The Sunshine Boys Starring…Who?

As you may have heard, an unlikely cast is about to start a London theatrical run in Neil Simon‘s The Sunshine Boys, the one about the aging vaudevillians who have an uneasy reunion full of fighting and shticking.

In the 1975 movie, it was Walter Matthau and George Burns as the feuding legends.

Well, in this version, the Matthau character is being played by pint-size Danny DeVito.

And the Burns guy is now the formidable Richard Griffiths from The History Boys and Harry Potter.

Um, er, OK.

When I think George Burns, I don’t automatically think Richard Griffiths, but hey, maybe it’s time for reinvention, especially with material this old and neglected.

Griffiths, it turns out, doesn’t care for the movie version.

“It was unsatisfactory,” he tells the Telegraph. “They took the play and fiddled with it.”

He likes the performances, mind you, which is good–Burns happened to have won an Oscar for his career-high achievement in the role.

Let’s see if this version brings new Sunshine or if it continues Neil’s rocky revival streak.