The Drowsy Chaperone

Editorial

When: 18 January - 27 February, 2010
Where: the Arts Centre Playhouse
Bookings: MTC, 03 8688 0800 or Ticketmaster, 1300 723 038

“I hate theatre. Well, it's so disappointing, isn't it?” says Geoffrey Rush as The Man in the Chair at the start of The Drowsy Chaperone, the first production for the year from the Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC). “I just want to be entertained.”

And entertain he does in this wry and wonderful new musical, the plot of which features mix-ups, mayhem and a gay wedding - though as Rush drily notes, the phrase 'gay wedding' had rather different connotations in the 1920s, when The Drowsy Chaperone is set!

From his armchair in a drab New York apartment, Rush's musical-obsessed fan proceeds first to describe, then play for us, the original 1928 Broadway cast recording of the famous but fictional musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. As the record plays, the Man in the Chair's imaginative observations conjure up the musical before our eyes: characters emerge from cupboards and wardrobes, singing and dancing up a storm.

As with many musicals, the actual plot is slight - Broadway starlet Janet Van De Graaff (Christie Whelan) wants to quit show business and marry Robert Martin (Alex Rathgeber), while her producer Feldzieg (Shane Jacobson), urged on by a pair of mobsters disguised as pun-slinging pastry chefs (Grant Piro and Karlis Zaid), tries to sabotage proceedings. The real fun lies in the framing of this deliberately slight story, with Rush's obsessive show queen constantly interrupting, pausing and annotating the production in order to pass judgement on its racial stereotyping, clichés and less successful moments.

Not every element of this warm and witty homage to the great musicals of the past is successful - director Simon Phillips's staging is occasionally awkward, Rhonda Burchmore is only too well cast as a mediocre, aging diva, and the songs are workmanlike though uninspiring - but the gleeful story, which simultaneously mocks and celebrates its subject matter, overcomes any flaws inherent in the production.

With its false starts, camp dramatics and undeniable exuberance, The Drowsy Chaperone gets the MTC's 2010 season off to a great start, and is highly recommended.

Richard Watts, reviewed 21 January, 2010