The Odd Couple's feminine twist

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon's female equivalents

Neil Simon's classic comedy The Odd Couple has undergone a role reversal for London's West End.

The play, made famous by the 1960s hit film starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon, has been restyled for female leads.

British actresses Jenny Seagrove and Paula Wilcox have revived the chalk and cheese characters of Oscar and Felix.

The grumbling, bleary eyed Oscar, immortalised by Matthau, has become slobbish Olive - played by Jenny Seagrove.

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were the original odd couple

Man About The House actress Paula Wilcox plays Florence, an uptight equivalent to Jack Lemmon's Felix.

The late Matthau's portrayal of Oscar Madison catapulted him to fame, making his shoes somewhat hard to fill.

"This is really dangerous, it's bad enough having the shadow of Lemmon and Matthau over us," said Ms Seagrove.

"We tiptoe carefully."

Ms Wilcox added: "It's quite nice that there isn't another male version in town."

"You can get away with it because there is no way we are going to be like Lemmon and Matthau."

Fireworks

Olive runs a prime-time news programme and unlike sportswriter Oscar, it is only her personal life can be described as slobbish.

The fireworks begin when untidy Olive and pathologically neat Florence, who has just left her husband of 14 years, decide to share living quarters.

"Florence is one of those obsessive perfectionists who can't walk into a place without tidying everything up," says Ms Wilcox

"She just drives everbody insane.

"She thinks that being a woman is by definition somebody who cooks and cleans."

Both actresses have shed their distinct Britishness for the play which is based in New York.

"You couldn't say the lines with English accents," said Ms Seagrove

"The whole sensibilities need to be that kind of Jewish American, Neil Simon humour."

"You say it with an American accent and suddenly all the drama and the silliness becomes even funnier."

The Odd Couple opens at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End on 23 April.