The Drowsy Chaperone Toasts '20s Shows in LA, Nov. 8

By: Aug. 07, 2005
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A frothy new musical called The Drowsy Chaperone will pay tribute to the high-stepping musicals of the 1920s when it starts performances at LA's Ahmanson Theatre on November 8th; if the show is a hit, it may move to Broadway in 2006.

Produced by Kevin McCollum (Rent) and Roy Miller, the show (which has long been in development) will mark the directorial debut of Casey Nicholaw, who choreographed Monty Python's Spamalot.  The show's origins are unique: the show "began quietly, seven years ago this month, at a stag party for Second City's Bob Martin. He was getting married, and his friends Greg Morrison and Lisa Lambert had written a collection of songs, called The Wedding Gift for his bachelor send-off," according to Variety.  Songwriters Morrison and Lambert joined forces with bookwriters Martin and Don McKellar (the film The Red Violin) to craft a show in which the main character is a fan of 20s musicals, including one about a wedding party.

The show, with bride Janet Van de Graaff as one of the producers, was presented at the Toronto Fringe Festival.  Mounted there at a budget of $2,000, it took $20,000 for David and Ed Mirvish to produce it at The Passe Muraille and $1 million for its 2001 staging at the Winter Garden Theater in Toronto.  When Miller arranged for a 45-minute condensation of the show to be presented at New York's National Alliance for Musical Theatre, the show charmed audiences and Miller teamed up with an interested McCollum.  The show was to have played the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the summer, but then-artistic director Michael Richie signed on with LA's Center Theater Group, whose resident theatre is the 2,000-seat Ahmanson.

The creative team has not yet been finalized for the show, but "their biggest leap forward comes next week with Nicholaw's new, first take on their material."  Nicholaw has been attached to the project since the day after Spamalot's opening.

"The initial impulse was a pure love of musicals from that period.  It is not a parody, it is an homage," stated Martin.


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