BWW Reviews: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE at Seattle Musical Theatre

Seattle Musical Theatre is presenting the hilarious send up of old style musical theater with "The Drowsy Chaperone".  And while the show was enjoyable and one of the better things I've seen with SMT, it left me a little wanting.

The story of this play within a play is simple.  Everyone is gathering at Mrs. Tottendale's house for the wedding of Robert Martin and star of stage and screen, Janet Van De Graff.  Janet is marrying Robert and leaving her life of glamour much to the dismay of her producer, Mr. Feldzieg.  So to keep her from quitting Feldzeig tries to stop the wedding with the help of the Latin lothario Aldolpho who mistakenly seduces the chaperone instead of the bride.  And thus the hilarity ensues.  But this story is not the main one of the piece as this is all seen through  the eyes of a man whose love of musical theater knows no bounds, known simply as Man in Chair.  We're only seeing the show as he has invited us along to listen to one of his records (yes, records) and as we do the musical unfolds in his apartment.  All the while he interjects bits of trivia about this, his favorite show, which only gives us a glimpse into the man himself.

Now I must preface this by saying that this is one of my favorite shows.  I've seen it three times before including with the original cast.  So when I see a production of it I expect a lot.  Luckily the show was in the hands of one of my favorite local directors, Brandon Ivie, who showed he really had a wonderful handle on how the show can be.  Coupled with some wonderful choreography from Troy Wageman who kept all our toes a tappin' (especially in those wonderful production numbers) and the usual brilliant music direction from SMT's Paul Linnes and the show should have been a sure fire hit.  So why did I leave feeling a bit cheated?

I can really only attribute that to my feeling that the show wasn't quite done cooking yet.  Most everyone was quite good but all night long I kept feeling like I could be getting just a little more from the cast to make it right.  A little more commitment to the style of the piece, a little more focus on their intentions and a little more confidence in who they were and what they were doing.  There's definitely a lot of talent up there and there were some great moments.  Bradetta Vines belted out "As We Stumble Along" like nobody's business, but lacked just a bit of the attitude I wanted from the character.  Bo Mellinger and Taylor Niemeyer were adorable as the perfect couple, Robert and Janet, and have great voices, but I missed some of the over the top characterizations for these parts.  And Danny Kam as the scoundrel Aldolpho has a killer voice and was quite funny, but seemed a little young for the part and lacked some of the confidence needed for this outrageous Casanova.   Really some of the most spot on performances I saw came from two of the supporting characters.  Jesse Parce and Jeff Orton as Gangsters posing as pastry chefs had just the right amount of style and comedy without going too far over the top.  And then there was the Man in Chair himself, played by Jon Lutyens.  I've seen Lutyens in many things before and he most always impresses me and did not let me down here.  He was completely inhabiting this adorable yet broken man and several times made me think I was watching Bob Martin (the Original Man in chair from Broadway).  As the makeshift narrator of the piece he kept the story and pacing clipping right along and gave the show every ounce of heart it needed.

With a fantastic set from Shaun Albrechtson and some gorgeous, yet not always consistently so, costumes from Dodirose Zooropa (I kept wondering why the title character who is supposed to be so glamorous was wearing what amounted to a nice track suit), the show is a very nice production of a glorious show.  It just needed a little more baking time.  It still seemed to be cookie dough and while still sweet and tasty, I was hoping for a nice hot plate of cookies.  I'm sure that by the end of the run, they'll be just right.

"The Drowsy Chaperone" plays at Seattle Musical Theatre through March 5^th.  For tickets or information, contact the SMT box office at 206-363-2809 or visit them online at www.seattlemusicaltheatre.org.

Photo Credit: Danielle Barnum

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.