Fountain Hills Theater Announces THE DROWSY CHAPERONE, 9/16-10/2

The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical with a comedy. This charming, laugh-out-loud show revolves around a die-hard musical fan and his favorite cast album-a 1928 smash hit called The Drowsy Chaperone, which suddenly bursts to life inside his NY apartment, transporting you to a nostalgic era filled with producers, gangsters, butlers and flappers. Witness the zany thrills and surprises, the striking costumes and dazzling sets, and the comic pratfalls and memorable music of The Drowsy Chaperone.

The Drowsy Chaperone debuted in 1998 at The Rivoli in Toronto and opened on Broadway in May of 2006. The show won the Tony Award for Best Book and Best Score. It started as a spoof of old musicals written by friends for the wedding of Martin and his wife, Janet. The show has had major productions in Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, London, and Japan, as well as two North American tours. The Fountain Hills production marks one of the first productions in the region.

The Drowsy Chaperone is produced by Steve Mancarella and directed by Peter J. Hill. The show is choreographed by Noel Irick and musically directed by Flora Mogerman. The Drowsy Chaperone features Darby Bates, Will Bates, Scott Connelly, Amy Ford, Terry Gadaire, Alex Gonzalez, Leslie Haddad, Bruce Halperin, Ted Hance, Leah Klein, Glenn Parker, Amy Powers, Roger Prenger, Laura Pyper, Kim Rickels, Patrick Russo and Tanya Schoenwolf.

The wedding that inspired "The Drowsy Chaperone" must have been quite an event. After all, how many brides can boast that her friends gave her a 1920s-style musical -- with herself as the heroine -- for a wedding gift? Or that the show would end up on Broadway with her new husband as its producer and on-stage narrator? As unbelievable as that seems, that's exactly how the winner of five Tony Awards began its amazing journey. Composer Lisa Lambert once joked; ‘The choice was to give them a Broadway show, or a tea set.'

The premise is that a man, known only as "Man in Chair," is so enraptured by a recording of a classic musical that it comes to life as he spins the platter in his living room. He fills us in on all the juicy gossip about the actors in Broadway's glory age and tells the story between the tracks of the recording. The play within the play, meanwhile, is a pastiche of musical-theater in which a starlet named Janet Van De Graff is ready to give up the stage to get married to an oil tycoon and settle down. This threatens the pocketbook of her theatrical producer, and he determines to foil the wedding, in part through the seductions of a Latin silent-film lothario. The "drowsy" (a period euphemism for tipsy) chaperone is Janet's upstaging companion.

Originally, the show was conceived as the second half of an unconventional bachelor party, held at the Rivoli nightclub in Toronto, in 1999. Guests were charged an admission fee to help pay for the wedding. Lambert was one of three "best men" to the groom, actor and producer Bob Martin (co-developer of the cult-fave Canadian TV series "Slings and Arrows"), whom Lambert, librettist Don McKellar and co-composer Greg Morrison had known since high school. When the show was reshaped for the Toronto Fringe Festival, Martin became a co-writer, creating Man in Chair to serve as a narrator/commentator for the piece. The heroine remains named for the real-life bride and actress Janet Van De Graff, a coy nod to the show's roots.

The show played Toronto and moved to Broadway in 2006 with Bob Martin continuing in the role of the man in chair. Martin once remarked that it was amazing that the show went from a bachelor party to Broadway. On opening night he received a ‘break-a-leg' phone call from Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada...now that's a wedding present.

The Drowsy Chaperone will play Sept. 16 - Oct 2, 2011. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 2PM. A reception will be held on Opening night for all those attending that evening, featuring free appetizers, wine and soft drinks. Individual tickets are $25.00 for Adults and $20.00 for children 17 and under. Seniors receive a $5.00 discount on all Thursday performances. Group rates and student rush discounts are available.

All performances are at Fountain Hills Theater on its Mainstage at 11445 N. Saguaro Blvd. (The Corner of Saguaro and Rand). Tickets are available through the Theater Box Office at (480) 837-9661 x3. Box Office Hours are 10:00 AM-5:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday. Visit our website at www.fhtaz.org.

For additional information not contained in this press release, please call Fountain Hills Theater Artistic Director, Peter J. Hill at (480) 837-9661 EXT. 7.