Theater Review: One Man, Two Guvnors

One Man, Two Guvnors and a Thousand Laughs
By Lauren Yarger
I'm not usually one to recommend pain, but I urge you to go see Broadway's One Man Two Guvnors and let your sides split. You will enjoy every minute.

In this transfer from the National Theatre of Great Britain, book writer Richard Bean takes Carlo Goldoni's already-funny story "The Servant of Two Masters" to new comic heights made perfect by the high-energy performance of James Corden (The History Boys) and a terrific ensemble cast directed by Nicholas Hytner.

I laughed until I cried, pretty much through the entire two-and-a-half-hour production which follows the plight of hungry Frances Henshall (Corden), who works for two bosses in an attempt to earn twice as much food. One of his bosses, Roscoe Crabbe, isn't Roscoe at all, but Rachel (Jemima Rooper) posing as her twin brother to find his murderer. The other boss, Stanley Stubbers (Oliver Chris) is in love with Rachel, but doesn't know she s posing as Roscoe, whom he murdered. Meanwhile, Charlie "the Duck" Clench forces an engagement between Roscoe and his daughter, Paulina Clench (Claire Lams), much to the woman's discontent, as she is in love with wannabe actor Alan Dangle (Daniel Rigby).

Helping Francis try to figure all of that out are Dolly (Suze Toase), the buxom employee of Clench, and Alfie (Tom Edden), an 87-year-old waiter putting in his first day on the job. Rounding out the ensemble are Martin Ellis, Trevor Laird, Fred Ridgeway, Ben Livingston, Eli James, Sarah Manton, Stephen Pilkington, David Ryan Smith and Natalie Smith).

Side-splitting, never-ending laughs ensue with amazing physical comedy (directed by Cal McCrystal). and "audience participation." Corden shows amazing energy and is really, really funny. If you haven't heard about him before, you will now. The line, "Alfie, bring the soup," doesn't sound funny, but trust me, you will guffaw as you anticipate what will happen when Alfie follows the order. You also will laugh each time the abused, gnarled waiter takes a header down the stairs.

Also getting their fair amount of sputters are Chris as the overly aristocratic Stanley and Rigby as the hammy thespian Alan.

The setting for the play is updated from early 18th century Italy to early 1960s Brighton, England and helping to set the atmosphere is a Beatles-like group called the Craze (Jason Rabinowitz, Austin Moorhead, Charlie Rosen and Jacob Colin Cohen) sporting purple-shimmer suits (Mark Thompson, costume and set design) and singing songs by Grant Olding. Some of the performers also take turns showing off their instrumental talents with the musicians as they entertain in between set changes.It's fun, but entirely superfluous. Most of my entertainment from the musicians came from watching them laugh while offstage at the action on stage. When they laugh after seeing it so many times, you know it's funny.

One Man, Two Guvnors is cracking them up at The Music Box Theatre, 239 West 45th St., NYC. Discounted tickets are available by clicking here.

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