Brilliant Drowsy Chaperone At Speakeasy

Hilarious Musical Comedy with Incredible Cast

By: Mark Favermann - May 14, 2011

The Drowsy Chaperone
A Musical Within A Comedy
Music and Lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison
Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar
Directed and Choreographed by David Connolly
Music Direction by Nicholas James Connell, Scenic Design by Jenna McFarland Lord, Costume Design by Seth Bodie, Lighting Design by Karen Perlow, Sound Design by Aaron Mack, Production Stage Manager: Victoria S. Coady, Assistant Stage Manager: Ryan A. Anderson

CAST (in order of appearance)
Will McGarrahan ( The Man in the Chair), Kerry A, Dowling, Robert Saoud, David Christensen, Brian Swasey, J.T. Turner, Sarah Drake, Ryan Halsaver, Joe Longthorne, Thomas Derrah (Alphonso), McCaela Donovan, Karen MacDonald (The Drowsy Chaperone), Nellana, Ryan A. Anderson
Ensemble: Alison McCartan, Tiffany Chalothorn, Shawn Platzker, Michael Coup
Speakeasy Stage Company
Roberts Studio Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts
Through June 5
539 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116-6306
(617) 482-3279
boxoffice@bostontheatrescene.com
Run time: 1 hour 40 minutes without an intermission

My face hurts from smiling and laughing so much last night. Everyone in the audience was amused and delighted by the spectacle and performances of this 2006 Tony Award-winning Best Musical The Drowsy Chaperone. It is an entertainment treat that has been served up brilliantly by the Speakeasy Theatre Company. The show was litely nuanced, ironic, fun and clever. It was produced and played with skill and joy. I am still smiling.

Set in a drab apartment of an agoraphobic and all things Broadway mega-fan, the show starts out in the dark with the whimsical ruminations of The Man in the Chair, played naturally and at times poignantly by Will McGarrahan. He explains that often when he is blue, he plays his favorite show album to cheer himself up. On the walls of the apartment are pictures of vintage stars and posters of old often forgotten shows. These add to the man what his own life lacks, glamour.

The narrator sermonizes about the wonder and achievement of the Broadway musical. “When a character is in crisis they sing and they dance,’’ he says, “Which is so much more interesting than just whining about it.’’ Making it a theatrical prayer, he adds an "Amen." Many in the audience concurred.

The narrator goes on to share the fantasy of the story of his favorite musical, a 1928 obscure production of The Drowsy Chaperone. Taking out his 78 LP show album and putting it on his record player (yes, record player and album), the narrator fantasizes about the show, one that he has never seen. He then narrates the old show as his modestly appointed apartment is transformed into the highly stylized production set.

At once enamored as well as critical, he stops and starts the various musical numbers by explaining the quality and depth of the musical and its songs. By adding personal backgrounds and asides to several of the actors playing the various characters, the narrator humorously and often affectionately describes the human qualities and frailties of those old players.

As the show goes on, more of his personal life is revealed through his musings about the show. His intermittent involvement in the plot punctuates the seamless quality of the back and forth of this production and the brilliance of its storyline.

At one point during a nonsensical musical moment, the narrator reminds the audience: “It’s not real! It’s a musical.’’ And that is the point: at its best a musical is fantasy relief from our everyday human struggles. Broadway musicals are often based upon unreal, paper-thin plots. We are somehow taken out of ourselves to a place of joy and silly uncomplicated happiness.

Here, we are transfixed and transformed by the implausibility and often mindless but elegantly athletic and melodic musical numbers. However, this analysis does not do justice to the humor and energy of the cast and production. Seeing the Speakeasy show is the only way to behold the actual wit and wisdom of this entertainment.

Our 21st Century ironic and cynical armor is put aside, if only in a fleeting way, to enjoy and even involve ourselves in the frivolity of the old often hokey musical comedy schtick from the early decades of the 20th Century. As we don't really remember this time except in revivals, it must be the nostalgia of of our generational theatrical memory.

The Drowsy Chaperone is an homage to historic Broadway musicals. It looks at the relationship of musicals to their adoring fans and the effects musicals have on them. To cure his non-specific sadness, The Man in the Chair listens to his rare recording. Transported into the musical, all of a sudden, the show's characters appear in his dingy apartment, and it is transformed into an impressive Broadway set with painted backdrops and glitzy costumes.

As thin as it is, the plot of the musical comedy within a play centers on showgirl Janet Van De Graaff (McCalea Donovan) who plans to give up her career in order to marry the son of a corny oil tycoon Robert Martin (David Christensen). However, she is the star of Feidzieg's Follies. Mr. Feldzieg, her producer, is being threatened with bodily harm by two gangsters employed by his chief investor. Disguised as pastry chefs, these two thugs threaten Feldzieg (J.T. Turner) to stop the wedding in order to ensure Janet's participation in his next financially successful production.

To save himself, Feldzieg enlists Aldolpho, a caricature of an inept Latin Lover (the multitalented Thomas Derrah plays not only over the top as the character is written but totally immersed in the personality of the role--he is unrecognizable as himself), to seduce Janet and spoil her relationship with Robert. Meanwhile, Janet is having doubts about her future husband. Disguising herself as a French woman, she tempts Robert into kissing her creating a plotline twist. Like any traditional musical comedy, more unexpected things occur but all is resolved more or less at the end.

Taking cues from all the historical elements of theatre, The Drowsy Chaperone plot integrates mistaken identities, dream sequences, a deus ex machina, an unflappable English butler (officious Robert Saoud), hidden doors, day for night, an absent-minded bosomy dowager (it is hard to take one's eyes off of her vast cleavage whenever Kerry A. Dowling is on stage), a ditsy raspy voiced chorine (squeaky Sarah Drake), an over-burdened best man (hardworking Brian Swasey), and Janet's "drowsy" (an antiquated term for "tipsy") chaperone.

The Drowsy Chaperone (characterized to perfection by the gifted Karen MacDonald) is played in the show-within-a-show by a blowzy Grande Dame of the Stage, specializing in rousing anthems (the show is set a few years after WWI) that are insisted upon by her whether needed in a production's plotline or not. She is also never above upstaging any of her co-stars. Ms. MacDonald hits all of her notes.

Every performance by every actor in this production is terrific. The songs are great. The dancing is hypnotic. The direction and stagecraft are superb. This is one of the most entertaining shows of the 2010-11 Season anywhere. It is at your own risk if you miss The Drowsy Chaperone. Call your friends and family and all go as soon as you can. This is entertainment at its best. Remember, "It is not real, it is a musical." It is a really memorable musical! Bravo.

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