The Drowsy Chaperone

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The Drowsy Chaperone
Windowcard for Broadway Production
Music Lisa Lambert
Greg Morrison
Lyrics Lisa Lambert
Greg Morrison
Book Bob Martin
Don McKellar
Productions 2001 Toronto
2006 Broadway
2007 West End
Japan
Australia
Awards Tony Award for Best Score
Tony Award for Best Book
Drama Desk Outstanding Musical
Drama Desk Outstanding Music
Drama Desk Outstanding Lyrics
Drama Desk Outstanding Book

The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morisson.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The Drowsy Chaperone is an homage to American musicals of the Jazz Age.

Act one begins with Man in Chair, a mousy, vaguely depressive Broadway fanatic whose coping mechanism involves listening to a recording of a 1928 stage show, The Drowsy Chaperone. When he first turns on his phonograph and static breaks from the speakers, he wistfully tells the audience, "I love that sound. To me, that’s the sound of a time machine starting up." By the time the first note sails out of his speakers, he's been transported to a magical dream world, one where the actors in the recording enter his dingy apartment and transform it into a gloriously garish set complete with seashell footlights, sparkly peacocks, glittery sugarplum trees, and costumes that would put the Ice Capades to shame. The show-within-a-show centers on a vain showgirl, who is about to marry a man she only just met, and her cigar-chomping producer, who doesn’t want to lose his valuable starlet. What follows is a pastiche of every clichéd plot thread ever written, including mistaken identity, spit-takes, and gangsters on the lam, involving such campy characters as an all-knowing English butler, a Latino Lothario, and a daffy, cartwheeling heroine. Watching from his armchair, Man in Chair is torn between his desire to absorb every moment of the play as it unfolds and to insert his own personal footnotes as he continuously brings the audience in and out of the fantasy.

[edit] Initial development

The show had its start in 1999, when McKellar, Lambert, and Morrison created a spoof of old musicals for the stag party before the wedding of their theatre friends Bob Martin and Janet Van De Graaff. In its first incarnation, there was no Man in Chair, the musical styles ranged from the 1920s to the 1940s, and the jokes were a lot more risqué. When the creators decided to reshape the show for the Toronto Fringe Festival, Martin jumped on board as a co-writer and they created Man in Chair to serve as a narrator/commentator for the piece.

Following the Fringe staging, Toronto commercial theatre owner and producer David Mirvish financed an expanded production at Toronto's 160-seat, non-profit Theatre Passe Muraille in 1999. Box office success and favourable notices from critics at Passe Muraille led Mirvish to finance further development of the script and produce a mainstage version at Toronto's 1000-seat Winter Garden Theatre, as part of a subscription season, in 2001. Near the end of that engagement (July 28, 2001), Linda Intaschi, Associate Producer of Mirvish Productions, invited New York producer Roy Miller to see the musical. Miller saw great potential in the show and he acquired the rights.

With Canadian actor and fund-raiser Paul Mack, Miller in 2004 produced a reading for the New York's National Alliance for Musical Theatre[1] – and invited his colleague and Broadway producer Kevin McCollum. The reading captured McCollum's interest, and he teamed up with Miller, as did producers Bob Boyett, Stephanie McClelland, Barbara Freitag and Jill Furman. An out-of-town engagement followed at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles (2005), and on May 1, 2006, The Drowsy Chaperone officially opened on Broadway.

[edit] Productions

[edit] Broadway

After 32 previews, the Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw, opened on May 1, 2006 at the Marquis Theatre, where it closed on December 30, 2007 after 674 performances.

The original Broadway cast included Bob Martin, Sutton Foster, Georgia Engel, Edward Hibbert, Beth Leavel, Jason Kravits, Garth Kravits and Danny Burstein.

[edit] London transfer

The show lasted about two months in London’s West End. The team that brought the show to Broadway staged the show. Previews started on May 14 2007, first night was on June 6, and after fewer than 100 performances, it closed on August 4. A largely British cast, including the established Elaine Paige – making her West End comeback after six years – and Summer Strallen joined the show’s co-author Bob Martin recreating his Broadway role of "Man in Chair." The Novello Theatre’s owner Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who had seen the show in previews in New York had supported its transatlantic transfer.[2] London's critics were generally optimistic about the show,[3] although some had been less impressed.[4][5] Even the slashing in mid-June of 35 percent off the price of the best seats failed to generate enough interest; a month after opening, the producers decided to close it on August 4, 2007, instead of the scheduled February 23, 2008.[6][7] "… shows in London can run safely … at lower capacities than they require on Broadway.… But, as the transfer of The Drowsy Chaperone has just proved, sometimes even a Tony-winning Broadway hit can’t even achieve that," London's The Stage commented.[8]

[edit] North American tour

The national tour of The Drowsy Chaperone started on September 19, 2007 in Toronto at the Elgin Theatre. Among the performers are original Broadway cast members Bob Martin and Georgia Engel, who originated the roles of the Man in Chair and Mrs. Tottendale, respectively. While Engel is expected to perform with the company for an extended engagement, Martin did not continue beyond Toronto; his role was taken over by Jonathan Crombie. Nancy Opel plays the role of "The Drowsy Chaperone". The Drowsy Chaperone will play more than 30 cities in the United States, including Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre, where the show ran before going to Broadway.[9]

[edit] Australian production

An Australian production is rumoured to open in 2008 or 2009, most likely in either Melbourne or Sydney. Early closure of the West End production however has put this in doubt, and no formal announcement has been made.

