'The Drowsy Chaperone' makes innocence irresistible
'The Drowsy Chaperone' is at Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road, through Sept. 22
This review by longtime Charlotte arts critic Lawrence Toppman was published by The Charlotte Ledger on Sept. 8, 2024. You can find out more about The Charlotte Ledger’s commitment to smart local news and information and sign up for our newsletter for free here. And check out this link for Toppman’s archive of reviews in the Ledger.
Review: Theatre Charlotte’s ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ revives the Golden Age with humor and heart
“The Drowsy Chaperone” was created in 1997 as a spoof of old musicals for the stag party of Toronto actors Bob Martin and Janet van de Graaf. It reached Broadway nine years later and was nominated for 13 Tony awards. (Photo courtesy of Theatre Charlotte)
by Lawrence Toppman
“The Drowsy Chaperone” never could or should be repeated. The adjective “magical” has been grossly overused in popular culture, but this one-of-a-kind meta-musical earns it. It could have been born only in the innocent time before 9/11 turned us all into cynics and doomsters: to be specific, 1997, when many hands created a spoof of old musicals for the stag party of Toronto actors Bob Martin and Janet van de Graaf. Nine years later, the altered show reached Broadway.
How unique is “Drowsy,” currently enjoying a rollicking revival at Theatre Charlotte? Composers Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison won a Tony Award for their score, then never wrote another show. Neither did Don McKellar, who shared the Tony for best book of a musical with Martin. (The latter went on to write the books for “Elf” and “The Prom.”)
The main character, known only as Man in Chair, never sings except briefly at the end. The title character, who also has no name, remains fairly peripheral, though Lisa Smith Bradley does a great Sophie Tucker-style tribute in her big number. Not even one of the fun, blithely forgettable songs can be considered crucial to the plot.
Looked at coldly, the central narrative might seem bleak: A lonely, embittered agoraphobe with gender identity questions flees real life, staying in his apartment and finding joy mainly in recordings of old musicals that he plays again and again. He enters this fantasy world metaphorically, then literally in a kind of mad dream.
Yet we’re encouraged to laugh with and occasionally at him, as he provides two running commentaries: one on the indignities of modern life and one on the scratchy cast album he drops onto the turntable to play for us. Kyle J. Britt’s performance has so much vitality that we enjoy his biting remarks while being touched by small revelations of pathos.
The cast album comes from an invented 1928 show called “The Drowsy Chaperone.” That year was darkly significant for Broadway in three ways. First, movies began to speak in 1927, and this new competition made puffery like “Chaperone” available to mass audiences for a nickel. Second, the profoundly moving “Show Boat” opened on Broadway in 1927, indicating a path to serious musical theater. (Most composers took a while to find it, though.) Third, the stock market would collapse in 1929, casting a grim shadow over the Great White Way.
Maybe that’s why Man in Chair, beset by his own issues, wants to retreat to this distantly happy past where alcoholism made everyone chuckle, broken romances could be healed with one kiss, gangsters danced and clowned, and nothing could be funnier than a spit take — or, in this case, a septuple spit take with an extra payoff later.
The intentionally flimsy plot of the 1928 “Chaperone” concerns the upcoming wedding of Bob Martin and beloved actress Janet van de Graaf (the characters, not the real couple who inspired the piece). Janet’s role has been set up to steal the show whenever she appears, and Lindsey Schroeder does so exuberantly.
They’re surrounded by the tippling chaperone, an unflappable butler, a bumbling flapper, a best man inserted for tap-dancing, an old lady inserted for imbecility and an aviatrix inserted so she can drop from the sky, as any deus ex machine should, and solve a problem in the second act. I have not forgotten the lounge lizard imported by Janet’s producer to break up the marriage: Gangsters have threatened the producer with a “Toledo surprise” if Janet retires from show business to become a housewife, causing the show in which their boss invested to go belly-up.
Billy Ensley, who played Man in Chair back when Central Piedmont Community College still did summer musicals, helps the show to be as manic as it needs to be without overwhelming the small stage. Beth Killion deserves special praise for alternately glamorous and grotesque costumes: Allison Rhinehardt’s dithering Mrs. Tottendale looks like a cross between Mother Ginger from “The Nutcracker” and Bette Davis in “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?”
If You’re Going: “The Drowsy Chaperone” opens Theatre Charlotte’s 97th season and runs at 501 Queens Rd. through Sept. 22. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays, plus 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday the 18th.
Lawrence Toppman covered the arts for 40 years at The Charlotte Observer before retiring in 2020. Now, he’s back in the critic’s chair for the Charlotte Ledger — look for his reviews about two times each month in the Charlotte Ledger.
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