The National Theatre’s smash-hit production of One Man, Two Guvnors transfers to the Adelphi Theatre in the West End with the original cast
Based on Goldoni's 18th-century comedy The Servant of Two Masters, in One Man, Two Guvnors James Corden plays the role of Francis Henshall, suddenly finds himself with two new masters - played by Oliver Chris and Jemima Rooper - on the same day.
Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from his fiancee’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers.
Holed up at The Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart.
In Richard Bean’s adaptation, One Man, Two Two Guvnors of the italian classic, sex, food and money are high on the agenda.
One Man, Two Guvnors marks a triumphant return to the National for James Corden, who originated the role of Timms in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys in 2004. That production transferred to Broadway, toured internationally and was adapted for the big screen. Corden has since gone on to star in BBC comedies Gavin and Stacey, Horne and Corden, and ITV drama Fat Friends as well as films How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Telstar, Lesbian Vampire Killers and All or Nothing. For two years, he also found time to co-host our very own Whatsonstage.com Awards with Sheridan Smith.
Richard Bean’s other plays include England People Very Nice for the National as well as The Heretic, Harvest, Honeymoon Suite, Under the Whaleback and Toast for the Royal Court and The Big Fellah for Out of Joint at the Lyric Hammersmith and on tour.
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Nicholas Hytner's production of One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean opened to five star reviews last week (21 November, previews from 8 November) at the Adelphi Theatre after transferring from the National following a national tour.
Based on Goldoni's 18th-century comedy Servant of Two Masters, One Man, Two Guvnors follows Francis Henshall's (James Corden) efforts to keep his two guvnors (Oliver Chris and Jemima Rooper) apart in fear of discovery.
Also featuring Suzie Toase and Tom Edden, One Man, Two Guvnors is booking at the Adelphi until 25 February 2012, prior to a Broadway transfer.
"Nicholas Hytner’s production of Richard Bean’s Goldoni make-over, and James Corden’s outstanding performance, have transferred intact to the West End, all guns blazing, to ensure the most perfect seasonal entertainment ... The playing, and the discipline, remains of a very high standard ... Edden is funniest in the first act anyway, bouncing off (literally) the walls and the stoical, sneery veneer of David Benson’s head waiter ('It’s his first day!') ... His manipulation of the audience is a comedy master class. Corden copes magnificently with anything thrown at him (go on, I dare you), and was almost scuppered on press night with an unsolicited gift of pork pies from the front stalls. And there’s a brilliantly original involvement of one customer who’s not quite what she seems but plays the innocence card superbly ... Mark Thompson’s Brighton breezy setting fits very well on the Adelphi stage ... The front cloth skiffle band interludes and songs by Grant Olding are joyously integrated, and it’s sheer pleasure once again to bask not only in Corden’s company but in the deadly precision of Suzie Toase’s lubricious Dolly, the bluff density of Fred Ridgeway’s small-time godfather and the angular absurdity of Daniel Rigby’s posing, leather-jacketed actor, Alan Dangle."
