One Man, Two Guvnors: NT Live at Home Review

James Cordon as Francis Henshall
Credit: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre/

This week, the National Theatre announced a live stream on its YouTube channel of one of its pieces every Thursday for the next few weeks, the first of which is one of the biggest successes at the theatre for the past decade: One Man Two Guvnors, the Richard Bean comedy that garnered 5 star reviews across the board all over the world, and became the game-changer for James Cordon's career.

Forget Gavin and Stacey - Cordon himself has admitted that this play is what catapulted him into the stratosphere, even winning a Tony when the play transferred to Broadway.

Based on The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldini, One Man Two Guvnors is set in 1963 Brighton and follows Francis Henshall, who suddenly ends up with having two jobs. Francis isn't the sharpest tool in the shed and gets confused with the two jobs rather easily which, along with his constant need to fill his stomach, gets him into all sorts of hilarious antics...

This is a very British farce with mistaken identity, breaking the 4th wall everywhere, slapstick and a lot of physical comedy. Just watch the clip on YouTube of Cordon's Hensall having an argument with himself and that should give you a good idea.

The entire cast may be brilliant, from Jemima Rooper to Suzie Toase, Oliver Chris and David Hunter (Waitress) in one of his earlier roles (try and spot him); but this is Cordon's show all the way.
Just as CATS was him at his worst, this is Cordon at his absolute best. He's funny, incredibly loveable, flapping around between his two bosses in a panic, even giving us an Irish accent in places - in what could be seen as corny from another actor, Cordon excels.

BUT he isn't the only one I need to talk about; Tom Edden as Alfie is only in a couple of scenes, but he almost steals the show away from Cordon in every way he can as the 86 year old Alfie. The dinner scene (his big one) is my favourite in the whole show - a gag a minute doesn't even cover it!

In between scenes, we have a bit of entertainment from band The Craze whilst the set's being changed around. Consisting of guitar, double bass, banjo and spoons, it's as if the music from the 60s and that which you find in a barn dance had a baby. It's a bit corny, but impossible to not tap your feet to at the very least.

Tom Eddon as Alfie
Credit: https://www.instagram.com/nationaltheatre/

I had seen the touring version of this play years ago with Rufus Hound (The Wind in the Willows) and Jodie Prenger (Tell Me On A Sunday), but this was the first time I had seen the play since then, and with the original company too. I had forgotten a lot of what happened as it was while ago, so it was nice to have a refresher.

This is an absolute MUST watch, and this is coming from someone who doesn't usually like farces - whilst others had me questioning what I was watching by just how silly and illogical they were, this one had me not being able to breath at points from laughing.

You can watch One Man Two Guvnors on the National Theatre's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzqcRwWVv8k 

I'm looking forward to seeing what the National Theatre does next, from Treasure Island to Tamsin Greig in Twelfth Night; in addition to this, Andrew Lloyd Webber has announced that many of his filmed shows will become available to stream.

This was watched by over 200,000 people at its peak in living rooms all over the world - even though the theatres aren't open clearly this shows that the ghosts are still alive and kicking!