“The Drowsy Chaperone”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - August 2011

If you are a regular GailSez reader, then you will love The Drowsy Chaperone. Actually, if you are a regular GailSez reader you probably already know the entire score by heart and can correct me on several point of theatrical history. But you don’t have to an uber-theatre geek to get a kick out of this show, in fact what really thrills me is watching the audience all around me slowly glom on to what this show is all about and fall in love for themselves.

The Drowsy Chaperone is really about how art feeds our soul. In this case the art form is very specifically musical theatre, but the appeal is universal because you can apply the message to whatever does it for you – a good book, a great symphony, a stroll through a museum – without art in our lives we are somehow lesser beings.

This show is often billed as a musical inside a comedy, and the musical part was originally written by Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, and Don McKellarson as a stag party skit for Robert “Bob” Martin and Janet van de Graaff, The bride and groom are the stars (the characters still bear their names) and madcap mayhem threatens to disrupt their wedding day. It is a charming take off on early 20th century musical comedy (pre-Showboat), most specifically the Princess musicals, penned between 1915-1918 by P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, and Jerome Kern for the Princess Theatre in Manhattan.

After the wedding, Martin joined the team and became Man in Chair, the star of the comedy wrapped around the musical. The show takes place in Man in Chair’s tiny and dreary studio apartment on an afternoon when, feeling a little blue, he decides to play one of his favorite Broadway cast albums, The Drowsy Chaperone from 1928. (Regular GailSez readers will immediately get the joke there – the first American original cast album was The Band Wagon in 1931.)

As Man in Chair spins the disk, the show comes to life in his imagination and in his apartment, taking the audience along for the ride. Periodically Man in Chair interrupts the action to comment on the actors playing the roles – not the real actors on stage but the fictional actors on the non-existent record who the real actors are playing, along with their characters…are you with me? Never mind, you will be. And you will have a lot of fun as you put the pieces together.

I have already seen two Equity productions – the Broadway tour when it cam to Proctors in 2007, and a pretty darned good replica of it at the Ogunquit Playhouse in 2010. Both productions featured the wonderful Georgia Engel as Mrs. Tottendale, a role she has been touring in quite steadily since she created it in the original Broadway production in 2006; and Robert Dorfman as Mrs. Tottendale’s loyal butler, Underling. And at Ogunquit I saw Carson Kressley, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame, making a delightful stage debut as Man in Chair.

Knowing the show, I had only two concerns as I entered the Theater Barn on opening night:
1) Would the show fit in the Theater Barn? (An airplane has to land on the stage.)
2) Would Mrs. Tottendale be played like Georgia Engel or would they go in a different direction? (The Broadway production did a complete 180 and cast Joanne Worley in the role when Engel left.)

I am happy to report that director Bert Bernardi, tap choreographer Jamie Faxon Baksa, and set designer Abe Pehlps managed (just barely) to squeeze this great big show into their little tiny space (I won’t give away the secret to how they landed that plane!), and that Amy Fiebke is a splendid Mrs. Tottendale in the Georgia Engel tradition (although I think I spotted a genuine autographed photo of Worley adorning Man in Chair’s apartment walls.)

Phew!

There is nothing not to like about this rousing and engaging production. Lara Hayhurst, who has played Janet van de Graaff before and comes with her own wardrobe designed by John White, is perfection as the gorgeous show girl – star of the Feldzeig Follies. He feature number Show Off is a demanding one physically and technically, and she pulls it off without a hitch.

It is Janet’s decision to leave show business to marry the man she loves that brings the great Impresario, Mr. Feldzeig (Allen Phelps) himself, to Mrs. Tottendale’s estate to try to stop the nuptials. Phelps does broad comedy very well and I enjoyed his Feldzeig more than either of the others I’ve seen.

Feldzeig is followed by two gangsters (Judah Frank and Trey Compton) in the employ of the Follies’ biggest backer, to ensure that he stops the wedding, OR ELSE… They are disguised as pastry chefs and make a whole lot of really bad dessert jokes while threatening Feldzeig with rolling pins and loaded bags of icing. While Frank and Compton didn’t quite manage the synchronicity of movement I’ve seen in other pairs, they are plenty funny without it.

Feldzeig is also trailed by Kitty (Nicole DiMattei), a supremely untalented chorus girl who wants to succeed Janet as the star of the Follies. DiMattei really made the most of this bit part, and her mind-reading routine as Kitty the Incomprehensible, was marvelous. She is also a snazzy little dancer.

