One Man, Two Guvnors: the toast of New York And he described Richard Bean's adaptation of Carlo Goldoni's 18th century comedy, now updated to Brighton in the early 1960s as "inspired ... both satanic and seraphic, dirty minded and utterly innocent." It was he added, echoing many of the British reviewers, "ideal escapism for anxious times." As well as unanimous praise for Corden, described by one critic as "an inspired clown" there were raves too for Oliver Chris as an upper class twit and Tom Edden as the ancient waiter who keeps falling down the stairs. The hugely positive reception of One Man, Two Guvnors means that the National now has two big successes on Broadway. Its production of War Horse won a host of Tony awards last year and has been seen by almost half a million people in New York where it has been the highest grossing play on Broadway since it opened. With these rave reviews, and what is almost certain to prove strong word of mouth from appreciative audiences, One Man, Two Guvnors looks certain to achieve similar commercial success. And both One Man, Two Guvnors and War Horse are of course still both doing boffo business in London with One Man also heading off on a national tour this autumn. British trade may be generally sluggish at present but when it come to producing lucrative theatrical smashes on either side of the Atlantic, Nicholas Hytner's South Bank hit factory looks unstoppable.