'One Man, Two Guvnors' opens at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota

It's a comedy set in the 1960s, based on a commedia dell'arte classic from the 18th century.

Still, Vanessa Morosco said, "One Man, Two Guvnors" has a very contemporary feel.

"The struggles that the characters go through are very real, very recognizable," she said. "They need jobs, they need to eat. Francis, our main character, is trying to find a way to balance two jobs. That's something a lot of people can relate to."

Morosco plays Dolly, the love interest of Francis, in the Florida Studio Theatre production of "One Man, Two Guvnors," which opens Friday in Sarasota.

The play, by British playwright Richard Bean, gained fame an a UK tour, then landed on London's West End in 2011. In 2012, it came to Broadway, where it was a huge hit and earned seven Tony Awards nominations.

"But I don't think it's been done much by the regional theaters," Morosco said. In fact, the Florida Studio Theatre production is one of the first in the Southeast.

The story is about a man who needs a job but ends up finding two. He can't let either of his bosses know that he has two jobs, and that leads to all sorts of high jinks, including mistaken identities.

Morosco, who lives in Manhattan, hadn't seen the play before she signed on to do it at FST. "I certainly had heard about it when it was London and New York," she said. "And then I read the script and it's fantastic."

But she said she really didn't realize how funny the play was until she started rehearsals.

"It's a script that takes a lot of imagination to read," she said. "It's one of those plays that requires a lot from the actors," she said.

"The language is strong. It's a very language-based play. But there's a lot of physical comedy."

Although Bean wanted to modernize "Servant of Two Masters," he didn't advance it all the way to the current day. He set it in Brighton, an English seaside resort, in the 1960s. That choice makes a lot of sense, Morosco said, because the gender politics of that era suit the characters and the situations.

There's a lot of music in "One Man, Two Guvnors," but it's not a musical. An onstage band performs songs, written for the play, between scenes. The songs were written for the play and comment on the action. But they don't advance the plot the way they would in a standard musical.

"The music is the cartilage that connects the scenes together," Morosco said.

Details: Nov. 20-Jan. 10, Gompertz Theatre at Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 N Palm Ave., Sarasota. Show times: 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday; additional 3 p.m. matinees on Wednesday, Nov. 25, Dec. 23, and Jan. 6, and Friday, Dec. 18. No performances Dec. 24. Tickets: $25-$42. Information: 941-366-9000, floridastudiotheatre.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 5:11 PM with the headline "'One Man, Two Guvnors' opens at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota ."