No one saw it coming. Reworking Goldoni’s 18th-century comedy “A Servant of Two Masters” didn’t look like the recipe for a transatlantic comedy smash, but that was before Richard Bean turned it into the sensational “One Man, Two Guvnors.” Now teaming up with co-writer Oliver Chris (who played James Corden’s dashing-but-dim master in the earlier hit), Bean is back with another revamp of an old play and London’s National Theatre has high hopes. Shock news: Comedy lighting does strike twice. As the ultra-British 1940s types peopling the farcical plot might put it, “Hurrah!” Picking up on the Restoration comedy idea of direct audience address and running with it throughout, Mrs. Malaprop, Sheridan’s legendary, matronly mangler of language, opens the proceedings “with faultless electrocution.” Eyeballing the audience, Caroline Quentin tartly observes, “Imelda Staunton was not available. Dame Helen Mirren told casting that she’ll decide when she’s old, thank you very much.”
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