Britain's National Theatre, along with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Metropolitan Opera or the Bolshoi Ballet, are national treasures, renowned throughout the world for their contributions to the arts.
Their work is brilliant, but not always classic or heavy — and St. Louisans can see for themselves tomorrow and next Saturday when a filmed production of the National's "One Man, Two Guvnors," still running in London's West End, will be shown at the Tivoli, starting at 11 a.m., and running slightly over three hours because of musical entertainment and an intermission, during which there's a backstage visit and an interview with Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the company and stage director of the comedy.
It's English music hall comedy, written by Richard Bean, based on the 1743 Italian Commedia dell'Arte classic, "A Servant of Two Masters," by Carlo Goldoni. It's rapid-fire in its pacing, bawdy and ribald in its language, amazing in its physicality, hilarious in its clowning. The English accents are sometimes difficult to understand in the early going, but things get better as it moves along and the result is a glorious piece of entertainment, set in 1963.
The opening is slightly confusing, or was at a screening I attended. With no titles at all, we suddenly see four young musicians on a stage, singing '60s-style material with a rockabilly beat. One song segues into a second, and a third, to the point where I was about to ask if I was at the correct film, when an introduction broke out and the comedy began.
Plot? Well, it begins with Francis Henshall (a glorious, hilarious James Corden, one of the finest physical comedians I've ever seen), who becomes a "minder" (kind of an executive assistant, or valet) to Roscoe Crabbe (Jemima Rooper, cute as the proverbial bug's ear). But Roscoe is dead, murdered by Stanley Stubbers (Oliver Chris), and his twin, Rachel (still Rooper), is wearing Roscoe's clothes and searching for the killer. Francis, constantly ravenous and constantly in need of cash, signs on to be Stanley's minder, too, with the goal of keeping the two from running into one another in the resort town of Brighton
Others in the action are Dolly (Suzie Toase), a buxom wench looking for a husband, and Lloyd (Trevor Laird), a Calypso-accented friend of Francis.
Nothing makes sense, of course, but the comings and goings, and the slamming dining room doors in the pub are excitingly funny, with waiters and others flying hither and yon and Corden masterminding the serving. At the same time, one of his employers is in one dining room and the other is across the hall in another. It's farce at its best, with fun and foolishness served up by all hands in glorious style.
One Man, Two Guvnors will show at the Tivoli on Saturday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m.
—Joe