Casting annoucement

NATIONAL THEATRE’S FIVE STAR AWARD-WINNING HIT COMEDY

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT

Actor, stand-up comedian and presenter Rufus Hound will lead the cast in Nicholas Hytner’s five star award-winning production of One Man, Two Guvnors for its second UK tour in autumn 2012.

Audiences in Leicester will be the first to see Rufus Hound in the role of Francis Henshall as the tour begins at Curve (25 Oct – 3 Nov) followed by eight other UK venues and then an international tour. This second UK tour will play alongside the show’s West End run. Further casting will be announced shortly.

Rufus Hound is best known as a comedian and TV and radio personality, where his work includes seven series of the award-winning Celebrity Juice, the BBC sitcom Hounded, 8 out of 10 Cats, The Xtra Factor, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the forthcoming primetime comedy show Mad Mad World (ITV1). Radio work includes Act Your Age and My Teenage Diaryfor Radio 4, as well as his own comedy show What’s So Funny. He is currently making his professional stage debut inUtopia at The Soho Theatre, while film credits include My Big Fat Gypsy Gangster and the forthcoming films Wedding Videoand Wingman, both scheduled for release later this year.

One Man, Two Guvnors won the Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards for Best New Play; a Broadway production opened in New York in April 2012. UK critics have called One Man, Two Guvnors ‘one of the funniest productions in the National’s history’ (The Guardian), ‘deliriously daft and diabolically joke stuffed entertainment’ (The Independent) and ‘pure comic bliss.’ (Evening Standard), while The New York Times described it as ‘a rich, slow-spreading smile.’

In Richard Bean’s award-winning version of Carlo Goldoni’s classic Italian comedy, The Servant of Two Masters, sex, food and money are high on the agenda.

Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6,000 from his fiancee’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers. Holed up at the Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple.

With songs by Grant Olding, One Man, Two Guvnors Physical Comedy Director is Cal McCrystal, designs are by Mark Thompson, with lighting by Mark Henderson, sound design by Paul Arditti, fight direction by Kate Waters and choreography by Adam Penford.

Richard Bean’s plays include England People Very Nice for the National, The Heretic, Harvest (winner of the Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play), Honeymoon Suite, Under the Whaleback and Toast for the Royal Court and The Big Fellah for Out of Joint at the Lyric Hammersmith and on tour. He adapted David Mamet’s House of Games and wrote a new version of The Hypochondriac for the Almeida Theatre. Bean won the 2011 Evening Standard Award for Best Play for One Man, Two Guvnors and The Heretic.

Since he became Director of the National in April 2003, Nicholas Hytner has directedHenry V, His Dark Materials, The History Boys, Stuff Happens, Henry IV, Southwark Fair, The Alchemist, The Man of Mode, The Rose Tattoo (with Stephen Pimlott), Rafta, Rafta … , Much Ado About Nothing, Major Barbara, England People Very Nice, Phèdre, The Habit of Art, London Assurance, Hamlet and Collaborators.

ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS
25 OCTOBER – 3 NOVEMBER 2012
Tickets and information: 0116 242 3595 / book online