The Copperstate Dinner Theater in Phoenix is calling it “The Battle of the Sexes,” practically daring audiences to see both Neil Simon’s 1965 comedy “The Odd Couple” and his 1985 gender-
switching adaptation, “The Odd Couple (Female Version),” and compare the two.

It’s a gimmick, sure, one of many that theater companies have offered up over the years hoping to breathe new life into Simon’s dated, dusty classic (one that’s already been twisted into a TV sitcom and movies of varying quality and merit), from recasting contrary roommates Felix Unger and Oscar Madison as gay, as black, as drag queens, or even as pawns in experimental theater wherein the lead actors swap roles at intermission.

But gimmick or no, I accepted Copperstate’s challenge and attended both shows on successive evenings of opening weekend. And I’m ready to declare a winner in the battle.

It’s the men. Credit mostly director Noel Irick’s casting — Roy Hunt as slobby sportsmonger Oscar and Terry Gadaire as uptight neatnik Felix. The two approach their performances as if they’re the first duo to be doing “The Odd Couple,” injecting it with gobs of comic zing and enthusiasm, eating up and spitting out Simon’s hilarious quips like wads of Big League Chew.
Hunt’s Oscar is somewhere between pitch-perfect and Fred Flintstone on a bachelor binge: all sloppy machismo, imitation “Swingers” vibe and love of a foamy beer.

Gadaire’s Felix comes onstage looking like a persnickety Joe Friday, and although he veers Felix a little too close to la-di-da land, it’s a hoot to watch him flail about dramatically, something Felix does a lot. When these two are together, it’s a laugh-a-minute blast.

Contrast that with the female version, which Irick also directed. To be sure, the company is working with a crippled script — more of a cash-in novelty by Simon than substantive work in its own right. But glossing over the slew of contrivances required to fit women into “The Odd Couple’s” template (least of which is a switch from guys playing poker to gals playing Trivial Pursuit; what, no Bunko?), the female cast tries to find some kind of depth in the relationship between butch Olive (played by Kathi Osborne) and neurotic Florence (Athena Reiss) on the way to the only real laughs in the second act, a double-date with two wild-and-crazy Spaniard lotharios (played by Carlos Urtubey and Cuauhtemoc Aparicio). Reiss’ neurosis as Florence is fun to observe, if not quite as laughable as Gaudaire’s version.

My favorite character in the female “Odd Couple” was, in fact, Irick as girl chum Sylvie, allowing the director/actress to pop a ciggie in her mouth and use that fabulously droll deadpan sarcasm of hers in lines like this, a reply to the trivia question “What’s the strongest muscle in a man’s body?”:

“Before or after?”

I imagine the Red Hat Society gals looking for some theatrical giggles now that “Menopause — The Musical” is gone might get enjoyment out of the female version, which has its moments of mixing “Menopause” with “Sex and the City.”

But it says something that a theatergoer like myself — who’s seen “The Odd Couple” eight times now and would love to see an adaptation that didn’t feel too forced or too distracting — would rather spend yet another evening cooped up in an apartment with good ol’ crazy Felix and abrasive Oscar than their female foils.