On Theater: ‘One Man, Two Guvnors’ raises the comedic bar
South Coast Repertory has mounted a plethora of frantic, fast-paced farcical comedies over its first half-century — and I’ve seen them all — but the bar of buffoonery has been raised several notches higher with the company’s season-opening laughfest, “One Man, Two Guvnors.”
Richard Bean’s outlandish farce, based on Carlo Goldoni’s “The Servant of Two Masters”, not only crashes through the proverbial fourth wall, it reverses that process and brings unsuspecting audience members on stage to assist in all the tomfoolery. It’s unlike anything you’ve probably ever seen in a theater.
That’s not to say that everything in director David Ivers’ lengthy and frantically circuitous production truly accomplishes comedic liftoff. On several occasions, its rockets misfire, and some comic bits are overextended, particularly the musical variety. But there’s enough outrageously funny material in the show to send most playgoers home with broad smiles on their faces.
Bean places his updated “Servant” (first produced in 1743) into the British seaside town of Brighton in 1963, just as the Beatles were turning pop music on its ear. The basic plot of an opportunistic (and hungry) lad taking two servant jobs to double his income remains, but the complications of such an arrangement are hilariously multiplied.
At the center of all this creative nonsense is the firestorm of farce billed as Dan Donohue, a rambunctious redhead who manipulates the show’s other characters like so many chess pieces. Donohue not only sets the show’s energetic pace, he also is a master of comedic improvisation. At Saturday’s opening-night performance, a one-word comment from an audience member ignited a 10-minute improv session, during which the nimble-witted Donohue never swayed from the task of keeping the action moving and the viewers enthralled.
Also scoring highly in a gem of intentional overacting is Brad Culver’s would-be actor, who strikes Shakespearean poses as he pursues his lady love, the giddy Pauline, deliciously played by Sarah Moser. It’s a pity they’re not featured more prominently.
The “guvnors” of the title, who each recruit Donohue’s services, are a swarthy nobleman (William Connell) and his “lost” lover, masquerading as her twin brother. The petite Helen Sadler plays this character, resembling a female mafioso, to perfection in a convincing cross-dressing assignment.
Veteran SCR actor John-David Keller, who’s been with the company since 1973, elevates the role of a mercenary banker, scheming with businessman Robert Sicular on a voyage of self-enrichment. Louis Lotorio is a howl as a 97-year-old hearing-impaired waiter who crashes into everything in sight.
The statuesque, splendidly constructed Claire Warden, doesn’t have much to do in the first act but virtually takes over the second as Donohue’s passionate love interest. Their first kiss quite probably is the longest ever accomplished on an SCR stage.
All this elevated slapstick is backed up musically by a four-piece band called The Craze, whose outfits will conjure up visions of the Beatles from that period — except that Ringo didn’t double on washboard. They’d be more effective if they cut the volume in half and gave some thought to enunciation. And their pre-show set, overlapping playgoers’ entrance into the theater, spawns some awkward moments.
Audience members seated near the stage, beware. You may become part of the show. One such moment is particularly funny, but to elaborate would be to act as spoiler. Go see and enjoy it yourself.
“One Man, Two Guvnors” may not be “the funniest show on the planet,” as one reviewer declared, but it comes mighty close, based on degree of difficulty and Dan Donohue’s virtuoso performance. It starts the season off with a bang at South Coast Repertory.
*
If You Go
WHAT: “One Man, Two Guvnors”
WHERE: South Coast Repertory, Segerstrom Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. Matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Until Oct. 11
COST: Tickets start at $22
INFORMATION: (714) 708-5555
