The Drowsy Chaperone, Get Tix for Tonight!

Two thumbs up and several big belly laughs for The Drowsy Chaperone at the Carson Center! My pal Stacy Brown and I so enjoyed it last night — a big, big recommend if you're looking to warm up your laugh cords. The stunningly talented cast (including Britt Hancock as Feldzieg, above) performs again tonight at 7:30 p.m. Never heard of it? Think the title is, well, a big yawn? Evidently, lots of other folks have heard of it — the show won five Tony awards when it opened on Broadway in 2006 — the most Tony awards of any musical that year. It was nominated for 13. And rightfully so. It's constant fun, with gorgeous costumes, a clever set and a Broadway-caliber cast with beautiful voices, spot-on comedic timing, a good bit of dancing and just an all-around sense of fun. It's billed as a comedy within a musical and a show within a show. The curtains open to a present-day, though a bit shabby, living room, with an old-school musical theatre-adoring (not so much the new stuff), oversized-cardigan-wearing commentator, simply called "Man in Chair" sitting in his armchair. He's struggling with a case of the blues ("non-specific sadness"), so he breaks out his favorite remedy — his LP record of the (fictitious) 1928 musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. After the overture ("musical appetizer"), The Drowsy Chaperone cast comes to life, bursting through his refrigerator, window and Murphy bed doors. And his dingy apartment is transformed into an ever-changing Broadway set. Man in Chair then guides us through the show, inserting adoring and inside observations along with a sprinkling of cynical "I hate this scene"-types of critiques. He even joins in on a few dance numbers himself. We watch the story unfold of a beautiful Broadway starlet willing to give up the spotlight to marry her handsome fiancé. Her producer connives to bust the whole thing up to keep her in his show (or else the two pun-happy gangsters posing as bakers will give him his "just desserts"). There's mistaken identity, mayhem, spit takes, smoking tap dancing shoes and more vaudeville-meets-stunning stage production action as the 17 wonderful characters take us back to the times of the Ziegfeld Follies, the Marx Brothers, Fred and Ginger, George and Gracie and the rest of the glamorous gang. "The show has such fun characters, and it pays homage to those jazz-age musicals that you don’t see very much any more," says Britt Hancock, who plays the producer, Feldzieg — like Ziegfeld, just a little backward. "I saw it on Broadway in 2006, fell in love with it and knew I wanted to do it." Stacy and I were both in awe of the "Show Off" number, where the starlet magically appears in costume after costume in seemingly seconds. That red get-up was to die for. And I loved the ending with Trix, the Aviatrix. You gotta be a real grumpy crank-a-rama not to at least get a good chuckle during this show. Look, it's fixin' to get cold again. Snow's a-comin'. We're all worried about another power outage (you'll be reminded of that at one point during the show). And tax time is around the corner. So get your tix for tonight and stock up on some laughter, energy and fun. Plus, it's always good to get a firsthand reminder of how lucky we are to have a beautiful performing arts center right in our own backyard. And if you go to Tribeca beforehand, there's $4 margaritas.

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