The Drowsy Chaperone
The Drowsy ChaperoneHe takes his tea with milk, but he drinks his brandy straight. He appears gentle and mild, but he has a stronger, darker flavor that comes out as the evening progresses. It's an odd combination, but it suits the Man in the Chair, a wistful caricature of a theater fan who prefers the imaginary to the actual. He is brought to life – or as close to life as he will get - by Bob Saget, making his Broadway debut in an artfully crafted, subtly nuanced performance.You see, he is not a theater fan, he explains to us, hunched over eagerly in his rocking chair. Not nowadays, at least. He despises Elton John and longs for Cole Porter. He prefers the older musicals, one in particular. That show is The Drowsy Chaperone, and he is about to play the record for us (yes, the record, which he carefully brushes off before placing on the turnstile).The Man narrates the show for us, providing trivia facts about the actors we are watching as well as his own commentary – "I always thought that moment was overplayed." When his phone rings, he ignores it and then unplugs it, furious with anything that shatters his escape. He would rather not deal with the real world, instead preferring to escape from his shabby studio apartment into an opulent mansion where the wedding of an oil heir and a showgirl is about to take place.The show girl, Janet Van De Graaf (Mara Davi) is about to give up her life onstage to marry the charmingly clueless Robert Martin (Troy Briton Johnson). Davi gives Janet a fresh innocence but captures the necessary tongue-in-cheek-ness required for her role, especially during the song "Show Off," when she proclaims her desire to leave the stage forever and be a housewife: "I don't wanna striptease no more/I don't wanna show these no more." Johnson is given less to work with, but he does everything he can with what he has, tap dancing up a storm in the song, "Cold Feet."Janet is chaperoned by the title character, a proud and frequent drinker who is unmarried and extremely jealous of her lovely young friend. Played by Beth Leavel, she is given a depth and sympathy that is rare to find onstage nowadays, and her performance of her signature anthem, "As We Stumble Along," is positively heroic. She is then happily seduced by the egomaniac Aldolpho (Danny Birsteom), a self-proclaimed ladies' man. He is the personification of a new comedic high in every way. This is the only man who could who verbally and physically tangos with the Chaperone, and he does both nimbly.The stories is a series if mishaps and mayhem, mistaken identities and secret loves. It is entertaining and funny, and the cast gamely performs all of the jokes, even when the record "sticks" and they perform the same dance step repeatedly. It has all the makings of old-fashioned musical comedy, crowned by a ridiculously romantic scene in a garden where Janet and Robert sing a sweet love duet. It is almost possible to escape into the moment until one sees The Man in the Chair sitting behind them, watching wistfully. A flicker of pity for him passes, and then you realize that the clasped hands, the big smile, a sigh are all familiar. He is mirroring you.This Man in the chair is an Everyman, reflecting the guilty pleasures and secret IPOD playlists of all the members of the audience. As the romance unfolds onstage, he shares his own perspectives on it, revealing his own personal and romantic failures while delighting in the successes from the show. However, this wistful delight is double-edged; the ending of the show is ambiguous and the "happy ending" he needs so badly is not actually happy at all.Saget is delivering a double edged sword with his rendition of the Man in the Chair, giving him a childlike innocence and hope as well as a strong sense of failure and despair. The combination of weak tea and strong brandy results in the final flavor of sadness. His performance perhaps resonates a bit too strongly for some of us, particularly this critic and her guest to the show, who can pass an entire dinner's conversation by trading theater trivia. But upon leaving the performance and walking into Times Square, where advertisements for "Dancing With the Stars" dominate the windows of Toys R Us, one almost wants to run back into the theater and join The Man for a second snifter of Brandy.Cast: Bob Sagat, Jo Anne Worley, Peter Bartlett, Troy Britton Johnson, Patrick Wetzel, Gerry Vichi, Jennifer Smith, Jason Kravits, Garth Kravits, Danny Burstein, Mara Davi, Beth Leavel, Kecia Lewis-Evans, Matt Wall, Linda Gabler, Dale Hensley, Matt Wall, Joanna Young