[edit] Japanese production

The first translated production of the musical will open in Japan in 2008 or 2009.

[edit] Song list

  • Overture  – Orchestra
  • Fancy Dress  – Company
  • Cold Feets  – Robert, George
  • Show Off  – Janet, Company
  • As We Stumble Along  – Drowsy Chaperone
  • I Am Aldolpho  – Aldolpho, Drowsy Chaperone
  • Accident Waiting To Happen  – Robert, Janet
  • Toledo Surprise  – Gangsters, Feldzieg, Kitty, Mrs. Tottendale, and Company
  • Message From A Nightingale  – Kitty, Gangsters, Aldolpho, Drowsy Chaperone
  • Bride's Lament  – Janet, Company
  • Love Is Always Lovely In The End  – Mrs. Tottendale, Underling
  • I Do, I Do In The Sky  – Trix, Company
  • As We Stumble Along (Reprise)  – Company

The original cast recording contains two bonus tracks titled, "I Remember Love," which is a duet between Mrs. Tottendale and Underling, and "Message From A Nightingale", which is the unabridged version of a portion of a song that is cut short in the show. "I Remember Love" also contains a ukelele solo by Ukelele Lil as Mrs. Tottendale. It was replaced by "Love is Always Lovely in the End."

[edit] Cast listing

Original Broadway cast
  • Danny Burstein  – Aldolpho
  • Georgia Engel  – Mrs. Tottendale
  • Sutton Foster  – Janet van de Graaff
  • Edward Hibbert  – Underling
  • Troy Britton Johnson  – Robert Martin
  • Eddie Korbich  – George
  • Garth Kravits  – Gangster #2
  • Jason Kravits  – Gangster #1
  • Beth Leavel  – The Drowsy Chaperone
  • Kecia Lewis-Evans  – Trix
  • Bob Martin  – Man in Chair
  • Jennifer Smith  – Kitty
  • Lenny Wolpe  – Feldzieg
  • Angela Pupelo  – Ensemble
  • Linda Griffin  – Ensemble
  • Joey Sorge  – Ensemble
  • Patrick Wetzel  – Ensemble
  • Andera Chamberlain  – Swing
  • Jay Douglas  – Swing
  • Stacia Fernandez  – Swing
  • Kilty Reidy  – Swing

Notable replacements included
Original London cast
  • Joseph Alessi  – Aldolpho
  • Anne Rogers  – Mrs. Tottendale
  • Summer Strallen  – Janet van de Graaff
  • Nickolas Grace  – Underling
  • John Partridge  – Robert Martin
  • Sean Kingsley  – George
  • Cameron Jack  – Gangster #2
  • Adam Stafford  – Gangster #1
  • Elaine Paige  – The Drowsy Chaperone
  • Enyonam Gbesemete  – Trix
  • Bob Martin  – Man in Chair (May 14th - July 10th)
  • Steve Pemberton  – Man in Chair (July 10th - August 4th)
  • Selina Chilton  – Kitty
  • Nick Holder  – Feldzieg

[edit] Awards and nominations

[edit] References

  1. ^ About NAMT. Retrieved on 2007-08-06.
  2. ^ Official London Theatre Guide, 6 March 2007
  3. ^ Ouzounian, Richard. Drowsy Chaperone wakes up British critics. The Star, 2007-06-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-20.
  4. ^ "Help, my tongue's stuck in my cheek!;" from The Independent; 10 June 2007.
  5. ^ The Guardian, 7 July 2007.Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
  6. ^ Andrew Gans and Kenneth Jones; "London's Drowsy Chaperone to Close in August," from Playbill.com; 6 July 2007.
  7. ^ "Drowsy closes early in the capital," from Society of London Theatre, 9 July 2007.
  8. ^ "The West End overtakes Broadway on price," from The Stage, London, 25 July 2007.
  9. ^ Kenneth Jones; "Drowsy Chaperone Returns Home, to Toronto, for Tour Launch," from Playbill.com; 19 Sep 2007.

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Light in the Piazza
by Adam Guettel		 Tony Award for Best Original Score
2006
by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison		 Succeeded by
Spring Awakening
by Duncan Sheik
Preceded by
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
by Rachel Sheinkin		 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical
2006
by Bob Martin and Don McKellar		 Succeeded by
Spring Awakening
by Steven Sater