He brandishes the Tony Award he won for Best Actor on June 10, the day his toddler son took his first steps. (Joseph Marzullo/WENN)
Playing the lead of “One Man, Two Guvnors,” writes James Corden (above, third from left, with Suzie Toase, Oliver Chris and Jemima Rooper), has led to “fear and joy in equal measure.” At right, he brandishes the Tony Award he won for Best Actor on June 10, the day his toddler son took his first steps. (
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Editor’s note: Michael Riedel is traveling. Filling in for him is James Corden, the Tony-winning star of “One Man, Two Guvnors.” A BAFTA-winning British actor and writer, he’s just written a new show for the BBC during his Broadway run, which ends Sunday.
HI, how are you? May I start by saying you look and indeed smell incredible today. Have you lost weight? No? I think you have, you look slimmer. Seriously, you’re HOT. I hope you don’t mind me being so forward, my father always says it’s important to pay compliments. But the truth is I’m just trying to deflect your attention in the hope that you won’t realise I have absolutely no idea how to write this column.
When Mr. Riedel kindly asked me to fill in for him today, I was truly honoured. My head was instantly full of ideas of how I could make this the best column ever. It would be a piece that people would talk about for years. Everyone would remember where they were when they read it. It would be passed down through generations, so our children and our children’s children could enjoy what is now known as the finest “stand in” theatrical column anyone had ever read. And yet now, as I sit in front of my computer I have no idea what to write. Where to start, even.
How do I tell you, someone I don’t know, whom I’ve more than likely never met, about my experience performing in “One Man, Two Guvnors” on Broadway? A question I’ve gotten a lot recently is whether I’ve enjoyed it as much as it seems. Has it been everything I’d hoped it would be? And my answer is always, always the same. Without irony or agenda, I can honestly say it’s been the best time of my life. And yet it could all have been so different.
If I think back to our opening in April, all I really remember from the previews was a giddying mix of earth-shattering nerves and heart-bursting excitement. It’s the oddest feeling opening a show on Broadway when you’re the lead. Fear and joy in equal measure. The only time in my life that I’ve felt anything similar was when Kirsty Norris told me we were going to lose our virginity together one Thursday lunchtime between art and science. Everything I’d ever dreamt of was coming true, yet the excitement was rapidly replaced by an overwhelming sense that I had no idea what to do and felt pretty sure I wouldn’t be any good once I got there.
Thankfully, the opening of this play has been far more successful than that Thursday lunchtime, which never actually went as planned. It’s another story for another time, but it involves a P.E. teacher chasing me the length of the playing field while I was in just my underpants.
But back to our play, a farce that many people said was too British to work here. “They’ll never get it, it’s not the sort of thing they do in America!” some particularly snooty theatrical London types used to say before we opened here, and there was a chance they may have been right. The only way we’d find out was to just go for it. And yet, within 10 minutes of our first night, everybody in the theatre knew this was not only going to work on Broadway, it was going to work big!
The laughter and noise in the Music Box this past five months has been something I’ll treasure forever. To be able to look out into the auditorium at various points during the show watching people throw their heads back, laughing so uncontrollably, is a joy and something I will miss more than I think I even realise myself right now.
AS I write this, we are about to embark on our final shows, the end of a journey that for many of us in the cast began 17 1/2 months ago for what was supposed to be a 21-week contract. We’ve done 425 shows, and I can think of no finer place for it to end than here on Broadway. I’ve been lucky enough to work here twice in my life, and both times I’ve flown home a different person to the one who flew out here.
The first time I was one of eight “History Boys” discovering the many fruits of this city as many times as I could. This time I’m here with my soon-to-be wife and our 17-month-old son. We, as a family, have never been happier. On the day of the Tonys, my son walked on his own for the first time. I was getting dressed into my tuxedo and he just stood up and walked over to me, held out his hand and put it in mine. It was almost as if he was telling me that if I didn’t win, today would still be a good day.
I will miss working here so much, the positivity of the audiences and the vibrancy around this incredible handful of streets that make up the theatre community. It is, I think, the best place in the world. If you are coming to the show on Sunday, I apologise for the many tears that shall be streaming down my face as we take our final bow. I won’t be able to help it. I’m gonna miss you, New York, thank you for having us. Until next time . . . x.