"... For almost three blissful hours cares are forgotten and gnawing anxieties put aside as you surrender to great waves of healing laughter. It is absolute bliss ... It’s pretty funny in its original form but Richard Bean has transformed it into a delirious English carry-on set in Brighton in 1963, creating scenes and dialogue that often leave the audience helpless with hilarity ... His script is a bang-on-the-money mixture of wisecracks, sight gags, and fiendish moments of audience participation. The jokes and verbal sallies just keep on coming, while the cast give every impression of enjoying themselves as much as the audience without slipping into the ill-disciplined self-indulgence that can kill comedy stone dead ... James Corden is continuously funny and endearing ... Oliver Chris is possibly even funnier than Corden ... Jemima Rooper is hugely engaging as the heroine ... Daniel Rigby offers a superb turn as a preposterous, self-regarding actor, while Suzie Toase brings a busty, good-humoured warmth to the stage as the woman who falls for Henshall’s well-padded charms ... Grit your teeth, increase your credit card bill and briefly forget your cares at the funniest show in town. "
"Richard Bean's delicious reworking of Carlo Goldoni's Servant Of Two Masters, a classic 18th-century comedy, seems even better in its new West End incarnation than when first seen at the National Theatre in May ... The physical comedy has been brilliantly crafted by Cal McCrystal, and the result is a savoury hybrid of farce, cartoon and pantomime, with the occasional touch of understated pathos ... Corden is superb as Francis Henshall ... He's charismatic, genial and wonderfully energetic, developing a lovely rapport with the audience ... There's zesty support from Jemima Rooper, Suzie Toase, Tom Edden as a decrepit waiter and Daniel Rigby, as an absurdly over-the-top aspiring actor. Especially impressive is Oliver Chris, who as Stanley (one of Francis's two masters) has many of the zingiest lines and exudes an improbable mixture of snooty arrogance and charm. Verbally and visually it's a show of unusual vitality. It actually gets off to an unremarkable start, but there is an hour or so at its heart that is as purely enjoyable as anything I have ever seen at the theatre. The effervescent Corden, whose career has previously included some wayward decisions, has more than redeemed himself in this golden production. The fact that he will lead the cast when it transfers to Broadway in April is great news for the National Theatre. For now One Man, Two Guvnors is a treasure illuminating the West End."
"Transfers can be tricky. But Richard Bean's updated version of Goldoni's comic classic seems, if anything, even funnier than it did at the National ... Nicholas Hytner's production adapts perfectly to the art deco space of the Adelphi and the evening generates the kind of uproarious laughter of which our theatre has lately been starved ... the mixture of improvisation with immaculate planning is perfectly exemplified by James Corden's brilliant Francis ... the improvisatory fun is combined with skilled physical comedy for which Cal McCrystal now gets due credit ... Tom Edden gives one of supporting performances of the year as Alfie, an octogenerian waiter ... Bean's script is full of good gags which the actors play to the hilt. Oliver Chris as the snooty Stanley, Daniel Rigby as a posturing actor with echoes of Olivier and Brando and Jemima Rooper as the besuited Rachel are all first-rate ... The show, in short, is a tonic which confirms Eric Bentley's point that farce is the quintessence of theatre and which combines a tightly-written text with the gaiety of popular entertainment. I suspect you would had to have had a humour by-pass not to enjoy it."
"Nicholas Hytner’s perfectly pitched production of Richard Bean’s delirious comedy is sharp, silly and trimmer than at the outset: gloriously funny and a plum piece of seasonal entertainment ... The delight lies in the contrast between the characters’ deadly earnestness and the absurdity of the situation, together with the fact that, as in life, everyone is terrified of being found out. Bean’s dialogue glitters with one-liners and wordplay, while the physical comedy director Cal McCrystal provides some inspired slapstick sequences, climaxing in a virtuoso dinner scene in which Tom Edden excels as a doddery old waiter. But Hytner’s production ... also tiptoes deftly along the line between innocence and knowingness, with Corden chatting away to the audience about the rules of commedia dell’arte. It’s a game, but one played seriously – and that is the joy. Corden manages this beautifully: his Francis is tremendously endearing, stepping in and out of character to work the audience, and handling slapstick with nimble flair ... But this is no one-man show. The fine cast creates a gallery of disastrous, yet lovable characters, from Daniel Rigby’s ridiculous would-be actor, to Suzie Toase’s minxy secretary and Oliver Chris’s superb, Teflon-coated toff. Laced with skiffle music, this show is a tonic for a gloomy winter."
