Liverpool and New York have always enjoyed a special relationship. We gave them the Beatles and Central Park (it's modelled on one in Birkenhead, you know); they sent us Neil Simon's soft-centred comedy about a sweltering Manhattan summer, which for no clear reason the Playhouse has opted to put on at Christmas.
The programme states there should be no smoking or consumption of alcohol in the auditorium, which makes the first 20 minutes of the Odd Couple a bit of a transgression. Matthew Lloyd's staging of the opening poker game comes shrouded in such an oppressive, masculine fug that you have to take it on trust that there must be actors in there somewhere.
Luckily it's not long before fussy, neurotic Felix arrives brandishing his air freshener and a new broom to sweep through the festering apartment. Felix (who serves sandwiches on pumpkin toast with a cocktail stick through the middle) and Oscar (who serves sandwiches clamped under his armpit) form one of the great dysfunctional but bizarrely interdependent comedic relationships, ranking alongside Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Will and Grace, and Blair and Bush.
The correct casting of this central couple is essential to ensure that Simon's jazzy interplay of rancorous ribbing really swings. Fortunately David Fielder (Felix) and George Costigan (Oscar) go back a long way, to Alan Dosser's legendary Everyman company of the 1970s, which enables them to generate the fractious electricity that only crackles between two people over-closely acquainted with each other's personal habits.
Apparently, the pair even share digs together, and have a little post-show ritual where Fielder cooks supper while Costigan slobs out with the Guardian crossword. Now that I really would like to see.
· Until January 15. Box office: 0151-709 4776.
