The Drowsy Chaperone

This show is not too well known, so well done to LODS for taking a chance on it, the society gave us a lovely evening’s entertainment.  The show has a relatively small cast and provides a great opportunity for character (and caricature) actors to go to town.  Clearly a tongue in cheek send-up of the ‘traditional’ musical theatre genre, the action was well paced and most enjoyable.

Peter Brown (Man In Chair) gave a masterful performance, he had a huge amount of dialogue and it was always delivered on cue and with great humour and timing.  This character really does need to be strong as it binds the whole production together and it was safe in Peter’s hands.

The heart of this show is the main characters, all of whom are caricatures of traditional Musical Theatre, and the whole point of the show is that they over act, which they did and it was fun to watch.   It would be unfair to only mention a few of the Principals as they were all entertaining in their performances.

I have seen the show before, in a more intimate theatre space and I do feel that it is perhaps more suited to a ‘studio theatre’ where the audience can really feel they are in the day dream.  However LODS production, on the main stage, worked reasonably well.  I understood that the characters were coming through the refrigerator but I suspect this was lost on audiences who have not seen the show before.    However this was not critical and the show moved at a brisk pace, I particularly liked the construction of the aeroplane but I also feel that a lot of that was also lost on the audience.

Costumes were good, spot on for the period; although I would have liked to see Sam Gourley (the Drowsy Chaperone of the title) in more outrageous outfits as befits the Musical Theatre star that she is meant to be.   The orchestra produced a good sound that supported the performers on stage.   The scenery looked good, and worked well for the production. Lighting and sound were on cue and appropriate.

This show will never be cutting edge but it is a joyous celebration of traditional Musical Theatre and LODS have given us another great evening’s entertainment.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.