Prior to seeing James Corden portray a disaffected ex-serviceman in Joe Penhall’s new play The Constituent at London’s Old Vic theater (to Aug. 10), the last time I saw him in person on stage was when he hosted the Grammy Awards in 2018. The affable Brit might conceivably have been having the time of his life—and generated respectful notices hosting music’s biggest night—but during the ad breaks he looked bored to tears, as though he was being made to attend a compulsory initiation ceremony for popular entertainers-in-training.
Contrast that to now when Corden is in his element returning to London theater (this reviewer saw the final preview of the play before opening night). Having relinquished helming CBS’s The Late Late Show just over a year ago, Corden is back on stage for the first time since 2012 and his riotous comedic turn on Broadway in One Man, Two Guvnors for which he improbably triumphed over Philip Seymour Hoffman, James Earl Jones, John Lithgow and Frank Langella to land a Best Actor Tony Award.
Despite The Late Late Show’s wildly popular Carpool Karaoke segment and his exploits skydiving with Tom Cruise, Corden hasn’t exactly been the subject of wide admiration in recent times. To paraphrase what Matthew Collings once said about art collector Charles Saatchi, the problem with James Corden is that nobody knows what the problem is. Is the problem his arrogance (epitomized by restaurateur Keith McNally notoriously banning him for a time from Manhattan bistro Balthazar for being rude to staff)? Or the sycophancy he shows towards other celebrities shown on TV and more recently on his podcasts? Has Corden overreached?
Corden has chosen a startling vehicle in form of The Constituent as much as a starring vehicle. He plays Alec, a father estranged from his wife who aggressively lobbies his local parliamentary lawmaker Monica (Anna Maxwell Martin) to amend U.K.’s family laws so he can have increased access to his children. The pair grew up near each other and were in the same year at school but are now societal opposites; one is a weary but idealistic backbench politician and the other a bitter and twisted former military intelligence officer in Afghanistan who works in home security.
Alec and Monica re-connect when he visits her to install a panic alarm in her constituency office but she soon has good reason to suspect the man entrusted with enhancing her own security is actually endangering it with his hostile behavior. Commencing the play in familiar comedic mode, Corden grows darker as he reveals his self-destructive alienation from elected representatives. When he loudly exclaims to Monica, “Dead from the neck up. Dead behind the eyes. You’re a dead person in a dead parliament in a dead country,” we’re a long way from all those convivial celeb chats he’d be having not so long ago on CBS’ sofa.
Once Monica’s office gets trashed and she makes indiscreet comments about Alec to the local press, a police officer Mellor (Zachary Hunt) steps up his efforts to protect her. In addition to being an accomplished playwright, Penhall has adapted Ian McEwan and Cormac McCarthy novels for the screen and he created Netflix’s FBI thriller Mindhunter. In exploring the increasing threat to British lawmakers from the public, he is undoubtedly drawing on the shocking murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess. The topicality of the show is heightened by the concurrent U.K. general election that has seen parliamentary candidates face intimidation from voters ranging from objects being thrown at them to their constituency offices being vandalized.
Old Vic Artistic Director Matthew Warchus directs competently, but I could have done without a musical soundtrack of The Smiths and Billy Bragg giving proceedings an even bleaker feel. Yet for all its relevance, The Constituent has way too many issues going on. While the principal theme is the security of public officials, Penhall also explores the limits in the difference that elected representatives can make to the lives of those they govern, the increase of fear at the expense of compassion in British day-to-day life, the rights of separated fathers and access to their children, and the plight of military veterans after they return from active service.
For all its talking points, the play veers too much into implausibility. The lack of backstory between Alec and Monica means there is no sufficient explanation for why he repeatedly comes back desperately searching for answers to his desperate domestic situation given his local MP does not have any solutions that satisfy him from the outset. And the only shooting police officer Mellor seems to be capable of is from the hip. In spite of a violent climax, the play too often feels like a civic-flavored can opened after having been heavily shaken in ways that dilute the drama.
For Corden it’s not so much One Man, Two Guvnors as One Municipality, Two Security Guards. But if there’s ultimately too much to chew on in The Constituent, it’s a meaty role for Corden albeit in a play that—as with the unfolding UK general election which is projected to result in a historically low voter turnout on July 4—leaves plenty to be desired.
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