Dominic Maxwell The Times ★★★★★
"When this wildly funny comedy first opened at the National Theatre in May, I went into the office the next morning — still chuckling at the sensational slapstick, still chortling at the sustained skill of James Corden’s gorgeously outsized performance — and urged a theatre-phobic colleague to, really, honestly, go and see this one ... Granted, there were teething troubles at the West End opening last night — Corden and Co struggled to find their rhythm in the first half hour, whether because of first-night nerves or because they’re playing a 1,500-seater more often used for (amplified) musicals. But once Corden got stuck into his first bout of audience interaction — the fourth wall? forget it — he relaxed, and Nicholas Hytner’s production really started to motor. Right, nothing goes smoothly, and yet everything works like clockwork in a show both broad and sophisticated. A show that knows the comic value of an old man falling down a set of stairs, but also understands our expectations and knows how to play with them at speed ... But all of the cast play it big without playing it bogus, from Oliver Chris as the enthused yet supercilious Stanley ... to Suzie Toase as the feminist sexpot Dolly and Jemima Rooper as the cross-dressing Rachel. Grant Olding’s on-stage skiffle band ... keep up the infectious good cheer ... The lessening of intimacy is a pity. But this remains a remarkably enjoyable reinvention of commedia dell’arte: broad comedy delivered with deadly accuracy."
Nicholas Hytner’s production of Richard Bean’s Goldoni make-over, and James Corden’s outstanding performance, have transferred intact to the West End, all guns blazing, to ensure the most perfect seasonal entertainment before moving on to Broadway next April.
The playing, and the discipline, remains of a very high standard, even if the laughter quotient dips after the interval, partly because the famous double-dealing dinner scene, complete with Tom Edden’s fantastically hilarious decrepit old falling-down-stairs waiter, is the show’s climax, at the end of the first act; and partly because there’s a plot to sort out in the second.
Edden is funniest in the first act anyway, bouncing off (literally) the walls and the stoical, sneery veneer of David Benson’s head waiter (“It’s his first day!”). The mechanics of farce are beautifully observed throughout: Corden’s Francis Henshall, hired by both the disguised sister of a dead criminal (delightful Jemima Rooper) and the toff twit who killed him (brilliant Oliver Chris), can operate on parallel planes of onstage mayhem and audience-baiting.
Corden, too, has a much easier second act after the physical exertions of the first, in which he engages two stooges from the front stalls to help move a large trunk, throws himself around the stage like a demented bumble-bee and beats himself up with a dustbin lid.
His manipulation of the audience is a comedy master class. Corden copes magnificently with anything thrown at him (go on, I dare you), and was almost scuppered on press night with an unsolicited gift of pork pies from the front stalls. And there’s a brilliantly original involvement of one customer who’s not quite what she seems but plays the innocence card superbly.
Mark Thompson’s Brighton breezy setting fits very well on the Adelphi stage with its red brick Victorian terracing, windy esplanade and loving recreation of the Cricketers’ Arms. Bean’s appropriation of Goldoni is total: he mixes the exact skeleton of the plot with a sky-high corny joke count, a torrent of Cockney slang and banter, and one or two of those alliterative comic riffs that are pure music hall.
The front cloth skiffle band interludes and songs by Grant Olding are joyously integrated, and it’s sheer pleasure once again to bask not only in Corden’s company but in the deadly precision of Suzie Toase’s lubricious Dolly, the bluff density of Fred Ridgeway’s small-time godfather and the angular absurdity of Daniel Rigby’s posing, leather-jacketed actor, Alan Dangle.
The year is 1963, Philip Larkin’s “annus mirabilis” which in this gloriously cheeky show translates as “wonderful bottom” while also heralding the advent of the Beatles, both in Jemima Rooper’s lovely Ringo-ish performance and the clever pastiche song by the onstage band, all subtly adopting appropriate physical characteristics.
Rave reviews, a sell out season at The National, West End transfer and a possible Broadway outing. So does One Man, Two Guvnors live up to the hype? The updated version of the Carlo Goldoni play, written by Richard Bean is enormously entertaining and beautifully played by a terrifically talented cast.
