it on— and so for
five years we stayed on the air,
although at the bottom."
Mr. Randall credits Jack Klug-
man with having the foresight to
predict the show's long-term suc-
cess. "Jack always said it would
come back in reruns and every-
one would discover how good it
was — and he was right,"
laughed the very trim, youthful
looking 74-year old actor.
`The show is a huge hit in syn-
dication and is playing all over
the world, including South Amer-
ica and Kuwait. And I under-
stand it will be playing in the
former Iron Curtain countries
soon."
The first time Mr. Randall
read Neil Simon's play, he fell in
love with the character Felix

though his dream became a re-
ality in 1991 when his company
debuted on Broadway, the fund
raising has been an on-going
process.
"Over the years I saw the great
acting companies of the world—
the Habine of Israel, the Abbey
of Great Britain, the Moscow Art
Theater and the Kabuki of Japan,
and I thought to myself, 'Why
aren't we doing this?' " he said.
"I talked about it for years and
years and then one day I realized
that if I didn't start it myself, I
might never see it. So in 1981,
when Warner Brothers made me
an offer to costar on "Love, Syd-
ney" and said they would give me
a huge sum of money for my the-
ater, I jumped at the chance. For
the first time I had money and
was able to get really serious."
When "Love Sydney" ended,
Mr. Randall put his career on
hold to devote all of his time, en-
ergy and money into getting the
theater company off the ground.
"Thanks to reruns from The Odd
Couple, I had an income and
could live," he said.
Not only has he donated over
$1 million of his own for the pro-
ject, but over the years Mr. Ran-
dall has raised millions of dollars
with the help of good friends. In
fact, Mr. Klugman, who over-
came a bout with throat cancer a
few years ago, will donate his en-
tire salary from The Odd Couple's
summer tour, as will Mr. Ran-
dall.
`The summer tour was Jack's
idea," smiled Mr. Randall. "Jack
suggested that neither of us take
a salary so we cool make a lot of
money for the theater. Jack is a
wonderful friend."
Mr. Randall's love for theater
and dedication to the arts start-
ed when he was an adolescent.

Unger. "I was overwhelmed by
Neil's mastery of him," said Mr.
Randall, who has toured with
FOREVER FELIX page 86
Klugman in The Odd
Couple six times.
"Neil Simon is one of
the great American play-
wrights — up there with
Tennessee Williams,
Arthur Miller and Eu-
gene O'Neill. • I won't be
here, but I bet in 100
years Simon's plays will
still be performed on
stage."
The actors are
reprising their TV roles
in order to benefit Tony
Randall's National Ac-
tors Theater, a labor of
love which has mo-
nopolized his time for
over a decade. As a
passionate advocate of
the classics, Mr. Ran-
dall vowed to bring
the likes of Shake-
speare, Ibsen, Chek- Tony Randall:
hov and Shaw to the Setting the stage for the classics.
Broadway stage. Al-

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