Thanks to our intrepid Guest Reviewer for the following:
ONE MAN, TWO GUV’NORS
by T.E. Klunzinger
If you like laughing a lot, you should lope along (alliteration appears a lot) to “One Man, Two Guv’nors,” the opening show (which also opens the 2019-20 Lansing theater season) for MSU’s 59th Summer Circle Theatre lineup.
Although the show itself is a relatively recent confection, it’s based on, and is performed in, classic Italia commedia dell’arte style, which is to say somewhat exaggerated and over-the-top, which is to say that, as directed by Rob Roznowski and performed by the SCT troupe including many Masters candidates, it works very well and the laughter is infectious.
The story, such as it is, is set in Brighton, England in 1966, where an engagement party is about to take place; but then unexpected guests arrive, each of which has a manservant who avers he works for no other person. And then general chaos ensues.
As the food-obsessed servant Francis, Kevin Craig (in the role which won a 2012 Tony Award for James Corden) is a bundle of precisely-controlled energy, bouncing all over the stage to maximum effect. Most memorable is an epic battle with himself (don’t ask) which takes him upstage and downstage, offstage and back on again.
Longtime local favorite Bruce Bennett is lawyer Harry Dangle, whose son Alan (Marshall Ross) wants to marry Pauline (Isa Rodriguez) who is engaged to the recently-deceased Roscoe who was killed by Stanley (Cameron Michael Chase) who is in love with Rachel (Darah Donaher), Roscoe’s identical twin sister who most of the time impersonates Roscoe. Pauline’s father Charlie (Ryan Adolph) is all about the money while his bookkeeper Dolly (Zaria Aikens) is about finding love in all the wrong places.
This is most definitely a play/comedy. However, the production features a nice little combo which plays songs by Grant Olding before the show and during scene changes, with clever vaudeville turns by all cast members including some spot-on step dancing by Donaher. The Band included DJ Schafer on lead vocals, Jacqueline Lee on vocals and keyboard, Abigail Byrne on vocals, Lowell Wolfe on guitar, Nathan Walker on bass and Will Crandell on percussion.
And then there’s graduating senior DJ Shafer of Okemos, who not only sings with the combo but also performs several roles and finally settles in as the extremely elderly waiter Alfie, thereby nearly stealing the show – in the tradition of MCU movies, you must wait until after the bows before the show is really over.
“One Man” plays only thrice more – Friday & Saturday at 8, Sunday at 4 – and is free, on Friday/Saturday preceded by “Comic Timing” at 6:30 and followed by “How to Make Friends and Then Kill Them” at 10:15. Get there early for a good seat, bring your own camp chair, maybe a snack and some bug spray; and be sure to fill out the survey so you can help pick the 60th Summer Circle Season.