The Drowsy Chaperone at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts on 3/18/08

By: Jon Behm

Photo provided by the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

“I just want to be entertained. I mean, isn’t that the point?”

This was the question posed by "The Man in the Chair," the narrator of the Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone, when musing about the lack of pizzazz in theater today.  He says this in reverence of the golden days of Broadway, when everyone knew how to tap dance and jazz hands blotted out the sky.

Is the point of theater to entertain? In Chaperone’s case it certainly is. The bawdy satire of the “classic” Broadway revue takes entertainment to a new level, both in creating a wildly jazzy musical and in poking fun of its creation at the same time. The show has come to roost for less than two weeks at St. Paul’s Ordway Center, the first time it has taken to the road since its six Tony wins in 2006.

The Drowsy Chaperone is actually a play within a play. The narrator (the “Man in the Chair” played excellently by Jonathan Crombie) is a lonely, possibly closeted man, stashed away in his apartment with only his beloved Broadway records to keep him company. His favorite amongst them is The Drowsy Chaperone a fictional 1920s show that he plays when he is “feeling blue.” When the Man begins to play the record to the audience, the show itself begins to form in his living room, complete with dancers, multiple sets, and of course, the stars.

The Drowsy Chaperone within The Drowsy Chaperone is basically the story of a starlet trying to leave the theater for her fiancé, while her lothario boss tries to stop her. “Pay attention, because that’s pretty much the plot,” Crombie’s character informs us. The real story though, is a general lampoon all of the clichés of the old Broadway greats: the drunk aging diva, the straightlaced leading man, the incredibly inappropriate racial stereotypes, etc. It is absolutely stuffed with everything that the Gershwins ever loved: dance numbers, soaring jazz, multiple costume changes, encores, over the top stars, pointless slapstick, oh my! The musical acknowledges its faults with glee to the tune of a spectacle that is intended to clobber the audience member with an entertainment stick. (This reviewer was happily clobbered.)

The production at the Ordway had one of the strongest casts I have seen in awhile – first of all Crombie’s Man in the Chair was absolutely perfect in his role of the sensitive but sarcastic hermit. Georgia Engel (formerly Mary Tyler Moore’s sidekick Georgette Franklin Baxter) was wonderfully comic as the ditzy old host of the wedding party. Additionally there were very strong performances from nearly every character, including Andrea Chamberlain’s Janet, Nancy Opel’s alchoholic diva Chaperone and James Maye’s wildy overdone latin lover, Adolpho.

There was not a single weak link in the cast, though every character was presented as some sort of weak link in “real life,” whether a drunk, a bad actor or a one-note gimmick. This was in some ways a reminder of current Hollywood, awash in its booze, drugs and scandal as old Broadway ever was. In fact, though the show parodies early 20th Century showbiz, I think a great number of comparisons could be made with the crazy celebrity obsessions in our country today.

While the overall point of the show is to poke fun at the ridiculous grandiosity of the stage, one can tell that it has been done with unrepentant love of that very ridiculousness. A musical of this kind written with a bitter heart wouldn’t have been nearly as fun to watch as was this performance. I would encourage anyone in need of some light diversion to check out this show. Sure, maybe the “point” of theater is no longer (or never was) simply to “entertain.” But that doesn’t mean that there is anything wrong with a little straightforward theatrical entertainment now and again, is there?

I think not.

Location Info: Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
Artist Info: Ordway

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