"The Drowsy Chaperone"

Last Friday night I went to see "The Drowsy Chaperone". For theater fans it's a familiar title, after winning Tony Awards for "Best Featured Actress" (Beth Leavel) and "Best Original Score", which are only two of the five Tony's that Chaperone took home at the 2006 Awards ceremony.
For theater also-rans, let me fill you in just a little bit on the premise of the show.

The lights go dark, and the show starts. The show begins in stark darkness, and the Narrator (otherwise known as The Man in the Chair played by John Glover) begins talking about being a part of an audience, and the anticipation you feel right before the Overture begins. Will this show be worth the money? What if it sucks? You are immediately light-hearted and in the right mind-set for the lights to come up and the show to really begin.

You join The Man in his apartment, a small seemingly Manhattan-esque studio. He talks about being lonely, and how when he is lonely he turns to his records. He then invites you on a trip through his favorite show recording, "The Drowsy Chaperone". He proceeds to walk you through the "album", giving you backstory on his experience with the show and the actors who portrayed the characters that you see coming to life inside of his head, and inside of his very small studio apartment.

The show he walks you through is about a Diva (Janine LaManna, originally played by Sutton Foster) who is giving up the stage to marry the charismatic Robert whom she barely knows (Troy Britton Johnson); a Chaperone (Beth Leavel) who is more concerned with keeping her martini glass full than watching her bridal charge; a producer (Lenny Wolpe) on a mission to stop the wedding and get his leading lady back; and an ensemble of colorful characters who all asemble to celebrate a wedding with their own motives in mind.

The stand out performers in this performance were without question Beth Leavel and Danny Burstein (the European cassanova, Adolpho), who both brought such an amazing charisma and character to the performance that they were not only in a league of their own within this production, but in all of Broadway. They both embodied such flawless commitment to their respective characters that I was in awe whenever they were on stage. And when they were on stage together? Well forget about it. I've never seen an entire audience rock with laughter like that. Ever.

The show is a fabulous comedy, but also has a real heart. The Man in the Chair takes you so far into the unreality of his record that you get wonderfully lost. And in the climax of the show, when the power goes out, it is heart wrenching. The Man has a near break-down. All he wanted was to share this beautiful thing with you and right as it was about to pay off, it's ruined. The moment is heart-breaking. In an instant that Man seems so pathetic, so alone that all you want to do is cry with him. Or rather, cry for him.

The show does end on a happy note though. When the power returns and he starts to sing a tune from the show, the "characters" break free of their world and pull him into it. He's so happy. And again, you want to cry for him but in a completely different way.

My only wish is that I could've seen Sutton Foster in this production. Janine LaManna was fine, but nothing amazing or standout the way that Sutton Foster captivates even the most skeptic Broadway-goer. The last time I saw Foster was in 2002 Tony winning performance as Millie Dillmount in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" on that same Marquis Theater stage. I guess I'll just have to wait for her next big show ("Young Frankenstein", rumored to be opening this coming Halloween on the Great White Way) to see her again!