A Drowsy Hit!

Joyfully camp and subtly sweet, The Drowsy Chaperone has the recipe for the West End's best musical comedy

Having successfully transferred to the West End, sparkling Broadway import The Drowsy Chaperone should be at the top of your hit list. Despite the bewildering title, this satirical, yet inspired look at the early musicals of the 1930s results in a joyfully kitsch and subtly sweet mix. High camp and sentiment don’t often belong in the same sentence, let alone the same stage – but the Drowsy Chaperone cleverly demonstrates how the two can marvellously co-exist.

A play within a play, The Drowsy Chaperone is narrated by a self-deprecating, yet charmingly enthusiastic show queen, only referred to as ‘Man in Chair’ played with much heart by the play’s co-writer Man in Chair Bob Martin. The lonely Martin chats to the audience from his dismal New York flat about his love of escapist musical comedies with such giddy enthusiasm that he’s hard to resist.


Bob Martin as Man in Chair

As he plays his original cast album on his rickety record player, the musical comes to life, bursting through his windows and doors in cartoonish glee. As much as he loves the musicals themselves, he’s equally obsessed with the musical theatre stars, the closeted leading men, their backstage antics and egos, their tawdry life stories - details of which he pops in throughout the show.

Although the musical itself is satirical pastiche, it intelligently covers all ground with slapstick humour and a formulaic, yet nonsensical plot, complete with solid roles of the loud brassy diva, the dim chorus girl, the toothy leading man, and dancing gangsters, reminiscent of the popular musicals of the 1930’s (Cole Porter’s Anything Goes most readily comes to mind). As with many musicals of this era, there happens to be a happy ending – featuring a big, ridiculous group wedding. Pure joy.

West End veteran Elaine Paige is a delight in her role as a drunkenly and disorderly ‘chaperone’ of a glamorous chorus girl. She’s entertainingly two dimensional as she dismisses her responsibilities to chase the affections of a wily Italian Adolfo. Martin is quick to point out that the chaperone’s penchant for booz wasn’t too far from reality as the actress was ‘notoriously difficult’ – an observation with becomes apparent when the chaperone hysterically upstages the other leading actress in showstopper As We Stumble Along.

The stunning Summer Strallen, playing haughty chorus girl Janet van de Graaff, sadly lacks the pizzazz of Broadway powerhouse Sutton Foster who originated the role. She does shine however in the memorable and witty I Don’t wanna show off, as she knowingly contradicts herself through song, dance, magic tricks, and acrobatics.

And where so many musicals have underperformed, Drowsy gloriously succeeds musically as Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison's songs craftily parody popular standards of the 30s, never comprising the original integrity. Director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw adds just the right amount of slapstick and heart in a piece that, with any more effort, could have been a huge mess. The Drowsy Chaperone is, without a doubt, the best musical comedy in town.

The Drowsy Chaperone
Novello Theatre