The Drowsy Chaperone
The State Theatre
New Brunswick, NJ
On the one hand, it's a spoof of light, breezy old-time musicals. And there will always be an audience for such spoofs. When I was young, I remember how much fun it was when the gifted writer/director Bob Dahdah launched the high-spirited (and influential) hits Dames at Sea and Curley McDimple; those shows kidded old-style musicals with flair, acknowledging their escapist silliness—while also celebrating and keeping alive the very elements that so many of us love about older musicals. And they spawned assorted successors in that vein.
Bright, colorful, and filled with laughs, The Drowsy Chaperone works effectively as a spoof. When it shows us scenes from a supposed 1928 Broadway musical that was called The Drowsy Chaperone, it provides frothy escapist entertainment that works on its own level. Entertainment for entertainment's sake! Lively song-and-dance numbers that need no more justification than that audiences tend to delight in seeing lively song-and-dance numbers. I would have gotten a kick out of the show if that had been all that it offered.
But there's more to The Drowsy Chaperone than that. There's another layer to this show—very well conceived and very well executed—that sets it apart from Dames at Sea and all of the other spoofs of old-style musicals that I've ever seen. The musical is narrated by a present-day lover of older musicals (called simply the "Man in Chair"); he provides running commentary on the supposed 1920's musical we are watching. He tells us which actress in the original cast was on her way up, which was on her way down; which once-dashing star eventually died alone, an alcoholic, his corpse nibbled upon by his pet dogs; and which once-handsome juvenile is today alive—but barely!—in his dotage. This plausible commentary, reminding us of the vagaries of life, gives the show a unique, contemporary, ironic edge. Somehow we become caught up in all of this. I wanted to know more about these people.
And unexpectedly, we also form an emotional connection of sorts with the narrator, lonely and confused as he is. And when we least expect it, The Drowsy Chaperone—which initially seemed simply a show filled with laughs—has moments of poignance. And that makes it richer.
The 2006 Broadway production was so brilliantly cast with Sutton Foster, Beth Leavel, Bob Martin, Lenny Wolpe, Danny Burstein, and Georgia Engel that I was a little wary of seeing the current national touring production. But I'm very glad I went. No, the current road-show ensemble is not nearly the equivalent of the dazzling original Broadway ensemble. (Nor, I might add, are the ticket prices nearly as high.) But it's still a fun show. The audience packing the State Theater in New Brunswick was enthusiastic throughout. Those I chatted with at intermission had not seen the show on Broadway, so they did not have to worry about how each cast member might have compared with his or her original-cast counterpart. And, happily, the producers of this tour (NETworks Presentations LLC) have found several very effective key players.
John West, who was my favorite cast member on the recent, uneven Westchester Broadway Theatre version of The Producers (in my review I wrote he was "right on the money"), captures well the nuances of the "Man in Chair." He is by turns funny, sad, and all too human; we like him; we care about him. Once again, he is "right on the money." His performance was wholly satisfying. I look forward to seeing more of him in other shows.
Elizabeth Pawlowski shines as the female ingenue, Janet Van De Graaf. Her voice is golden. She gets one of the two best numbers in this musical comedy, the surprise-filled "Show Off," and she carries it off with aplomb. I went into the theater wondering how someone I'd never before heard of—a recent graduate of Wagner College—could possibly compete with the memory of Sutton Foster, who played the part so deliciously on Broadway. But Pawlowski was quite credible and quite appealing. The producers could have plugged her into the Broadway production as an eventual successor to Foster, and audiences would have found her quite acceptable. (Pawlowski reminded me a little, in fact, of Mara Davi, who did eventually succeed Foster in the 2006-2007 Broadway run.)
Her romantic interest in the show, played by Leigh Wakeford, and Wakeford's sidekick, Robert Micheli, are both solid. And Jen Percival plays the small role of Trix the Aviatrix as well as you could ask anyone to play it; I would have loved to have heard more of her voice. Other cast members were up-and-down. The actors playing Adolpho and Mrs. Tottendale failed to get all the laughs they should have gotten; they haven't found the right touch to make those parts work. Patti McClure, as "The Drowsy Chaperone," was not bad, and it's always fun seeing her character struggle to upstage her younger co-star—but the role ideally calls for someone with more star power, more presence.
If they ever make a movie or TV version of The Drowsy Chaperone, Liza Minelli would be a wonderful choice for the title role; I'd relish hearing her dig into the show's best song (which has been lodged into my head since leaving the theater), "As We Stumble Along." I love that song. It may have been written as a pastiche, but the melody is catchy, the words have a classic Tin Pan Alley feel; it builds. I like to imagine that if it had actually been written in olden times, everyone from Al Jolson to Judy Garland would have enjoyed taking a crack at it. And could have sold it as a song.
The orchestra, which travels from city to city with the show (rather than having the production pick up local musicians) is much smaller than the orchestra was on Broadway—just eight musicians. But you'd never know it from the rich, brassy, full-bodied sound they get. It's unusual, and surprising, for a show to be able to get such a classic Broadway sound with so few players. The music is arranged well (credit Larry Blank and Glen Kelly) and played well. It made me happy just hearing that orchestra burst into life for the first time.
I like The Drowsy Chaperone. In the olden days, if new theater-writers had concocted a show this clever and this popular, producers would have hurried to bankroll their next shows. They would have had their second or third musicals up and running by now. I wish things didn't move quite so slowly in our theater world today. I'm looking forward to seeing more works by these writers.
Chip Deffaa
Cabaret Scenes
February 14, 2009
www.cabaretscenes.org