And why not? The experience is all about backstage gossip, breezy show tunes and finding refuge from a bad old world in a good old musical.ĭid we mention the entire show is set in Man in Chair's tiny, shabby studio apartment?ĭirected by Casey Nicholaw, the experience is constructed to be more potent and three-dimensional than a "Desert Island Discs" radio show, of course.
The producers of the musical comedy at the Marquis Theatre are hoping musical theatre addicts who love surprise - and who love backstage stories - will take a chance on a newcomer. The reason you've never heard of The Drowsy Chaperone, which began Broadway performances April 3, is that it's brand new - not a revival, not based on a play, not inspired by a movie. What Man in Chair leads theatregoers to - when he plays an old LP on his Hi-Fi - is an obscure 1928 Broadway musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, by Gable & Stein, a pair of never-were songwriters whose show was as daffy and throwaway as any now-forgotten score from the golden age of American musicals.īut lonely Man in Chair, like so many other musical theatre mavens, finds treasure in the trash - he knows the plot is silly, but revels in the gems within the score, and delights in the backstage stories of the fictive showfolk who created the musical way back when. Unlike Harry Connick's turn in The Pajama Game this season, Man in Chair does not appear bare-chested in the evening, but audiences might find his work just as memorable, despite the muted earth tones of his homely garb. Played by Canadian actor Bob Martin, who also co-wrote the show's libretto (with Don McKellar), he wears a natty brown cardigan, baggy corduroys and comfortable shoes. Host, narrator and guide, the main man in the cast of characters goes by the name of Man in Chair. Bob Martin in The Drowsy Chaperone Joan Marcus
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