A comic feast in Lyric Stage’s ‘Drowsy Chaperone’
“The Drowsy Chaperone” doesn’t just invite hammy excess. This utterly bonkers musical demands it.
The Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s 16member cast, led by director-choreographer Larry Sousa, are only too happy to oblige.
Throwing any notions of restraint out the window, they deliver a rollicking delight of a production, with a wonderfully fizzy throwback score by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison and a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar that doesn’t even try to make sense.
The genius of “The Drowsy Chaperone” is that it sends up the corny tropes of the classic Broadway musical comedy while at the same time illustrating — song by song and scene by scene — why those tropes remain so potent.
The singular gift of musical theater — its superpower, really — lies in its ability to reach not just across the footlights but across time and space to deliver comfort to someone who might be in need of it.
That happens, quite literally and quite movingly, late in “The Drowsy Chaperone.” The human connection between the worlds of fantasy and reality adds an unexpected layer to a musical that up to that point had seemed to have only one thing on its mind: to entertain us.
Which is more than OK, when executed as well as it is at Lyric Stage.
The orchestra, led by music director Matthew Stern, generates plenty of energy without drowning out the singers, as sometimes happens at Lyric Stage. Structured as a show-within-a-show, “The Drowsy Chaperone” is anchored by Paul Melendy as a fellow described only as Man in Chair. The role requires an actor who can go big or go small, can be outlandishly funny or poignantly vulnerable, as the moment requires. Melendy again proves more than capable of that.
Man in Chair’s demeanor is such that we’re not surprised when he tells us that he’s feeling “blue,” which he defines as “a little self-conscious anxiety resulting in non-specific sadness.” The antidote, he hopes, can be found in the recording of his favorite musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” from 1928.
So he puts the record on his turntable, whereupon the musical’s characters proceed to perform, turning his apartment into a stage. Man in Chair narrates and, though he clearly loves the show, offers sometimes-withering commentary: “I hate this scene,” he says at one point; at another, “This scene could not be more ridiculous.” Very occasionally, he inserts himself into the action.
The story, such as it is, revolves around the wedding of oil tycoon Robert Martin (Jared Troilo) and Broadway star Janet Van De Graaff (Joy Clark), who plans to give up her showbiz career to marry a guy she barely knows.
It’s another superb comic performance from Troilo, on the heels of his portrayal last year of a self-infatuated actor in SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of “The Prom.”
Clark proves to be every bit Troilo’s match. She nails her big solo number, “Show Off,” and later scales the heights of delirium in “Bride’s Lament,” a kind of fever dream in song.
As Janet’s bibulous, insouciant Chaperone, Maureen Keiller is a treat. Imagine a fusion of Norma Desmond and Tallulah Bankhead. Keiller is a chief beneficiary of costume designer Seth Bodie, whose spectacular array of outfits and headware are a show in themselves — including a hat for Keiller that is roughly the size and shape of a flying saucer.
In theory, the Chaperone’s job is to keep the bride-to-be away from the groom before the ceremony. But, in a case of mistaken identity, the Chaperone winds up in a tryst with an ultravain Lothario named Aldolpho (Cristhian Mancinas-Garcia, terrific, displaying pinpoint timing).
The wedding is slated to take place on the estate of Mrs. Tottendale (Carolyn Saxon), a wealthy and quite dotty dowager attended upon by a servant known only as Underling (Todd Yard).
Meanwhile, Broadway producer Feldzieg (Damon Singletary) is trying to figure out how to persuade Janet not to go on with the wedding — and a way to keep stringing along his flapper girlfriend, Kitty (Kristian Espiritu), who wants to replace Janet in “Feldzieg’s Follies.”
Disguised as pastry chefs, two gangsters (Kathy St. George and Ilyse Robbins), are putting the heat on Feldzieg to keep Janet from quitting show business because their boss has plowed a lot of money into “Feldzieg’s Follies.” St. George and Robbins amble amusingly through their parts like a veteran vaudeville duo.
They and other cast members — including Mark Linehan as best man George, and Yasmeen Duncan as Trix the Aviatrix — seem to be enjoying themselves greatly. Understandable. It’s not clear who is having a better time at “The Drowsy Chaperone,” the audience or the cast. Let’s call it a draw.