Andrews portrayal of the Drowsy Chaperone was delightful.
Janet and Robert are not to see each other as it is the day of their wedding, and so Janet’s imbibing chaperone (played by Jessica Andrews) half-heartedly attempts to keep them separate as the chaperone drinks herself drowsy. Man in Chair introduces the audience to the inner play’s central conflict: starlet Janet Vandergraff (played by Eleisha Keen) is to be married to a nobody named Robert (played by Tyler Newton), which will end her performing career. He did not engage in any superfluous stage business, but at times seemed to not be reacting to what he and the audience were engaging with either. Bullock’s portrayal had a pleasantly flamboyant flair that allowed for lines alluding to Man in Chair’s ambiguous sexual undertones to land well with the audience.
#Man in chair drowsy chaperone full#
The monologue’s delivery was fun, as it was full of pithy quips and well crafted anecdotes, which Bullock delivers with ironclad deadpan. The production begins with Ryan Bullock’s droll Man in Chair stating that he hates theatre. While the play calls for many exit and entrance points that were used well, the space felt crowded. After intermission, nearly the entire apartment setting simply disappeared. And some of the projections included images with visible stock photo watermarks.
Most of the setting was simple flats but there was also vivid projection on the backdrop that was a jarring contrast to the basic set. Much of the show centers on the narration of Man in Chair, and the Drowsy Chaperone characters entering his apartment, but he is set far on the stage left side which reads backwards to an audience. One way this was noticed was how the set felt oddly organized. Anderon’s curious decision to double cast the show compounded the production’s difficulties.
For the Off-Broadway production directed by Jake Andersen in the old Draper Historic Theatre, it just felt like trying to bite off too much. It is a demanding production for a large venue with a massive budget. The show requires intense dancing and singing, as well as linguistic humor and high-end physical farce that utilizes many complicated set pieces, culminating in a giant airplane that fills the stage at the end. The musical is a soliloquy of Man in Chair’s cheerful cynicism about life and theatre as he listens to and expounds upon a recording of the fictional prohibition-era play also titled The Drowsy Chaperone. The Drowsy Chaperone (with a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison) is a brilliant play within a play that is presented as a shared evening with the narrator-protagonist, Man in Chair.
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