By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
“The Drowsy Chaperone” is a love song to musical theater, and our hero barely sings a note.
Instead the Man in the Chair played by Nathan Wright, listens and revels and harrumphs, and in the end reveals himself.
Nathan Wright’s Man in the Chair is the heart of “The Drowsy Chaperone.”
“The Drowsy Chaperone” opens in Bowling Green State University’s Donnell Theatre tonight (Nov. 17) at 8 p.m. and continues with shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. Advance tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students and children. All tickets the day of the performance are $20. 419-372-8171 or visit www.bgsu.edu.
The show opens in the dark with Wright talking about that sense of anticipation before the lights go on in the theater. Then they do, and he informs us what he expects from a show: “A good story and a few good songs.”
And the man, being something of a curmudgeon, tells us as well what he doesn’t like, including breaking through the fourth wall and interacting with the audience, which is exactly what he is doing.
And that’s what he does throughout the show, which is billed as a musical within a comedy. He puts on an LP, a prized possession, though we don’t know just why until much later. It’s an original cast recording of a 1920s musical “The Drowsy Chaperone.”
As the overture starts, the man begins a guided tour of the show, and we slowly find out why it is his favorite. Even he admits it’s hardly a classic.
Rather it is a spectacle created by the scriptwriters Bob Martin and Don McKellar to send up the various clichés of the style.
Gabby Thomas, in the title role, belts out “As We Stumble Along.”
The plot is slight. The handsome businessman Robert Martin (Justin Roth) is about to marry Janet Van de Graaff (Madi Zavitz), a darling of the stage. Their love is a whirlwind affair as love usual in a musical. Janet fell in love during a moonlit conversation about the Martin family’s oil business. She’s determined to give up her career. In “Show Off,” she demonstrates with great detail and energy all the things she no longer wants to do. She emjoys it all immensely.
The plot is driven along by the best man’s insistence that the two lovebirds not see each other before the ceremony. Played by Braeden Tuttle, the best man is very conscientious and overwhelmed by his duties.
So, in one silly sequence, Martin wanders about in the garden with a blindfold on so he doesn’t recognize that the French girl he encounters is his fiancée.
We meet in rapid succession the various other cast members.
There’s a subplot about a producer (Adam Rawlings) who wants to break up the nuptials because he doesn’t want to lose Janet as a star. He’s pursued by two gangsters (Jabri Johnson and Connor Long) whose boss is threatening him with a “Toledo Surprise” because the show he helped finance will close without Janet. The producer is accompanied by that staple of musical, the ditzy blond (Erica Harmon), who wants to step into the starring role.
We also meet the dotty mistress of the estate where the wedding is to take place, Mrs. Tottendale (Ashleigh Schneider), as well as her long-suffering butler (Nathan Stelts). There’s the requisite Latin lover (Seth Serrano), and of course, the title character, the chaperone who is drowsy because she likes to drink, played by Gabby Thomas.
Then there’s an aviatrix (Anna Parchem) who drops in randomly just in time to tie up one last loose end. The aviatrix, the man in the chair confides, is code for a lesbian. He’s full of such insights and tidbits of information.
He knows how the actor who plays the Latin lover died – it involves too much liquor and five poodles. He knows that the number “As We Stumble Along” is in the score because the actress who played the title role always demanded she sing an anthem. Thomas delivers it in that spirit.
The man notes George and Robert‘s tap routine “Cold Feets” was included to give time to change the scenery. It’s all about the mechanics, he said, just like in pornography. The plots are just a way “to get to the next production number.”
Those production numbers are spectacular. Director Michael Ellison, working with a team of choreographers, captures the spectacle of those old shows with panache and humor.
“The Bride’s Lament,” with its monkey imagery, is a hoot. Everything here is taken just a few steps too far.
Still, this is not a lampoon. Yes, these characters are caricatures by design. The young actors are playing actors who are typecast. The mugging is by these fictional actors, not the young actors playing them. They capture the authenticity beneath the artifice.
The songs are all peppy and tuneful, generic in a way, but still ear-tweaking. The singing, backed by recorded tracks, is vivid and energetic with enunciation that allows the listener appreciate the clever lyrics.
Wright, himself, doesn’t sing, yet he is the heart of the show. Though something of a dweeb, he’s enjoyable company as he guides us through the show. Yes, he’s prone to sudden outbursts if, for example, the phone rings. It’s not just that it disrupts the show, it’s that it threatens to let in what the musical diverts him from. He’s a sad man, but we’re glad in the end he has this passion.
In his opening monologue, the man in the chair declares “I just want to be entertained.” In the end that’s just what he and the rest of the “Drowsy Chaperone” cast succeed in doing.
