ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS serves Broadway

Broadway has welcomed West End hit One Man, Two Guvnors, currently playing at the Music Box Theatre, New York.  

Written by Richard Bean and directed by Nicholas Hytner, the cast features James Corden as Francis Henshall, alongside Fred Ridgeway (Charlie Clench), Suzie Toase (Dolly) and Claire Lams (Pauline Clench).

Here's what the critics had to say:

'It’s a rich, slow-spreading smile, like butter melting in a skillet over a low flame. And whenever it creeps across James Corden’s face in the splendidly silly One Man, Two Guvnors which opened on Wednesday night at the Music Box Theater, you know two things for sure: You’re in for trouble, and you’re already hooked. Struggle as you will, there ain’t nothing you can do about it.

Mr. Hytner and Mr. Bean have woven elements of music hall slapstick, Carry On-movie-style bawdiness and Monty Python-esque absurdity into a remarkably fine mesh.

Ms. Toase slyly exploits the pneumatic charms of the Carry On heroines like the immortal Barbara Windsor.

So be warned, people in the first rows. Remember that smile of Mr. Corden’s? It’s often a signal that he’ll be looking your way. And as Dolly, the woman of his dreams, says with perfect accuracy: “I know exactly what he’s after. And if he carries on like this, he’s going to get it.”' (Ben Brantley, NY Times)

'In the nimble reimagining whipped up by Bean and wizardly director Nicholas Hytner, the play's setting has shifted to Brighton, England, in the early 1960s, when skiffle bands were banging away in the last days before the Beatles broke the mold.' (Lisa Schwarzbaum, NY Entertainment Weekly)

'Corden is a master clown who establishes a solid connection with the audience and leads it on a merry chase around the hairpin turns of Bean’s riotous script.' (David Sheward, Backstage.com)

'One Man, Two Guvnors, Richard Bean’s gut-busting update of the Carlo Goldoni commedia dell’arte nugget, The Servant of Two Masters. Striking an ingenious balance between meticulous planning and what plays like anarchic spontaneity, Nicholas Hytner’s production has been a deserved success in London. With virtuoso ringmaster James Corden on hand to juggle the demands of dual employment while wrapping the audience around his pudgy finger, the show now looks set to slay Broadway, too.' A walking sexual innuendo, Suzie Toase channels Carry On queen Barbara Windsor with a dash of Mad Men’s Joan Holloway as the buxom redhead, her every line accompanied by a teasing look and a come-hither twitch of her shoulder or hip. (David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter)

Tickets are available here.

The London production is currently resident at Theatre Royal Haymarket, where the cast includes Hannah Spearritt (Pauline).