The only flaw in this excellent production? The “Chronicle” hits the shelves on Thursday morning, which means, thanks to our deadlines, you’ve already missed Wednesday night’s performance. But there’s still time …
“One Man, Two Guvnors” is as good a night out as you could wish for: consistently funny, occasionally riotous and peppered with audience humiliation.
As with any farce, the plot is absurd. Perpetually peckish, unemployed Francis Henshall (Simeon Green) lands two jobs in 1960s Brighton to keep hunger at bay. His employers are Stanley Stubbers (Sam Hands), a fugitive aristocrat with a murderous past, and Rachel Crabbe (Sam Sherliker-Hewitt), disguised as her recently deceased twin brother, Roscoe. It should be simple — but Francis, bless him, is not the sharpest.
Intentional or not, the show plays like a potted history of British comedy, with nods to everything from slapstick to sitcom. You’re primed to laugh before the jokes even land.
Francis was originally played by James Corden, and it’s impossible not to picture him in the role — even if you didn’t know he’d been there first. Green gives a strong performance, but Corden’s ghost lingers, adding comic familiarity.
Tom Fairhurst’s Alan Dangle — the spurned lover and self-important thesp — channels Rik Mayall at his most pompous “Young Ones” peak. (“But why are the kids crying? And the kids will say: ‘Haven’t you heard? Rik is dead! The People’s Poet is dead.’”)
Sophie Williams as Pauline Clench is the archetypal dim blonde — and in a plot where dimness is practically rife, she shines (dimly).
Waiter Alfie (Sam Salmon) is Victoria Wood’s “two soups” — and yes, he delivers two soups. Meanwhile, Liza Edwards, Lorraine House, and Lydia Causer play three elderly women who could be close relatives to Les Dawson’s gurning washerwomen Cissie Braithwaite and Ada Shufflebotham.
The whole cast impresses, especially during the rapid-fire door-slamming chaos. Sarah Francis (Dolly) and Simeon Green both break the fourth wall with droll asides, and the on-stage three-piece band adds a swinging sixties soundtrack.
