And now for something completely different. "One Man, Two Guvnors" is the first play of the Rep's current season. Although it's not the same sort of zaniness as Monty Python, it's certainly a deeply British piece of work that leaves audiences almost out of breath from laughing. And this from a work that came out of a 1743 play from the Venetian Carlo Goldoni? Yes, indeed.
It's Brighton, the once-elegant seaside resort town, in 1963. A skiffle band onstage, who remain a presence throughout the night, plays us in to an engagement party. The young lovers are the children of a low-level gangster and his attorney. A knock at the door brings in an old acquaintance, supposedly just killed, of the gangster. He wants a debt repaid, pronto, and, by the way, he was supposed to marry the gangster's daughter, not this guy she's holding hands with. Still, the money's the main thing, and the acquaintance brings in his bodyguard to show everyone he's serious about the demand.
Enter our hero, Francis Henshall, who's more flab than fab. It's a new job for Francis, and not very well paid. After he settles his boss, or guvnor, in a pub with rooms (and food) he accepts a second job as a factorum to anothr visitor staying at the pub. Of course, the two employers turn out to have a connection with each other beyond the frantic Francis.
Raymond McAnally is Francis. It's a demanding part, both physically and verbally. He's fast on his feet, despite his size, and deeply funny. When things run off-script, as they occasionally seem to do, he carries on, leaving a wake the size of a battleship's.
Delicious Karis Danish plays the googly-eyed Pauline, the bride-to-be who, if she were in Texas, would be described as dumb as a box of rocks. Her beloved, Luke Smith, wants to be an actor, leaving every bit of scenery appropriately and deeply chewed. Their fathers, Charlie "The Duck" Clench, Anthony Cochrane, and attorney Harry Dangle, who hangs precariously just this side of slimy, John Michalski, are fun to watch, but it's The Duck's old pal from their years in Brixton Prison, Lloyd Boateng, who gets the best lines. Lloyd, Mel Johnson, Jr., learned a trade in prison and he's running the kitchen at the gastropub.
Francis' other boss, Jack Fellows playing Stanley Stubbers, is a ghastly fine example of the English "public" [read: private] school educational system. It's a mirror-opposite of Dolly, The Duck's bookkeeper, , Ruth Pferdehirt, the seemingly dumb blonde who doesn't have particularly high standards in men but who may be the smartest one in the bunch. Evan Zes leans into his role as Alfie, the waiter at the pub.
It's an outstanding piece of stage work, pretty much a don't-miss. One always has the feeling that plays like this are as much choreographed as directed; the director is Edward Stern, a frequent guest at the Rep. His delegates the physical comedy directing to Leland Faulkner who deserves much credit as well. The show exceeds even the Rep's usual high standards.
And one story about the play: The last time Joe and I were in England, in the summer of 2011, our last day in town was unexpectedly spent at the funeral of Fran Landesman, former St. Louis resident, one-time queen of Gaslight Square, poet and lyricist. We'd taken a cab to the crematorium where the event took place and hitched a ride back to the Landesman house with two childhood friends of the Landesman sons, Cosmo and Myles. One of the guys, who was dressed like John Belushi in The Blues Brothers, was a cab driver and actor who sang "Ballad of the Sad Young Men" at the funeral. And the other? It turned out he was an actor, too. Working, in fact. The play had opened two months before, and he was playing an ex-con named Lloyd Boateng in something called "One Man, Two Guvnors".
One Man, Two Guvnors
through October 5
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
314-968-7340