The Drowsy Chaperone Today (4/12/06)

After all the hype on this board, out of town buzz, and hilarious (To me, at least) campaigning ad, I must say that I was somewhat dissapointed in this show. I mean, the cast was great, the sets were good, not excellent but good, and some parts had me rolling in the aisles (The Bride's Lament. That's all I have to say.) But something just dissapointed me. I can't put my finger quite on it, but something just did. I know that it's still in previews and needs work, but... It just wasn't 'enough' from what I was expecting. I try to go to the theatre without any expectations, but I just expected a lot from this one.

But, the positives:

- Bob Martin really stole the show from the rest of the cast. His snarky and sarcastic commentary was some of the most hilarious I've heard since the movie "The Opposite of Sex (If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean.) He also owned the poignant aspect that was revealed towards the end of the show. Great performance.

- Some of the music, particularly the aforementioned Bride's Lament, As We Stumble Along and Show Off were major standouts for me. However, I'm not necesscarily a fan of big dance numbers. In fact, I find dance sequences, in any show, just pointless and random, and a hold up to the rest of a show. I enjoyed Show Off, but I didn't like Cold Feets. The tapping just held up the entire show for me.

- The comedic jokes all made me laugh (the start of the "second act" of the show within a show...) and I loved the musical theatre jokes.

Well, that's enough for the positive. You see, I found so many positive aspects with this production that I'm surprisd that I was dissapointed by it. Maybe it was like when I saw Wicked a few years back, in which the hype simply wasn't enough. Ah, well. Can't like everything. (Although I'd recommend it to a lot of people I know... And I still thought it was better than DRS... But that's another story entirely...)

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Updated On: 4/13/06 at 07:11 PM

I was there too, I won lotto with a friend. I agree with Piazzaslight. It was a fun show, with some really good moments, but to me did not live up to the hype. The monologue at the beginning was hillarious, The ending was pretty cute, and I liked the way that they integrated the scenery of the apartment and the show within the show.

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bdwybug: That's excatly what happened to me at FESTEN last Saturday night. Then again, I like dark entertainment more than light-hearted but I did like TMM, Mamma Mia!, etc. (If you want me to post a review for FESTEN, I'd be more than happy to.)

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If you don't like Dance Numbers, that is fine.
But why would you critcize a Musical for Having them?
That makes absolutely No Sense to me.
That said, CHAPARONE is a delight Begining to End.
Writing, Performance, Design , Direction and Choreography
are all First Class.
This, to me is THE MUSICAL of this Season!

Updated On: 4/13/06 at 12:04 AM

I was at the show this afternoon too! I LOVED it! Bob Martin certainly stole the show. Too bad we didn't all see each other.

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