Rep's New Season Off To Super-Sillyish Start

Looking very much like a portly version of Ricky Gervais, Raymond McAnally plays a man named Francis Henshall in The Rep's season-opening show, "One Man, Two Guvnors." The scene is Brighton in England. The year is 1963.

Photo courtesy of The Rep

The only thing substantial about Francis is his girth. He is an itinerant street musician and jack-of-all-trades.

Photo courtesy of The Rep

Starving for both food and attention, Francis takes on two engagements as a type of man Friday for a couple of gentlemen, neither of whom realize he is working for someone else at the same time.

Photo courtesy of The Rep

This puts Francis in all manner of predicaments amidst a large cast of characters (16) and convoluted, crisscrossing plot lines about love, stupidity, murder and just where can you find a good sandwich.

Photo courtesy of The Rep

A 4-piece group called The WoolfPak provide musical entertainment prior to the start of the production. They also drop in with numbers at various junctures in a seeming attempt to keep the audience warmed up. Lest you get the wrong idea, this a show with music, not a musical.

Photo courtesy of The Rep

"One Man, Two Guvnors" has a lot of very manufactured English accents. The cast come out into the audience several times. There is one time when two people from the audience actually come up on stage. There are several other times when the "audience" gets involved, but the supposed audience members are actually part of the supporting cast. "One Man, Two Guvnors" is a free-wheeling production that tries to be cleverly funny, but too often on opening night the results were uneven and forced. The energy, flow and timing of the show were uneven and inconsistent. That said, if you accept this production for the banality it is, there are plenty of laughs to enjoy. And Raymond McAnally works his bum off to entertain. You'll be pulling for him.