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A man with a turntable triggers memories of old-school musicals in Merry-Go-Round’s spiffy spoof The Drowsy Chaperone

Casting a key role, they tell us in Dramaturgy 101, colors the entire show. The idea of putting former Syracuse Stage artistic director Robert Moss in the role of the narrator, “The Man in the Chair,” of the musical spoof The Drowsy Chaperone, the season opener at Auburn’s Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, is not just a sop or a gimmick. Moss could fairly be called “beloved” (admittedly, an asset at the box office), but he also brings qualities otherwise hard to achieve: real authority worn lightly, bristling with irony.

Familiar fun: Jenny Long, Brad Nacht, Michael Munoz and Bryan Plofsky in Merry-Go-Round’s The Drowsy Chaperone.

Incredible as it may seem, this lovely bit of upmarket fluff has been the subject of a critical tong war in the blogosphere, which is why Australian star Geoffrey Rush was summoned home for the Sydney premiere earlier this year. Bizarre as it sounds, blogging loudmouths like John Kenjac claim that Chaperone disrespects the genre and demeans buffs who dote on vintage record collections. Yet Moss’ presence—ebullient, confident and wry—crushes such nonsense underfoot.

Ever since The Drowsy Chaperone came out of nowhere (actually, Toronto) to win big at the Tonys three years ago, most audiences have become familiar with the premise. The Man in the Chair, with a large collection of vinyl LP albums, shares his favorite from 1928, also called The Drowsy Chaperone, and conjures up characters and scenes from the back of a nondescript bedroom. So far this sounds like an update of The Boy Friend, Dames at Sea or Thoroughly Modern Millie, but with the Man in the Chair’s post-modernist commentary. Speaking of a tall, dominatrix-appearing beauty (Aleka Emerson) in tight period aviator’s pants, he muses, “She’s an aviatrix (two-beat pause), what we nowadays call a lesbian.”

Audiences who think they know the show will be surprised at how Merry-Go-Round producing director Ed Sayles has sharpened and revamped the concept. Torontonians Bob Martin and Don McKellar started out to provide entertainment for a groom’s stag party in 1998. Co-scripter Martin really was marrying Janet Van de Graaff, and those names are attached to the romantic leads of the show we see. When the wedding guests were crazy for the skits, composers Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison were brought in to come up with music that sounded like the era of Vincent Youmans or DeSylva, Brown and Henderson. Chaperone went on to the Toronto Fringe Festival, becoming an unprecedented smash. Martin created the role of The Man in the Chair for himself so that he could appear on stage, in effect, twice, a role he retained in the May 2006 Broadway opening. 

In Auburn, Chaperone grows from being an aggrandized series of skits into a fully staged production. Sayles has banished the shabby bedroom and replaced it with a comfortable set by Rob Andrusko that could be modeled on a top-end apartment on Park Avenue. The Man in the Chair now sits or struts in front of the curtain, both at left and right, while the action unfolds more or less independently behind him. He may still control the show, as by moving the needle back in the groove to replay some action, but mostly the silly plot unfolds at will.

There is, of course, no such historical show from 1928 as The Drowsy Chaperone, nor did full cast productions and 33 1/3 rpm LP recordings appear for a long while after that time. But even casual musical-goers will recognize the milieu, themes and motifs from such golden oldies that are still performed, like Anything Goes or No, No Nanette. The title is wonderfully suggestive. Chaperones in Am

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