Janet is accompanied by her Chaperone (Jerielle Morwitz) is charged by the Best Man, George (Ryan Halsaver) with the job of keeping her from seeing Robert (Tom Garruto) before the wedding. I have been hard on Garruto and Halsaver, both of whom have done yeoman’s work in a variety of roles at the Barn this summer, and here I think they’re finally well cast. Both sport big toothy grins and twinkling toes in the big tap number Cold Feet which are in exactly the right style for the show and their characters.

The character of the Drowsy Chaperone (for “drowsy” read “drunk”) needs some explanation because it follows a distinctly British theatrical tradition. The name of the fictional actress who plays the chaperone – Beatrice Stockwell, who becomes a Dame – sounds like a take off on Beatrice Lillie (1894-1989), who became Lady Peel; but the tradition of singing rousingly patriotic songs in every show during the First World War was the territory of a drag artiste (she was a woman who performed as a man) known as Vesta Tilley (1864-1952)..

Morwitz is not a man, or a woman, in drag, but she has an interestingly androgynous look to her. She is a beautiful woman who is not afraid to clown around and does overdone very, very well. Morwitz does a lovely job with her big, scenery chewing number, As We Stumble Along, cheerfully throwing Janet under the bus in order to get her close-up.

Feldzeig sends a ludicrous Latin lotharion named Aldolpho (Matthew Daly) to seduce Janet, which he utterly fails to do. Daly plays this role with a maniacal bright-eyed flamboyance that takes it beyond the silly ethnic joke it is supposed to be (the theatre of the late 19th and early 20th century leaned heavily on ethnic humor, often created by immigrant groups poking fun at themselves.) He goes after laughs with such an aggressive vigor that you just can’t help but give them to him. But I noticed he seemed to be having issues with his wig. Mr. Daly might want to have a word with wig designer John Heinis about the matter (wink).

As it is Janet and Robert manage to mess up their wedding plans without any help from producers, gangsters, or two-bit Casanovas. Mrs. Tottendale (Fiebke) is not quite sure why or whether she is hosting the wedding, but she goes happily about the preparations with Underling (Danny Blaylock) . It is prohibition, so she designs a scheme for disguising the fact that they are serving alcohol, which leads to the classic Spit Take Scene.

The Deus ex Machina happy ending comes in the form of Trix, the Aviatrix (Keisha Gilles) – see I TOLD you there was an airplane in this show. I just love this character and in every production I’ve seen a wonderfully talented black singer/actress who I wish we could see more of – damn it! Gilles has a big, warm voice that assures us all will be well with the white folks, who couldn’t have gotten things more mixed up if they’d tried, poor dears.

The only performance I had any quibble with was Craig Treubert as Man in Chair. The creators of the show make it very clear that me is NOT gay, because a gay man who loves musicals is just too much of a stereotype, but I felt Treubert played the role in an annoyingly stereotypically gay manner. Heck, even Carson Kressley played him as a straight guy, which gave a special poignancy to his deadpan delivery of the line about not making assumptions. And please take down the Peter Pan poster over his chair. No one is a bigger fan of the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up than I am, but that poster just feeds the stereotype. There are plenty of other iconic musicals that could take pride of place – and a more obscure show would be better. How about the poster for Tenderloin or the 1957 Candide?

Alyssa Couturier has done a bang-up job with the costumes, so this show looks as festive and classy as it should while allowing the actors full freedom of movement. Bernardi and Baksa send them sailing, skating (did I mention the roller skates??), and tapping around as wildly as space will permit.

I feel a little like Goldilocks – the first theatre I saw this show in was too big, and the second one was made of ugly cinder blocks, but the Theater Barn was just right. The Drowsy Chaperone needs an intimate space so that a real rapport can be developed between Man in Chair and the audience, and so the stylized acting in the little musical can be clearly seen and enjoyed. This is Bert Bernardi and The Theater Barn at their very best, in a show that really and truly is fun for the whole family. Pack up Grandma and the kiddies and book your seats NOW! It’s the best bargain in the Berkshires!

The Drowsy Chaperone runs August 25-September 4 at the air-conditioned Theater Barn, 654 Route 20, New Lebanon, NY. The show runs an hour and forty-five minutes with no intermission and is suitable for all ages. Performances are schedule for Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $24 for the evening performances and $22 for the Sunday matinee. For information and reservations call (518) 794-8989. www.theaterbarn.com

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