The Drowsy Chaperone at Spectrum Community School

add to outlook add to google calendar remind me

Friday, March 7th, 2014
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

It was an unusual path traveled by The Drowsy Chaperone to the Broadway stage and ultimately, in 2006, thirteen Tony Award nominations (including best musical) of which it won five (including best book and best score). The first version of Drowsy was hastily penned as a lark for the wedding reception of theatre enthusiasts Bob Martin and Janet Van de Graaf and was a straightforward spoof of shows from the golden age of musical theatre. Martin saw potential in the piece and collaborated with original authors Lisa Lambert, Don Morrison, and Don McKellar to expand the show for the Toronto Fringe Festival. It is here that the show�s real hooks were introduced: Man in Chair and the device of �a musical within a play�. Imagine the most overblown parody of a classic 1920s musical possible, complete with all the stock characters (punning gangsters in disguise, blustery producers, ditzy showgirls, bumbling lotharios), a razor thin plot, epic show-stopping numbers that have nothing to do with the story, flappers & pearls�you get the idea. Now put all that inside the record player of the melancholic �Man in Chair� who, when he�s feeling particularly blue, likes to listen to old musicals to cheer himself up. He pines for days gone by when theatre wasn�t so pretentious and self-important and just did what it was supposed to do � entertain. When he sets the needle on vinyl The Drowsy Chaperone magically springs to life for us in his drab apartment. Amidst the situational comedy, clever wordplay, physical humour, and toe-tapping dance tunes, Man in Chair offers commentary on the characters, the fictitious actors who played them, and the baffling ride we�re all on together called life.