Theater Review Part Deux: The Drowsy Chaperone

by Mark-Brian Sonna of MBS Productions

Why go to Broadway when you can stay in Dallas? The Dallas Summer Musicals is presenting in their season the four Tony nominated shows of 2006: The Wedding Singer, Jersey Boys, The Color Purple, and The Drowsy Chaperone. Currently playing is The Drowsy Chaperone. Because of the nature of the acoustics at the Fair Park Music Hall, if you can afford it spend the money on the orchestra seats do so; it is worth every dollar. This is one of the giddiest, funniest shows I’ve seen. It is sweet, hysterical, and delightful. For an hour an forty minutes I smiled and laughed non-stop. My cheeks were sore from all the smiling.

The show is a musical about a musical. The nameless narrator referred to in the program as “Man in Chair” is a musical theatre nut. He adores old-fashioned musicals. He retells the story of his favorite show The Drowsy Chaperone. He puts the record on (yes a record,) and as we listen to the songs from the show, the musical comes to life in his apartment. The musical gets interrupted from time to time by telephone ringing, skips in the record, and a blackout. Watching the entire cast dancing and singing up a storm to suddenly get caught in the skip caused gales of laughter in the audience; as for me, I nearly fell out of my chair I laughed so hard.

The story of the musical within the musical is predictably silly: boy meets girl, boy looses girl, boy gets girl back. The fun part is that we are “in” on the absurdity so we can laugh at all the theatrical conventions that get overused in musicals. The good natured zaniness in this show makes this musical a gem I will cherish.

The show is full of triple threats: actors who can sing and dance. Jonathan Crombie, the superb narrator is about the only one who doesn’t have to pull this triple threat feat, but it doesn’t matter, for his performance received a much deserved standing ovation. I’m hesitant to give standing ovations, because I feel they should only be given in exceptional circumstances. This was one of them.

Mark Ledbetter plays the young male ingénue Robert Martin. His goofiness was spot on, and man can the guy tap! His duet of the song “Cold Feets” with George, played wonderfully by Richard Vida, left me breathless with its impeccable precision.

Georgia Engle, yes that Georgia Engle of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, showed that she can dance! She’s no spring chicken, yet she proved she can keep up. Her duet of “Love is Always Lovely in the End” with Underling, played joyously by Robert Dorfman was full of sprite and fun. The off colored observation made by the narrator in respect to double meaning of the title was perhaps one of the funniest moments of the night: it was not so much his comment it was that only half the audience got the joke.

The Drowsy Chaperone as a character is a boozy floozy of a woman and is played with much panache by Nancy Opel. She ends up paired up with Aldolpho, overacted by James Moye. My first thought when he appeared on stage was that he was way over the top and incongruous with the rest of the production, only to discover that the narrator thought so too. From that point out his obtrusive style of acting became something I looked forward to. He is a hysterical creation.

The show hinges not only on the narrator, but on the role of Janet Van De Graaff played by Andrea Chamberlain. This girl is required to dance, tap, twirl a baton, cartwheel, sing and act. She’s supposed to be a star, and she is. She understudied the role on Broadway and here she leads the company. She’s phenomenal. She gets the best song of the show “Show Off” and dazzles everyone with it.

If there was one person that was a bit weak it was Trix. Fran Jaye has a fantastic voice but her diction was sloppy. Because the acoustics aren’t good and her enunciation was poor I had difficulty understanding her, which killed part of her performance. Fortunately the role is small so this was only a small detraction from an otherwise perfect show.

This show is impeccably staged, costumed, directed and choreographed. The book is amazing and the tunes are toe-tapping and hummable, and the lyrics are some of the funniest I’ve ever heard.

At one point the narrator puts on a record while he goes to the bathroom, suddenly a chinoiserie musical appears on stage. This pseudo-Chinese inspired musical has amazing costumes with an elaborate backdrop. The cast is all Chinese and the one American on stage begins to sing: “What is it about the Asians/ That fascinates Caucasians/ What is it about the Asians/ That's so nice/ Is it the won tons? The egg rolls? The rice?/ Perhaps it's Buddha or Confucius and their excellent advice.” The wrong record had been put on! This comedic piece of insanity highlighted how our ideas of what is politically correct have evolved. For all the enormous delight and laughter, we are actually laughing at all the stereotypes we have come to reject but also to accept and/or tolerate. The show is full of moments like these. The fact that this show uses comedy and absurdity to makes a strong point about the nature of how we stereotype and don’t question our biases till they are pointed out to us, gives The Drowsy Chaperone a substance well beyond that of being pure froth. It is a piece of genius for it packages a serious message in hundreds of smiles.

One thing to note: This musical has no intermission. If you need to go to the bathroom go before the show starts. They told the patrons as we walked in, but people didn’t listen: about halfway through the show many people got up to go and then came back. It was distracting for those of us sitting there.

I wasn’t the only one impressed with this show. As I was exiting you could feel the energy from the audience and overhear all the complimentary comments. The person sitting next to me had lived in Dallas for nearly 30 years and has seen lots of DSM shows. She said it was one of the best shows she’s ever seen. I agree completely.

This show has only a two week engagement. Go! Do not miss this! This show is worth it. I bought the mug. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling 214-631-ARTS.