The Drowsy Chaperone - Sunday, June 1, 2008

Our Cypresswood 50 Plus Club has afternoon theater tickets for the performance. Donna and I will ride the Harris County Pct 4 bus from our subdivision to the Hobby Center in downtown Houston. See the theater review below.

Drowsy Chaperone so full of life
TUTS hosts award-winning musical comedy on national tour

By EVERETT EVANS
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

I'M in love with a wonderful show, and I suspect you will be, too — as soon as you've encountered The Drowsy Chaperone.

Theatre Under The Stars is hosting the national tour of this award-winning hit, and I doubt we'll get a fresher, funnier, more ingenious musical here this year. With a sparkling cast and its inventive staging and design intact, the touring version began a two-week stand Tuesday at Hobby Center.

The show's success is rooted in its clever concept. A lonely musical fan in his shabby apartment explains his technique for chasing the blues and offers to share his favorite show, the 1928 romp The Drowsy Chaperone. As the record plays, the show springs to glorious life, characters entering through the refrigerator or fold-down bed, their vivid world gradually overtaking humdrum reality.

The fictitious work that's been created as Man in Chair's favorite is a tongue-in-cheek homage to 1920s musical comedy. You know: shows like No, No, Nanette; Oh, Kay!; and Good News. In this plot, Feldzieg's Follies star Janet Van De Graaff is deserting showbiz to marry millionaire Robert Martin — while producer Feldzieg, Latin lothario Aldolpho, two gangsters disguised as pastry chefs and other zanies strive to break up the wedding.

Bob Martin and Don McKellar's Tony-winning book and Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison's Tony-winning score catch the era's giddy energy, fizzy fun and blissful goofiness. The songs are rousingly catchy (Show Off, Toledo Surprise, I Do I Do in the Sky) and buoyantly lilting (Accident Waiting to Happen, As We Stumble Along, Love Is Always Lovely in the End). The lyrics are deft and droll.

The premise of a fantasy whose continuance depends on that record is cleverly sustained in every aspect of the show. When the needle gets stuck at the climax of a production number, the entire cast is caught in a limbo of one repeated step until our host can get back to his phonograph and give it a nudge. At one point, the authors find a way to give a brief, hilarious sampling of another show by fictitious Drowsy Chaperone songwriters "Gable and Stein." In Drowsy Chaperone's final moments, the most drastic disruption threatens to put the kibosh on Man in Chair's refuge.

Our host's commentary adds a wry postmodern perspective that distinguishes Drowsy Chaperone from such pastiches as The Boyfriend and Dames at Sea. His critiques of contemporary theater (and society) are witty and apt. This enigmatic figure gradually and perhaps unintentionally (he's enjoying some brandy while listening) reveals enough of his personal history to explain why he seeks escape in this fantasy world. The finale's suggestion that he is being welcomed into the world of his favorite show is highly satisfying, even poignant.

The Drowsy Chaperone may be a show first and foremost for theater lovers. But it's also one likely to make new converts. Its emotional pull is about having a passion strong enough to give life purpose, or just make it endurable. That passion could just as easily be sailing, stamp-collecting or baseball.

Jonathan Crombie makes Man in Chair engagingly eccentric and entirely sympathetic. His delight in Drowsy Chaperone is palpable, his frustrations understandable. The way he joins in key lines and steps suggests the frustrated performer within.

Andrea Chamberlain exudes glamor and authority as Janet, virtuosically sailing through her attention-grabbing Show Off and commanding her Bride's Lament (with the daffy "monkey on a pedestal" lyric Man warns us about).

Nancy Opel brings sophistication and fine timing to the title role, the bride's chaperone who's little help since she's usually "drowsy" ('20s slang for soused). She rousingly belts her requisite anthem of inspiration, As We Stumble Along.

James Moye is hilarious as blundering Aldolpho, the Latin lover at his most preposterous, recruited to seduce the bride but getting the chaperone instead.

Mark Ledbetter is indefatigably genial as Robert, blithely skating blindfolded through Accident Waiting to Happen. Richard Vida brings bouncy energy to his harried best man George, joining Ledbetter in the tap-happy Cold Feets.

Reprising her Broadway role as dotty dowager Mrs. Tottendale, Georgia Engel is more adorable than ever. Robert Dorfman makes a marvelous foil as her unflappable butler Underling, sharing an outrageous comic scene of "spit takes."

Adding to the fun are: Cliff Bemis' blustering Feldzieg; Marla Mindelle as his dizzy chorine sidekick; Paul and Peter Riopelle as the vaudeville-styled gangsters; and Fran Jaye as Trix the Aviatrix, lustily leading I Do I Do in the Sky.

Casey Nicholaw's tight, seamless direction abounds in inspired touches, while his sprightly choreography effervesces like champagne bubbles.

Gregg Barnes' costumes color '20s glamor with a touch of craziness. David Gallo's set design ingeniously transforms Man in Chair's drab apartment, bit by bit, into the show's stylized fantasy.

In an exchange typifying the show's self-referential approach, Janet asks Robert: "Why are we dancing? Our dreams are in tatters."

"Yes," he replies. "But the tune is so infectious!"

Exactly. When an offering is so delightful, especially with Man in Chair such a persuasive advocate, why even try to resist the irresistible?

Ashland Retiree Trip - Friday, May 23, 2008

The Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) is one of twenty control centers in the United States and is responsible for approximately 168,000 square miles of airspace encompassing the southern half of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Our tour had a briefing and explanation of what the center does and then we were divided into small groups of five and taken by guides through the actual operation center. Different sections are handled by small groups but they have one large computer screen that shows every airplane over Canada, the USA, Mexico, a piece of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It is amazing how many planes are in the air all the time. Individuals with a small computer screen are looking at air traffic in their sector and the line that is an air route. Each commercial flight has the flight, altitude and other information shown on their dot. It their is any problem, their is a circle around the aircraft dot to draw the attention of the controller.

Lunch was at the Potatoe Patch on FM 1960.

Mother's Day Weekend - May 10 and 11, 2008

On Saturday, we picked up the 3 boys and took them to the park and playground in our subdivision. We had Donna's Dad and caregiver meet us and ordered hot pizza to have a picnic at the park. The temperature has been in the mid-90's but we didn't melt while playing with the boys.

Mother's Day was better. Donna and I met Dan and Tammy and the boys at the Aquarium Restaurant that has a train ride, Ferris Wheel and carousel on six acres in downtown Houston on property that was once the No 1 Fire Station and the Central Waterworks Building. They have over 500,000 gallons of aquatic life from around the globe. We did Mothers Day at the Aquarium last year and the grandsons had a great time so we went back again this Mothers Day. They also have a pair of white tigers on display. The temperature was in the low 80's and humidity was low so the boys enjoyed the rides and the bird show plus all the fish and turtles in the aquarium.