{"id":18332,"date":"2015-05-17T19:48:08","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T02:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=18332"},"modified":"2015-05-17T19:48:28","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T02:48:28","slug":"berkeley-rep-farce-makes-critic-grin-smile-chortle-and-laugh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/berkeley-rep-farce-makes-critic-grin-smile-chortle-and-laugh\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley Rep farce makes critic \u2018grin, smile, chortle and laugh\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rubber-bodied Dan Donohue stars as Francis Henshall in \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors.\u201d Photo, courtesy mellopix.com.<\/p>\n

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Ron Campbell (left), Dan Donohue (center) and Danny Scheie are among the biggest laugh-getters in \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors.\u201d Photo, courtesy mellopix.com.<\/p>\n
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Brad Culver as wannabe actor Alan Dangle (center) is flanked by Sarah Moser as his fianc\u00e9e and John-David Keller as his father in \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors.\u201d Photo, courtesy mellopix.com.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The new Berkeley Rep farce, \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors,\u201d stirs the most good feelings \u2014 by far \u2014 of any feel-good show this season.<\/p>\n

Despite the play being a throwback to English music hall shtick (with vaudevillian antics, burlesque sight gags, a little male crotch-grabbing, the breaking of the Fourth Wall, an avalanche of alliteration, a spot of audience participation, and skiffle band\/faux Fab Four music tossed in just for the fun of it).<\/p>\n

All wrapped in a whopping, fluffy cornball.<\/p>\n

But the entire theatrical patchwork quilt \u2014 and 15-member acting ensemble \u2014 made me grin, smile, chortle and laugh \u2014 from beginning to end.<\/p>\n

Quite a feat considering the first act\u2019s 90 minutes long, the second another hour.<\/p>\n

Don Donohue recently played a somewhat serious character, Richard III, in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has played the villainous Scar in \u201cThe Lion King\u201d on Broadway.<\/p>\n

Here, as Francis Henshall, he\u2019s what I\u2019ll describe as a farce of nature.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s as skilled, exquisitely timed and rubber-bodied a clown as Pickle Family grads Bill Irwin or Geoff Hoyle, which is high praise indeed.<\/p>\n

So easily muddled he can convince himself he\u2019s his own alter ego, Francis fights with himself \u2014 verbally and physically. And he turns the moving of a trunk, and serving a feast while he\u2019s starving, into pantomine works of art.<\/p>\n

Donohue\u2019s magnificently supported by, in particular, Ron Campbell as Alfie, a fright-wigged, off-balance geezer with a penchant for falling down stairs; Brad Culver as Alan Dangle, wannabe lover and wannabe actor always prepared to ham up his imagined lines; and Danny Scheie as Gareth, screechy-voiced food-server and scene-stealer.<\/p>\n

Scheie, not incidentally, delivers the funniest pre-show cell-phone\/exit instructions I\u2019ve heard in eons.<\/p>\n

The zany, simplistic plot?<\/p>\n

The protagonist is hired separately but simultaneously by two men \u2014 Roscoe Crabbe, a dead gay mobster now being impersonated by his twin sister, Rachel, and Stanley Stubbers, a snooty criminal who\u2019s her lover, her brother\u2019s killer and a guy prone to such inane comments as, \u201cI felt like a floral clock in the middle of winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis\u2019 main job is to flit between the two without either learning about the other.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a farce to me.<\/p>\n

Relying heavily on suspending belief about mistaken identities.<\/p>\n

Since it is a farce, I\u2019d expected dozens of slamming doors. Director David Ivers, a San Rafael, native, didn\u2019t disappoint me.<\/p>\n

But he manages to inject virtually everything he thought might add manifold touches of silliness \u2014 including oodles of slapstick and other visual hocus-pocus, non sequiturs, pure babble and off-center lines (such one from Rachel, who\u2019s terrified of moving to Australia because she\u2019d have to face \u201ca terrible \u2014 outdoorsy<\/em> \u2014 life\u201d).<\/p>\n

The play, written by Richard Bean, is set in 1963 Brighton. But it\u2019s really an update of \u201cThe Servant of Two Masters,\u201d a 1743 Italian Commedia dell\u2019arte \u00a0style work by Carol Goldoni.<\/p>\n

Almost 300 years old and still hilarious.<\/p>\n

Not too long in the tooth after all.<\/p>\n

The current South Coast Repertory co-production \u2014 which trails the show\u2019s Broadway opening by only four years \u2014 features a quartet of lively musicians \u2014 two guitarists, a bass and a washboard player \u2014 who perform original Grant Olding tunes under the rubric \u201cThe Craze.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s all unabashedly British \u2014 but there are definite overlays of rockabilly and Beatles and an estrogen trio oozing glitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors\u201d ends up being unadulterated joy, and doesn\u2019t miss a comedic trick.<\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s not quite true: I saw no pie in the face.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors\u201d plays at the Berkeley Rep\u2019s Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley, through June 21. Night performances, 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays through Saturdays. Matinees, 2 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $14.50 to $89, subject to change. Information: (510) 647-2949 or\u00a0<\/em>www.berkeleyrep.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or http:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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[Woody’s [rating: 5] The new Berkeley Rep farce, \u201cOne Man, Two Guvnors,\u201d stirs the most good feelings \u2014 by far \u2014 of any feel-good show this season. Despite the play…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"