TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

'Drowsy' Perks Up Audience

ADVERTISEMENT

By KATHY L. GREENBERG, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 18, 2008

TAMPA - "The Drowsy Chaperone" makes me wish I'd grown up in the Jazz Age. It's a profoundly original and loving tribute to the 1920s musical comedy, where lovers break into song, actors overact and madcap antics abound.

The Tony Award-winning production runs through Sunday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

The show opens with Man in Chair (brilliantly played by Jonathan Crombie), a lonely figure with a penchant for old musicals. He cherishes his vintage record collection, and when feeling blue - which is most of the time - plays an LP. One of his favorites is a recording of the 1928 musical "The Drowsy Chaperone."

Man in Chair begs the audience to indulge him and drops the needle. At first, the overture tentatively trickles into his gray but tidy flat, lifting his mood. Then his imagination overwhelms reality, the music swells and the characters from "The Drowsy Chaperone" come to life onstage.

A Crazy Cast Of Characters

The cast of overarching stereotypes sweeps into the apartment, transforming the dreary room into a sunshiny world - in spite of Prohibition. Robert Martin (Mark Ledbetter) has asked glamorous actress Janet Van De Graaff (Andrea Chamberlain) to marry him. Because it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, the Drowsy Chaperone (Nancy Opel) is on hand to keep Van De Graaff out of Martin's sight. In this case, "drowsy" means drunk, and Opel plays the boozy flirt to the hilt.

Meanwhile, dotty Mrs. Tottendale (the ever-lovable Georgia Engel), with the help of Underling (Robert Dorfman) and best man George (Richard Vida), flits about like an oversize Shirley Temple to organize the wedding.

Van De Graaff has decided to give up stardom for marriage, much to the chagrin of her agent Feldzieg (Cliff Bemis), and the delight of aspiring but untalented actress Kitty (Marla Mindelle), who wants to be the new star of his show. With the synchronized finesse of old vaudevillians, brothers Paul Riopelle and Peter Riopelle play Gangsters 1 and 2, who threaten to close Feldzieg's show if he loses Van De Graaff.

Desperate, the agent concocts a plot to sabotage the wedding. He sends Aldolpho (James Moye is a hoot as the blatant Italian lothario) to seduce the bride, but he mistakes the Drowsy Chaperone for his real target and therefore foils Feldzieg's dastardly plan.

Welcome Interruptions

Man in Chair interrupts the shenanigans on occasion to tell back stories about the actors and comment on the show. He admits that some of the numbers are pretty lame, even suggesting the audience ignore the hilariously bad lyrics to "Bride's Lament" and fast-forwarding through "Love is Always Lovely in the End," which includes a series of spit takes between Mrs. Tottendale and Underling. His interjections become more integral to the show, eventually landing him "onstage" with the imagined ensemble and escaping to the skies with Trix the aviatrix (Fran Jaye, whose six-octave voice blows the mind).

Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin and Don McKellar concocted an ingenious pastiche that both spoofs and celebrates a long-gone brand of entertainment. Audiences surely will leave the theater longing for a Gibson and wondering why life can't be more like a musical.

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

WHEN: Through Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa

HOW MUCH: $32.50 to $72.50; (813) 229-7827; www.tbpac.org

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT