National Theatre's "One Man, Two Guvnors"
April 4, 2020 4:46 PM   Subscribe

Right now, until April 9, you can watch the National Theatre's 2011 production of One Man, Two Guvnors as part of their National Theatre at Home fundraiser and awareness campaign. More shows coming soon!

The extremely funny One Man, Two Guvnors ran in the UK in 2011 and on Broadway in 2012, earning star James Corden a Tony Award for Best Actor. It features delightful skiffle tunes by Grant Olding.

They've scheduled more plays for at home viewing:

Jane Eyre, April 9 - 16

Treasure Island, April 16 - 23

Twelfth Night, April 23 - 30

Via Time Out's listing of the best live theater to stream online, updated daily.
posted by kristi (12 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
We’ve been planning an all-hands-on-deck (6 of us) watching of this tonight.
posted by MtDewd at 4:55 PM on April 4, 2020


Andrew Lloyd Webber is doing the same with his musicals.

I've watched both Two Guv'nors and Joseph in the last few days.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:21 PM on April 4, 2020 [3 favorites]


Porn these days is just getting disgusting
posted by Saxon Kane at 5:46 PM on April 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


I'm teaching a grad seminar on reworkings of Jane Eyre this semester (now online...), so this at least adds some nice chewy content...
posted by thomas j wise at 6:00 PM on April 4, 2020


As always, tastes may vary. I thought it could have been an amusing 60 minute show, but padded out to 2-1/2 hours, it felt interminable. According to the reviews in the British press however, I may well be in the minority.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:28 PM on April 4, 2020 [3 favorites]


Does this mean we should brace for hi-toned goatse references from unexpected sectors of the culture as well?

/kneedrop, hestonvoice

Damn you 2020, haven’t you done enough?!!?
posted by mwhybark at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2020


I admit I wasn't quite into it at first, mostly because James Corden is always Too Much to me, but I have to admire certain moves he made, like catching food, the mousetrap ("it's only a little bit nibbled!"), the hummus sandwich "improv," the whole Christine thing. And the craziness between the guv'nors as they got sexual only got funnier. I loved the dance party ending too. So, go figure.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:22 PM on April 4, 2020 [2 favorites]


This play was supposed to be Mr. Freedom's spring show (he is a theatre professor at our local university). It got cancelled one week before opening night due to coronavirus. EVERYONE has been messaging him to tell him this is streaming now and it's like, oh great, yeah, remind me of the show I WANTED to put on but didn't get to.

He did watch it anyway. There's a reason he picked it!
posted by chainsofreedom at 12:06 PM on April 5, 2020


We watched this today. It was a little slow at first but it really picked up and was a lot of fun. I still haven't recovered from the Christine bit.
posted by ceejaytee at 6:08 PM on April 5, 2020


Ooh! I was just thinking about this production and can't wait to see it. I saw The play it was based on back in 2012 (The Servant and Two Masters) at the Shakespeare in DC and it was a hoot. So excited. Thank you!
posted by CatastropheWaitress at 11:22 AM on April 6, 2020 [1 favorite]


I saw this onstage twice-- at the National with Corden, and then at the Haymarket after it transferred-- and laughed a lot, but it did nothing to disprove the opinion generally current in London theatre circles that Nick Hytner doesn't give a shit about female characters. The only fully realised woman in the play is Rachel, and she's an honorary man.

Still a fun show, though.
posted by Pallas Athena at 10:28 AM on April 7, 2020


I enjoyed this a lot. It took a while to get over the disconnect of watching a filmed play; in particular the decision to hold the camera close on actors talking when their performance is designed to engage someone watching the whole stage was often off putting; Polly's asides to the audience earlier on felt very odd when the camera zoomed in on her.

I felt like what held this together was the strength of the performances and the well designed physical comedy. The script wasn't always great and the plot wasn't the best comedy of errors I've ever encountered; the fact that Stanley and Rachel basically just run into each other felt a little underwhelming. But the performances were really good; Stanley as a ludicrous toff was very funny, and I agree that their absurd sexuality when they finally found each other was brilliant.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 3:28 AM on April 8, 2020


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