When I learned on Wednesday afternoon that, as many of us suspected, THE DROWSY CHAPERONE would bite the dust before the dawning of 2008, I immediately logged online to buy a ticket to a remaining performance. But when? I will be away starting tomorrow night. My only date in view was Thursday night. So I bought a seat in the last row in the mezzanine for $20 bucks. As I suspected, the mezz was 95% empty that night, so it was easy to move up to the second row.
This marked the second time I've seen Bob Saget, the first time having been two days before the stagehand strike. It was the first time I'd seen Cindy Williams. What a shame for her to enter the show only a week before its closing was announced. But I guess that's the risk any replacement actor or actress takes - at least where the show isn't LION KING or PHANTOM.
Someone criticized DROWSY to me the other day by noting how the musical-within-the-play could never stand on its own, as a separate show absent the narration of Man in Chair. But what is that saying? The songs were not meant to stand separately. That's like saying Act Two of Oklahoma couldn't work without Act One.
You know, in some ways, DROWSY is a very complex show. It's operating on three separate levels of reality: The Man in Chair's world, the world of the characters of DROWSY CHAPERONE, and the world of the actors playing the roles in DROWSY. It's like Pirandello...only here it's enjoyable.
Being in the mezzanine, I was better able to appreciate a lot of the ensemble choreography and staging. But what really hit me this time around was how truly crazed and eccentric every character was - and how each original cast member was going extraordinarily over the top to convey this - in particular, Beth Leavel and Danny Burstein. I actually think Burstein merited more applause than anyone at the last two performances of the show I attended.
How is Saget? He's decent. And very funny. But he lacks that insane level of eccentricity that Bob Martin brought to the role.
How will the show play in separate regional productions? I imagine very well. It'll be easy to mount: all you need is a kitchen set found in any domestic play. And it's an ensemble show where every lead actor gets exactly one solo number - not too much, not too little.
And it will play well to musical theater lovers everywhere. This show is a testament to the power of musical theater to help us deal with pain and tragedy. We don't know much about Man in Chair, other than that he is a probably closeted gay man, who is probably also agoraphobic, and who definitely has mother issues. On this particular day he is "blue," his word for depression. And he found some temporary joy by playing his favorite record. And maybe he'll play another record afterwards to bring him some more happiness.
Another reason I love DROWSY - I swear, one day, I will play Man in Chair. I don't know where. I don't know how. But it's the lead role in a musical, one that I connect with immensely, and one that requires no (good) singing. If I have to mount it myself in 20 years, it'll happen.
I urge anyone who has yet to see DROWSY to do so before December 30. Don't miss out before this gem of a musical stumbles along into the Lincoln Center archives.