Drowsy Chaperone in Toronto
Tony-Winning Musical Comedy Returns to Home Town
A special night for Toronto theatregoers as Drowsy Chaperone opens at the Elgin Theatre before its national tour of the U.S.
After winning five Tony Awards on Broadway, the musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone opened last night at the Elgin Theatre in its home town of Toronto. The crowd, largely consisting of theatre folks, friends and relations, gave an affectionate and enthusiastic welcome to the production written by local talents Lisa Lambert, Greg Morrison, Bob Martin and Don McKellar.
It was only fitting to bring the show back to the place it started, since the story of The Drowsy Chaperone is unique. The comic homage to early musicals on film and Broadway began as a wedding present from a group of friends to real-life couple Robert Martin and Janet Van De Graaff; it's no coincidence that the romantic leads have the same name.
In fact, Robert (AKA Bob) Martin, is one of the show's creators, and stars in it as "Man in Chair", the character who ties the show together by leading us through the cast recording of his favourite vintage musical comedy. The show-within-the-show has a strong flavour of the era when great stars of Broadway and the tail end of Vaudeville (like the Marx Brothers and the Astaires) were making musical talkies based on their stage hits. For instance, it has a wingwalking sequence like the Astaire/Rogers movie Flying Down to Rio; a blindfold rollerskating number, as in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, and a distinct family resemblance to the 1926 musical Oh, Kay! (a collaboration of the Gershwins with Guy Bolton and P.G. Wodehouse).
Gift That Kept On Giving
The first version of The Drowsy Chaperone, a 40-minute entertainment titled The Wedding Gift, was performed at a private party in 1998. The following year, a rewritten version became a sellout hit at the Toronto Fringe festival, was remounted at a larger non-profit theatre and began to win prizes: two nods at the Canadian Comedy Awards. A larger, commercial run came along in 2001, and audiences grew with each new step.
In 2005, a further reworked version of The Drowsy Chaperone (now under the direction and considerable choreographic skills of Casey Nicholaw) opened in Los Angeles, garnering five awards at the LA Drama Critics Circle and five LA Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. Soon afterwards, a triumphant run on Broadway that opened in 2006 netted seven Drama Desk Awards, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical, four Outer Critic's Circle Awards, a Theatre World Award and five Tony Awards.
New York to London to Toronto and Beyond
The summer of 2007 saw a run in London's West End; now the show is set to play Toronto as the inaugural production of the first full season presented by Dancap Productions. It runs to October 14 before embarking on a U.S. national tour. Toronto audiences are lucky enough to have Bob Martin in the show, reprising the role he's played in New York and London. After the Toronto run, he leaves the cast, to be replaced by Canadian actor Jonathan Crombie (Gilbert in television's Anne of Green Gables). However, many of the Broadway cast members are expected to remain in the production, including the delightful Georgia Engel (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Everybody Loves Raymond) as memory-challenged society lady Mrs. Tottendale.
After a decade of development, The Drowsy Chaperone hits all the right notes. From costuming to characterization to choreography, every gag is perfectly timed and every note hit with precision (literally and figuratively). Smart without being mean, and stylish without being shallow, the show is poised to collect legions of new fans as The Drowsy Chaperone struts her stuff across the continent.
The Drowsy Chaperone tours until at least July 2008 to a roster of cities that now includes Cleveland, St. Louis, Charlotte, Schenectedy, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Birmingham, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Atlanta, Naples, Orlando, Raleigh, Hartford, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, St. Paul, Boston, Providence, Greenville, Houston, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Further cities are likely to be added to the list. Details about the national tour schedule and ticket sales are available online.
