‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ at Rome Community Theater

ROME>> The award-winning musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” comes to the Rome Community Theater starting Thursday.

The musical, with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, and written by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, pays tribute to the jazz-age shows of the 1920s and the power these shows had to transport their audience into a world of uplifting, dazzling fantasy.

The audience is greeted by the narrator, Man in Chair (Chuck Teska). He is a fan of vintage musicals who seems to be suffering from depression, and he quickly decides to cheer things up by playing a record of the original cast recording of a (fictional) Broadway musical entitled “The Drowsy Chaperone,” leading the audience through the play-within-a-play full of cliches, gags and gimmicks from the golden age of musicals.

The estate of Mrs. Tottendale, a wealthy dowager played by Denise Morganti, is the site of an imminent wedding between showgirl Janet Van De Graff (Caitland Martin) and oil tycoon Robert Martin (Joey Staskowski). Characters include Mrs. Tottendale’s “Underling”, a proper butler portrayed by Carl DeFranco; harried and bumbling best man George (Rusty Ritzel); producer Feldzeig, a thinly-disguised homage to legendary Broadway producer Florenz Zeigfeld played by Frederick Rapp; ditsy would-be showgirl ingénue Kitty (Emily Inman); a pair of Gangsters disguised as the pastry chefs (Tim Huey and Jane Sylvester); Latin Lothario Aldolpho (a Rudolph Valentino-type interpreted by Dave Bush); Janet’s Drowsy, i.e. tipsy, Chaperone (Paula Bush); and Trix, a glamorous aviatrix a la Amelia Earhart played by Jean Gudaitis.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $11 for students. The show runs Oct. 8-10 and 16-17 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 11 and 18 at 2:30 p.m.

To purchase tickets, or for more information, call 315-337-5920 from 6-10 p.m. or visit www.Romecommunitytheater.org. Tickets will also be available at the door.

The Rome Community Theater is located at 8911 Turin Road (Route 26 North).