PUBLISHED ON April 18, 2009
by KIM NOWACKI YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
YAKIMA, Wash. -- Sitting in the dark at the opening of "The Drowsy Chaperone," which closed out the Capitol Theatre's 2008-09 Best of Broadway series this weekend, we are introduced to Man in Chair, the theater-loving narrator who tells us that before the curtain goes up he always prays: "Oh dear god, please let it be a good show."
Friday night's performance of "The Drowsy Chaperone," though, wasn't just good, it was great. Billed as a musical-within-a-comedy, it was first conceived in 1999 as a gift for writer/actor Bob Martin, who would later go on to help rework it for the stage and star as Man in Chair. "The Drowsy Chaperone" is a loving, yet snarky, over-the-top sendup to musical theater's jazz age, when plots were clichéd, stock characters and ethnic stereotypes got plenty of laughs and glitz and glamor reigned supreme.
In the Tony-winning show, Man in Chair (the wonderfully deadpan John West) plays for the audience the record to one of his favorite musicals, the fictional "The Drowsy Chaperone," which is about blonde bombshell Janet Van De Graaff (Elizabeth Pawlowski) who is giving up the spotlight to marry the tap-dancing, roller-skate dancing Robert Martin (Leigh Wakeford). Her producer (Britt Hancock), however, wants to stop the marriage so he won't lose his starlet -- or the money he owes a couple of goofy gangsters.
As the record spins, Man in Chair's shabby apartment is slowly transformed into a glitzy Broadway stage and he takes us through the show with sarcastic insight into the "actors" who played the characters in the fictional musical, comments about the contrived plot twists and even a little theater etiquette.
Full of contemporary (and adult) humor, "The Drowsy Chaperone" is very funny, but it doesn't rely on satire alone. There are also toe-tapping musical numbers -- "Show Off," "I Am Aldolpho" and "Bride's Lament" were a couple of my favorites -- that remind the audience why Man in Chair loves these old musicals so much.
"It does what a musical is supposed to do -- it takes you to another world and it gives you a little tune to carry in your head for when you're feeling blue," Man in Chair tells us.
And "The Drowsy Chaperone" does just that -- in Man in Chair's world and ours. It was also a fitting end to a strong season that included the hilarious "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," an intense "Sweeney Todd" and the Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp rock ballet "Movin' Out."
Next season, however, promises to be even more dynamic. At the beginning of Friday's performance, Capitol CEO Steve Caffery announced the six shows for next season, which will be split into two categories.
In the Best of Broadway set is "Cry-Baby," based on the John Waters film; "The Wedding Singer," adapted from the Adam Sandler comedy; and "Annie." In what the Capitol is calling the Broadway on the Edge set -- which include parental rating guidelines -- is the people/puppet acted "Avenue Q;" "Dixie's Tupperware Party," an actual Tupperware party, only in drag; and "Cabaret." Tickets for the 2009-10 season are not yet on sale.
Caffery also talked briefly about the Capitol's ambitious $15 million expansion plan. The Capitol's new production center and 500-seat black box theater "will break ground in about 60 days," he said, "and change the face of Yakima."
