There’s so much tomfoolery going on in “One Man, Two Guvnors” at Alameda’s Altarena Playhouse that the comical havoc caused by the easily confused guy trying to juggle two employers’ errands is only the tip of the iceberg.
Set in Brighton, U.K., in the Swinging Sixties, Richard Bean’s comedy is a loose adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s classic 1740s commedia dell’arte-style comedy “The Servant of Two Masters.” The comedic high jinks are enlivened further by the upbeat jug band-style “skiffle” music that was popular in the U.K. in the 1950s and fed into the British Invasion rock ’n’ roll of the ’60s. (The Beatles started as a skiffle band called the Quarrymen.)
“One Man, Two Guvnors” premiered at London’s National Theatre in 2011 starring future talk show host James Corden, who also won a Tony in the role on Broadway.
It would be hard to compete with the West Coast premiere production that played Berkeley Repertory Theatre three years ago, but nobody’s asking Altarena to do that. The question is how the Alameda cast handles all the quick-fire humor of the tangled comedy, and the answer is remarkably well. What’s more, much of the cast members double as musicians in the bouncy skiffle band that plays between scenes and make for an impressively solid if ever-changing combo.
Charles Woodson Parker is an charmingly thick-headed and impish Francis Henshall, a bloke who’s too distracted by his rumbling stomach to fathom anything going on around him but keeps coming up with clumsy lies to keep out of trouble. To be fair, it’s a confusing situation, though his own conundrums are more on the level of not handing the wrong envelope to the wrong boss.
Friendly gangster Charlie Clench (gruffly good-natured Ted Barker) was going to marry off his dim-witted daughter Pauline (amusingly blithe and weepy Anna Oglesby-Smith) to notoriously cruel criminal Roscoe Crabbe. But Roscoe was killed, so Pauline is free to marry her true love, wannabe actor Alan (floridly melodramatic Jamie Olsen in a ludicrous Prince Valiant wig). Or is she? Roscoe seemingly turns up alive, impersonated by twin sister Rachel (swaggering and pugnacious Shannon Alane Harger). Rachel just wants to collect the money Charlie owed Roscoe and skip town with her boyfriend Stanley (hilariously posh and pervy Peter Marietta), who’s on the lam after killing Roscoe. And that’s just the setup, the stuff that comes up in the first scene. It makes Francis’ situation of navigating two bosses seem positively simple.
Director Timothy Beagley gives the comedy a lively staging with a pleasingly strong cast and some hysterical audience participation bits. Kim Schroeder Long is quick with the amused asides as Charlie’s bookkeeper, who has a not-at-all-subtle mutual flirtation going on with Francis. Avi Jacobson doubles as a snooty head waiter and a grandiloquent lawyer, and Fred Pitts is an amiable crony of Charlie’s who’s always making references to having learned everything he knows in Brixton Prison. Samuel Barksdale has some delightful slapstick moments as a doddering elderly waiter who keeps getting knocked around.
This kind of rollicking comedy may be crowd-pleasing but it isn’t easy to pull off, as demonstrated by a few shaky moments early in the show on opening night. But the Altarena ensemble does the boisterous material proud, making the show’s nearly three hours seem to fly by.
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS’
By Richard Bean, presented by Altarena Playhouse
Through: Sept. 9
Where: Altarena Playhouse, 1409 High St., Alameda
Running time: Two hours and 55 minutes, one intermission
Tickets: $27-$30; 510-523-1553, www.altarena.org