There’s a reason Corden carries the show. As an admirer of the Gavin & Stacey series Corden created and co-wrote with Ruth Jones, I have often tried to put my finger on his appeal - an actor by trade, to my perception, he just exudes sincerity – and then I read a review of the show in an LA Times article in the middle of May that really nailed it for me: “Part of the secret of Corden's comic gift is that he combines innocence so naturally with mischief. Although he's 33, his face is that of an adolescent boy who has just discovered beer, Internet porn and some new flavor of potato chip.”
For those of you who don’t like spoilers, just read this: I found the show utterly enjoyable. Richard Bean’s script pokes fun at the future, it’s witty, and isn’t ‘mere’ slapstick (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and physical comedy; it has a noticeable depth to it which raises it a notch or two above slapstick. There are even educational components such as theatre history in the area of commedia dell’arte and biology in the difference between identical and fraternal twins, all done in a really funny way.
Jemima Rooper is a joy as Rachel Crabbe masquerading as her deceased brother. I hadn’t seen her in much of anything since the Lost in Austen mini-series was broadcast here in Canada, so it was great to see her wonderful talent on the stage. Oliver Chris as Stanley Stubbers is note perfect as a very posh, highly educated but not that bright, gangster and these two actors play the two Guvnors Corden’s Francis Henshall is man to. It’s 1963 and the scene is first London and then Brighton. The plot is set in motion when Francis takes on a second job with Stubbers, spends the whole of the play trying to keep them apart (when he’s not falling in love or imagining the deliciousness of food – he’s an uncomplicated man, in search of simple pleasures, and sometimes his mind doesn’t work quite quickly enough to get himself out of situations), not realising that they are a couple and have travelled to Brighton to meet up and run away with one another as Stanley is a wanted man for killing Rachel’s gangster brother while she’s in town collecting some of her brother’s debts so she and Stanley have money to run away with and start over somewhere else. Sounds simple enough, but as the saying goes, nothing is ever easy.
Great performances also from Tom Edden as the hapless Alfie, Daniel Rigby as Alan, the aspiring actor, and Suzie Toase, the worldly wise and Francis’s match, Dolly. The bonus comes when, on occasion, Corden appears to break character and just lose himself in laughter. It’s obvious he loves what he’s doing and it’s infectious.
Not to be forgotten, the music! The play starts with the musicians and they return for scene changes as I’ve noticed the National Theatre likes to do. The music is very upbeat and fun and not just lyrically connecting the music to the play, but the actors take turns playing or singing something. Corden plays the xylophone, Chris plays a rack of bicycle horns, Lams, Rooper and Toase sing a song, Ellis plays guitar while Rigby plays his chest (oh yes), Boateng plays the steel drums and they all sing together at the end. With a little research (apparently encore presentations at Cineplex do not include the usual photocopied sheet that functions as a ‘programme’), I found that all the music is original to this production and was written by Grant Olding, the lead singer for the play’s band called The Craze. As an aside, he even looks like a nerdier and younger version of Martin Freeman with the period costuming (1963) and glasses, also not a bad thing.
I’m not going to give this play a high-brow review because it isn’t a high-brow show. Sometimes you just want to laugh, and as an audience member of this show, laugh you will. One Man, Two Guvnors will continue its run on Broadway through the summer and is scheduled to close September 2/2012.
Quote from: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/may/17/entertainment/la-ca-james-corden-20120520 by Charles McNulty.
Image from www.cineplex.com.
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