If you didn’t see it when it played at the Ahmanson in 2005 before it hit Broadway, here’s a second chance to see The Drowsy Chaperone, a lighthearted look at musicals and the people who love them.
The man in the chair (Jonathan Crombie) is listening to a record (yes…one of those funny, flat, shiny black things) of a 1928 old musical, called The Drowsy Chaperone. As he listens the characters come out and his apartment becomes the stage within a stage. As he supplies commentary and gossip about the stars, we see an old-style musical about a pampered Broadway starlet who wants to give up show business to get married, her producer who sets out to sabotage the nuptials, her chaperone, the debonair groom, the dizzy chorine, the Latin lover and a pair of gangsters who double as pastry chefs.
Opening on Wednesday, July 9, 2008, (preview performance on Tuesday, July 8), the play is directed and choreographed by Tony Award® nominee Casey Nicholaw (Spamalot), with music and lyrics by Tony Award® winners Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and book by Tony Award® winners Bob Martin and Don McKellar. The Drowsy Chaperone ends Sunday, July 20.
If you’re taking the Gold Line, for an extra $1.25 both ways or a $5 day pass, you can get off at the Red Line station that’s just one stop over or walk. At night, though, it’s a very deserted walk back so I suggest a matinee if you’re riding the Gold Line.