The action has been moved to 60's Brighton complete with an onstage skiffle band, The Craze. Like many farces, it does occasionally lose momentum though you are glad of the rest to catch your breath from the belly laughing. I believe the version which will open at the Adelphi is being slightly rewritten and reworked.
As the hapless retainer, James Cordon is rather brilliant and enjoys an enormous rapport with the audience. However, this in no one man show. There are equally delicious star turns from the stiff upper lipped Oliver Chris, who has the some of the best lines,Daniel Rigby as the hammy wannabe actor,Suzie Toase as teetering but wise, Dolly.
Tom Edden, as the geriatric and deaf waiter, steals his scenes. (I hear that in the reworked version, he will be putting in a few more appearances). In slightly less showy parts, but just as adeptly acted, are Jemima Rooper, Martyn Ellis, David Benson,Fred Ridgway and Claire Lams, as the rather dim Pauline Clench.
Director, Nick Hytner expertly orchestrates the action, with great attention to detail. So, does it live up to the hype? For most of the packed King's audience, including me, it did. Certainly it is one of the most side spittingly funny evenings in many a year.
My week of theatre redux continues following Jerusalem with a second visit to One Man, Two Guvnors. I can't remember if I was in a bad mood on the day I saw it at the Lyttelton but I just could not see what the fuss was about. I may have been influenced by my antipathy for James Corden but almost the entire cast seemed then to be indulging in the belief that it would be even funnier if they made it up as they went along. Corden has now calmed down and, even though the story is completely ridiculous, it is now possible to better appreaciate Nick Hytner's breakneck-paced production and the comic genius of Richard Bean - a sort of profane P.G. Wodehouse. A second viewing also makes it easier to see the staged "improvisations" but also the frequent times when Corden is ad libbing furiously as the rest of the cast try to keep up. It's impossible not to admire his speed of wit and the superb way he interacts with the audience without belittling them - even if some now seem to come prepared with humus sandwiches. However I do have serious doubts about the show's longevity when it transfers to the Haymarket without Corden and the rest of this superb Broadway bound cast. I did feel slightly left out as one of the very few people not reduced to hysterics by this show so it is terrific now to be able to agree that One Man, Two Guvnors deserves all the awards it will receive. - David Baxter
19 Jan 12
Who are these people who didn't enjoy it, did you have your funny bone removed at birth?! Corden and the supporting cast are fantastic, very well written and I didn't stop laughing from start to finish. A great night out, get a ticket if you can. - AC
13 Jan 12
Watched this show on 5th January and what a treat it was, thoroughly enjoyed it. Whole cast is superb, but James Corden was a real joy, he has comedy running through his bones. Loved his interaction with the audience members, still chuckling days after seeing it. - Ann
08 Jan 12
Very much looking forward to seeing this after reading the rave reviews, how disappointed was I?? Very average, of the sort of standard I would expect at my local theatre. - Janet burns
30 Dec 11
Saw this last night (22 Dec 11). Can't recommend enough. Corden was excellent, funny, songs were brilliant, and linked into story. Want to go again it was that good. - Tom
23 Dec 11
Good grief it's not that good! - coral
29 Nov 11
Saw this at the National and intend seeing it again at the Adelphi and recommended it as a MUST SEE to many friends. It is one of the funniest plays ever on stage and James Corden in top form but so is all the cast--100% brilliant. My favourite part--when the Waiter is bringing the food up the stairs---great slap stick comedy. Can't wait to see again. - Joe Spiteri
22 Nov 11
Went to see this in Aylesbury on Saturday night, before it transfers in to the West End. It was fabulous. The first act, especially is hilarious and James Corden does the play and plays with the Audience in a way I have never seen before. - Toddster
Originally the Sans Pareil built by a merchant called Scott to display the talents of his daughter. Opened on 27 Nov 1806 with Miss Scott's Entertainment. Became the Adelphi in 1819. The original theatre was demolished in 1858 and replaced with a bigger one which, with many alterations, remains. Restored to its 1930s form. 1500 seats. Society of London Theatre member.
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