ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
If you see only one show in the next month, I insist that it be One Man, Two Guvnors at A Noise Within in Pasadena! I haven’t laughed that hard, nor heard so much merriment from others, at a live entertainment in a very long time. I was downright guffawing! I was having such a good time that I actually forgot to take notes!
Kasey Mahaffy. Photo by Craig Schwartz, as is the one at the top of this review.
The story is so crazy! And fun. The writing, by prolific British playwright Richard Bean, is brilliant! As is the company’s star, (and Resident Artist,) Kasey Mahaffy. If you’ve seen his work before, you’re adding “of course” to that sentence.
One Man, Two Guvnors originated in England in 2011 and moved to Broadway in 2012. It’s based on a commedia dell’arte play from the 1700s! And now we Angelenos are lucky enough to see what I feel is a never-to-be-surpassed presentation of it.
The scenario is very hard to explain succinctly, so suffice it to say that it’s a classic British farce which takes place in 1963. And it contains lots of physical comedy…very physical! The actors must each lose ten pounds a night!!!
The plot is complicated, but all you need to know is that “guvnor” means “boss,” and I guess that English employees were supposed to have just one in the ’60s. And it goes from there.
Just about every line is perfection. I especially loved these two from the second act: “I’ve never felt worse; it felt like four o’clock in the middle of winter!” And, “That’s what love is—forgiving someone when they’ve been a right dickhead.” (I actually know both of those feelings myself! But haven’t we all?)
Josey Montana McCoy. Photo by Craig Schwartz.
With Kasey’s absolutely dazzling tour de force performance, one might think that the rest of the cast might pale beside him, but that is definitely not the case here. Every actor works magic, but in addition to Kasey, I especially enjoyed Paul David Story as a wannabe actor who’s engaged to a dimwitted girl. I can definitely hear him doing an excellent Shakespeare character. And Josey Montana McCoy, as an elderly waiter, gave me many hearty laughs with pratfalls that made Mr. X chuckle just hearing about them! (Sadly, my bae couldn’t go to the opening with me, but, if we can free up another day or night during the play’s short run, I’ll be happy to see it again with him.)
I knew next to nothing about One Man, Two Guvnors going in, which, in my humble opinion, is how everybody should see performances. (Well, maybe at least know the genre—when Mr. X and I were at a screening of Joker a few years ago, two women sat down in front of us, and one said, “I hope it’s funny!” We were dying to set them straight, but we let the first few minutes of the film do that. They gasped and left in a hurry!)
However, the night before this opening, it hit me out of the blue that it just might be a show that gave me two good moments in my life, so I looked it up, and I was correct! (If you want to know those quick little tales, they’ll be at the end of this review, immediately after the info section. And here’s a hint—they involve the original star, James Corden.) Actually, the day after the opening, I was trying to find a video of James Corden doing a monologue from it on the Tonys, and I came across a montage of several of the highlights from the West End production. And guess what? I swear—this Noise Within presentation is better!
Christie Coran and Ty Aldridge. Photo by Craig Schwartz.
When I watch British movies or TV shows, I always need closed captions. I could have used them here, as well, at the beginning, so I wasn’t quite sure of what exactly was happening in the first five minutes or so. But I got used to their very authentic British accents pretty quickly. And you almost don’t need to completely understand the narrative to get on board with the humor right away.
Trisha Miller and Kasey Mahaffy. Photo by Craig Schwartz.
My friend also went wild for it. Her brief review is, “Anyone who has never seen it before will be totally amazed. It’s a wild and fun show. Really a different experience for theater. Especially when the audience is involved in the story, it’s even more unique and refreshing.”
The Frederica Nascimento-designed sets are perfect in every way. And there are occasional giant projections in the background. At one point, they even featured part of that viral video of a dancer on one of the TV music shows in the ’60s, doing his crazily energetic steps to The Nitty Gritty, (but without the music here.) I was thrilled to see it because that guy is…my former jazz dance teacher, Bob Banas! I love seeing even a second of his nuttiness at all times, and it fit right in with this show. [Note: If you’ve never seen the clip, you positively must research it right away!]
I suggest getting to your seats early because on one side of the stage is a live four-man old-fashioned skiffle band who play for about ten minutes before the show. They continue throughout the play, with a few brief songs and dances in-between the action. They also do a plethora of comedic sound effects, which are all spot-on. The timing is ridiculously accurate. I occasionally felt like I had gone back in time, (and to Merry Olde,) to see a British Music Hall comedy!
The great beginning set with the fun band off to the side. Photo by Karen Salkin.
One important admonition, though—do not see One Man, Two Guvnors hungry! The main character mentions food a lot in Act I—I even thought I heard my stomach rumble because of the references. And I don’t want anyone to be distracted from all the fabulousness for even one little second!
By the way—A Noise Within is the most comfortable theatre, with nary a bad seat.
And one more thing I adore about this company is that the entire Opening Night audience is invited to the after-party, where they can meet and laud the artists while enjoying some good snacks. In this case, it was perfect because we were all famished from hearing about food in the script so much!
Perusing A Noise Within’s upcoming full season schedule, it looks like this will be their last comedy for their next handful of shows, so, if like I do, you love a good laugh, you need to see this one before their dearth of mirth begins. I promise you that it’s a great one!
One Man, Two Guvnors running through September 28, 2025
A Noise Within 3352 E. Foothill Blvd. Pasadena
626-356-3121 www.anoisewithin.org
Karen Salkin telling James Corden what her friend Betsy Abramova said about his Tonys performance! (He’s holding Karen’s phone, about to take a selfie of them.) Photo by Lisa Politz.
Now here’s my personal tale of One Man, Two Guvnors: In June 2012, I was at my house in Brooklyn, watching the Tonys with my friend Betsy Abramova, whom I think of as my little sister. She’s a very dry young girl, who says things that crack Mr. X and me up, especially when she’s not trying to be funny. So on comes mainly-unknown-to-the-masses-at-that-time James Corden, who was nominated for a Tony that night, (which he deservedly won,) for starring in this show on Broadway, doing his character’s big monologue that was really crazy and hysterical, (in both senses of the word, actually.) It was hard to figure-out what was going on in the scene without the context of the rest of the play. So there was James, throwing himself around the stage and doing all kinds of insane things, and Betsy very seriously says to me, “He’s making a fool of himself.” I thought that was hilarious. I later told Mr. X what she said, and we’ve been using her quote on many occasions ever since then.
So cut to six years later, and I actually got to meet James Corden! So I decided to tell him that personal anecdote that I realized after the fact that he well may not have appreciated, but he totally did. He smiled and said to me, “Yes, I was definitely making a fool of myself.” And now that I’ve seen One Man, Two Guvnors, I realize he was doing anything but. To play that part, you have to have energy for days at every performance! And Kasey Mahaffy outdoes even James in the role!
