AUBURN — One of Neil Simon’s most popular comedies is returning to the Community Little Theatre stage June 7-16. It’s CLT’s third go-round with the show. The local company staged it first in the 1967-68 season, which was just a couple of years after the smash-hit debut of “The Odd Couple” on Broadway with Walter Matthau and Art Carney as the mismatched roommates, Oscar Madison and Felix Unger.

The second CLT production was in 1986 when Lee Griswold was Oscar and Dan Crawford played Felix. Mitchell Clyde Thomas, who is directing the current show, also had a role in that 1986 production.

“I had so much fun in that show, and it was such a close-bonded cast, I have always wanted to direct it myself,” Thomas said. This classic of stage, film and television opens as a group of the guys sit down for cards in the apartment of divorced slob Oscar Madison, played by Roger Philippon, a CLT favorite comedic actor. Felix Unger, a neurotic neat-freak who is recently separated from his wife, is a late arrival for the game. Playing Felix is Eric Brakey of New Gloucester, a newcomer to the CLT stage. His college major was in theatre and he has done some professional acting.

As the action unfolds, the clean-freak and the slob ultimately decide to room together with hilarious results. Other characters include the poker buddies. Murray, played by CLT veteran Phil Vampatella, is a retired NYPD policeman. Speed, who is gruff and sarcastic and often picks on the others, is played by another popular comedic actor, Jason Pelletier.

Mild-mannered Vinnie is played by Paul Menezes, a local actor making his CLT debut. Roy, who is Oscar’s accountant, is played by Bernie Button of Auburn. He is appearing in his first show since moving to Maine from Texas, where he was active in community theatre.

The Pigeon sisters, Cecily and Gwendolyn, are Oscar and Felix’s upstairs neighbors from Britain. They are played by Pat Freestone Phillips and Andrea Quaid. Both have appeared in previous CLT productions.

Their dialogue is delivered with English accents. Thomas said Phillips comes by the pronunciation quite easily, thanks to residence in the UK, while Quaid has mastered the added challenge of putting the proper Brit diction into her lines. Thomas said the poker game requires the actors to know the game and to play it convincingly.

“It was evident that I didn’t know how to play poker,” Thomas said as he recalled his role as Speed in the 1986 CLT show. He said other poker players in the cast took special pains to teach him, including inviting him to a poker game at the home of one of the actors, where they played until three or four in the morning.

Thomas said that resulted in a tradition of many years when members of that cast and crew have gathered for poker. Performances of “The Odd Couple” are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, June 7-8 and June 13-15, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, June 9 and 16 at the Great Falls Performing Arts Center, 30 Academy St., Auburn.

Tickets are $18; seniors are $15; and children, 12 and under, are $12. For the two weeks of this production leading up to Father’s Day, anyone who brings their “Dad” to see the show oays $12 for his ticket.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call the Box Office at 783-0958 or visit the website at www.LACLT.com.

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