Well, who would have thought that I would absolutely love a musical that had Elaine Paige in it?!
However we went to see The Drowsy Chaperone last night - in its last week in the West End for some unfathomable reason - and, my word! what a show!
Its premise is extremely clever. The narrator ("Man in Chair") is an ageing show fan, who from the outset takes the audience into his confidence and tells of his love of a mythical 1920s show (The Drowsy Chaperone), the music of which he uses to escape from his dreary daily life.
As he plays his treasured vinyl copy, the show comes to life - in his own meagre apartment - and the Man in Chair takes us through his beloved show - the plot of what is obviously an extremely second-rate and hammy production, full of clumsy scenes and songs and a cast of has-beens, even for their era.
But in doing so the real magic unfolds with his own enthusiasm for the show, as we are treated to some genuinely superb costumes, humour and choreography - particularly from the lead characters Janet Van der Graaf (the incredible Summer Strallen, whose legs and footwork were astonishing!) and Robert Martin (John Partridge, whose dance number on roller skates was amazing).
In truth, the show really belongs to the Man in Chair himself (Steve Pemberton, famously known as "Tubbs" in The League of Gentlemen). Such gags as the record "jumping" and the cast "jumping" with it, to his mistake in putting the wrong musical on - which leads to a gloriously overblown camp Oriental (non-PC) number appearing on stage instead of our regular snippets of the show - to the quite poignant ending where he appears to "see" the characters sing the show just for him, are captivating, as he demonstrates his sheer passion for a world he would never know - but one which he wishes was his.
And how much do we empathise with that!
A truly original and altogether astonishing production, The Drowsy Chaperone will be a very sad loss to a West End currently so full of contrivance and over-familarity - a West End that needs a show of this class and calibre to maintain its credibility!
Perhaps the promoters' biggest mistake was to use Elaine Paige (whose role is a very good, very funny, very skilled, but relatively minor part of the whole thing) as their only selling point.
Read The Guardian blog by Kelly Nestruck - Who Killed the Drowsy Chaperone?
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