Musicals from the era of "The Drowsy Chaperone" had a renewed vogue in the mid-20th century, with works that ranged from pure parody (Sandy Wilson's "Boy Friend" in 1954, "Dames at Sea" in 1968) to retooled versions of the real thing ("No, No, Nanette" in 1971). Sutton Foster, center, plays a woman ready to give up showbiz for love in the new old-fashioned musical "The Drowsy Chaperone." Credit. So we have been thoroughly primed to appreciate whatever follows, which turns out to be one of those intricately (and improbably) plotted tales of love in crisis - involving gangsters, show people, millionaires and servants - that showed up regularly in productions with titles like "Oh, Kay!" and "Sitting Pretty." He puts on a vinyl record of a 1928 musical called, yes, "The Drowsy Chaperone." And his drab little apartment becomes a show palace (with glitzy fantasy sets and costumes courtesy of David Gallo), with the original cast members summoned into being to recreate the production. Luckily for us, this Man - who is subsequently revealed sitting, alone, in a humble studio apartment - refuses to go away. "Now," the Man says, "it's, 'Please, Elton John, must we continue this charade?' " Imagine, he continues, a time when audiences eagerly awaited the latest from Cole Porter and the Gershwins.
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Martin), offers up the prayer he says he always mutters before a show, requesting that it be short, free of actors who roam the audience and blessed with "a story and a few good songs that will take me away." "Well, it's so disappointing, isn't it?" This voice, which belongs to a character called Man in Chair (rendered with clinical exactitude by Mr.
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The first few minutes of "The Drowsy Chaperone," which began professional life at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1999, take place in complete darkness, while an anxious but companionable voice drifts from the stage like a life line. Surely few productions have ever pulled an audience so immediately and unconditionally on their sides. It's sort of like being able to eat your cake and diet too. Martin and Don McKellar, arrives at a moment when Broadway audiences have been battered, bruised and bludgeoned to sleep by blunt instruments of shows like "Ring of Fire" and "Lestat."Īnd now here is a musical that frankly sets itself up as a short (1 hour 40 minutes), happy exercise in escapism, adorned with just enough postmodern footnotes to make you feel all insiderly. "The Drowsy Chaperone," which has songs by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and a book by Mr. Without its ingenious narrative framework and two entrancing performances - by Bob Martin as a lonely, musical-loving schlemiel with a hyperactive fantasy life and Sutton Foster as the showgirl heroine of his dreams - "The Drowsy Chaperone" would feel at best like a festive entree at a high-end suburban dinner theater.īut try telling that to the theatergoers who are responding to this hard-working production as if they were withering house plants that, after weeks of neglect, have finally tasted water again. Though this revved-up spoof of a 1920's song-and-dance frolic, as imagined by an obsessive 21st-century show queen, seems poised to become the sleeper of the Broadway season, it is not any kind of a masterpiece. Presented through arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).The gods of timing, who are just as crucial to success in show business as mere talent is, have smiled brightly upon "The Drowsy Chaperone," the small and ingratiating musical that opened last night at the big and intimidating Marquis Theater. Music Direction by Dana Cardon, Choreography by Rebecca Boberg. Hailed by New York Magazine as “The Perfect Broadway Musical.”ĭirected by Julie Bonifay. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight. The recording comes to life in his living room and The Drowsy Chaperone begins as the man in the chair looks on and provides witty commentary. With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical.
Winner of five Tony Awards, The Drowsy Chaperone features one show-stopping song and dance number after another.
A musical within a comedy! When a die-hard theatre fan plays his favorite cast album, the characters come to life in this hilarious musical farce.
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