Blog: “The Drowsy Chaperone” at Ocean State Theatre Company in Matunuck.
I’ve said before summer theatre in Matunuck is a gem…not just because I appeared there as a kid in summer stock when it was called Matunuck Theatre By The Sea…well, maybe, I do have a soft spot for it…what a way for a budding actress (back then) to learn the ropes of the theatre….you perform a play every night…and during the day, build scenery, paint, help with costumes, and learn lines for the play that starts the following week…..true summer stock…and at Matunuck, you get the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd, along with the smell of the ocean down the block…a real treat…
Umpteen years later, “The Drowsy Chaperone’ is a real treat!!
I wanted to see it on Broadway, but never made it….It won 5 Tony awards in 2006 and for good reason; it’s one of the cleverest musicals I’ve seen in ages.
The story goes like this: The main character, “The Man in Chair,” is a somewhat lost soul in a drabby apartment...
One of his joys is to spin old records, NOT CD’s, RECORDS!! Of 1920’s musicals…music of a different age.
He chooses for us the fictional 1928 musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone.”
As he plays the record, the characters come to life in his apartment, complete with costumes and scenery…
So, the play within the play, tells the story of “The Drowsy Chaperone” sprinkled with asides of the real life of “The Man in Chair,” and his statements about life.
You could say the plot of the fictional “The Drowsy Chaperone” is corny…but it’s fun…Showgirl Janet gives up her career to marry a rich man, but a lot of money is riding on her career, so her agent is trying to get her to dump the rich guy, so he doesn’t get wiped out by two GANGSTAS…he owes money to….get it…
Lennie Watts is the PERFECT man in chair, he moves with ease, keeping you in the loop about the play within the play, while busting the fourth wall to talk about everything from his marriage, divorce, couples counseling to the amount of bathrooms available in a theatre during intermission, even the off stage lives of the fictious characters in the play..(Alcoholics, sex addicts) and he does it with the raise of an eyebrow.
The cast is perfection…there is so much talent on that stage…the singing , dancing, everything is first rate…with Erin West as Janet, Sean Montgomery as Robert the rich guy, Tony Castellanos as Aldolpho and Happy McPartlin as “The Drowsy Chaperone”…to name just a few.
What struck me the most is several of the cast members are in the theatre’s summer internship program….I would never know it if I didn’t look at the program….They were all Broadway material…that’s Derek Johnson as one of the Gangsters and Arielle Kook as Kitty.
I had such a good time that the time flew by….so…
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