The National Theatre will begin its programme of National Theatre At Home live-streams tonight (April 2), from 7pm, with One Man, Two Guvnors. (See the NT’s YouTube channel for further details.)
The play, a Carlo Goldoni adaptation directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Richard Bean, starred James Corden, then best known for writing and acting in the BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey. It first ran at the National in 2011, before transferring to the West End.
The ’s Charles Spencer reviewed both productions that year, giving them four and then a revised five stars. His two reviews, which ran in the newspaper at the opening of each production, are reprinted below.
The original review (May 25, 2011)
The NT has the feelgood hit of the summer on its hands with Richard Bean’s inspired and deliriously funny adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters by the Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793).
The original is that rare thing, a genuinely amusing piece of commedia dell’arte. But Bean has dispensed with the period Italian setting and relocated the action to Brighton in 1963, with many of the characters now members of the criminal underworld of that splendidly louche seaside town.
Better yet, he has infused the show with a string of terrific jokes and comic routines of his own, while Nicholas Hytner’s production has a madcap joie de vivre and prodigally witty invention about it that proves irresistible.
