Ravelled in anxiety for most of the action, Bennett Childs gives us all his exasperation as Mr Feldzieg, while Michelle Delves becomes a ditzy but lovable Kitty who attempts to crawl into the spotlight several times, and is often the cause of Feldzieg’s aforementioned chagrin.
Bailey Fleming’s timely appearance at the denouement as an energetic Trix marks her our resident deus ex machina. Aldolpho, brought to life by Avaneesh Belwalkar, is also an audience favourite with his excess pomposity and sporadic big-cat purring, which compensates for a snicker-worthy lack of good sense.
#Drowsy chaperone characters series
Striking comic gold was the dynamic duo of the vacuous Mrs Tottendale (musical veteran Hayatt Al Joborry) and her long-suffering Underling (king of eye-rolls, Timothy Lim), whose series of repeated spit-takes left my eyes slightly damp with tears of laughter, and Tim’s suit very, very damp with spit/vodka/”ice water”, if you prefer. (Quick shout-out to the blue-to-red lighting transition in that number-I just liked it a lot.) Will Crozier and Stefan Hood-Edwards, as Robert Martin and George respectively, embody their characters’ mildly disaster-prone personas with warmth I’m left incredibly impressed by Stefan’s accent, Will’s rollerblading grace (even with the blindfold on), and both of their spontaneous, staccato tap-dancing skills in ‘Cold Feets’. Kelsey Martin, whose stellar voice truly justifies the brief encore after ‘Show Off’, plays a captivating Janet van de Graaff, while the Chaperone’s drunken tendencies, as Amy Guthrie manages to stumble around in heels and still deliver powerful vocals, make lots of room for laughter. We’re also permitted periodic looks into his personal life (summed up well by a suspicious fear of dancers and painful failed marriage), which by the final scene results in much accrued sympathy at the character’s moment of vulnerability.īeyond this side of the fourth wall that we and Nelson share are the ‘real’ characters of The Drowsy Chaperone. His character-who is never named, yet whose sharp tongue and endearing, jittery enthusiasm for musical theatre supplement all identification necessary-guides the audience through the show-within-a-show concept, speckling the production numbers with bites of trivia which more often than not give rise to well-placed black comedy. This sophisticated rapport with the audience could hardly be accomplished without Nelson Lee’s delightfully sardonic narration in his role of Man in Chair.
#Drowsy chaperone characters how to
This is a production which not only serves to entertain, but teaches us how to entertain ourselves in our consumption of theatre. The humour is never too pretentious for the audience, but rather beckons us to recognise the ridiculousness of the ubiquitous stupid girl trope, the archetypal English butler-and let ourselves indulge in them anyway.
Despite a deliciously raucous, immersive score and an array of finely sequinned costumes (at least three of which Kelsey Martin seems to consecutively slip through in one number), the musical comedy’s most rewarding aspect boldly emerges in being witty and self-referential. I’m hesitant to characterise the performance of The Drowsy Chaperone I witnessed on Friday night as anything less than an experience - this is not just a musical which expects you to be a lazy audience member, who sits back and is absorbed purely by the degree of drama or flash of colours.
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