Drowsy Chaperone

I absolutely love this musical, mainly because of the fact that it's a "musical within a comedy." I did find myself completely separating the Man from the story though, which makes it hard to analyze because he is indeed the main character of the Drowsy Chaperone. The show is also hard to analyze because there’s the question of which show to actually analyze. There’s just the Drowsy Chaperone the musical, which the man analyzes in a very simplistic way and there’s the Drowsy Chaperone the musical within a comedy which includes any lines and actions the man has, there are some parts where the man involves himself in a song or something and then there is no distinction, the two stories meld together.

Obviously if you are analyzing the two plays as a whole the choice element is a huge factor. The choice to put the man onstage showing the audience the Drowsy Chaperone rather than just staging the Drowsy Chaperone, the choice to keep him on the stage during the musical numbers rather than exit and the choice to have him break the fourth wall all completely change the show in different ways. The Man is constantly in the foreground or background of the scene. It’s almost like putting an audience member on the stage. I think it’s also interesting to have the “L-ve while you can” line ambiguous which causes the Man to go into his monologue about his own life which we don’t really know much about at any point. That’s one of my favorite parts of the show because while it is funny, it allows you into a different part of his life you weren’t seeing before.

          The tempos of the two shows are also vastly different which causes some friction and tension. The musical is set in the 20’s. It’s a fast paced comedy with some cheesy scenes and some huge musical numbers and lots of things happening. The Man’s story is set in what seems to be present time, in his apartment, and he’s leisurely listening to this record and talking to the audience. He is obviously in no rush to go anywhere or do anything especially if it involves people. The extreme differences between the two stories’ tempos causes you to get lost in them and then when you are reminded of the other it’s a sharp turn like when the record skips or the Man’s electricity goes out and you are thrust back into his slow moving world.