The production was directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw. The production opened to critical and commercial success winning five 2006 TONY Awards.
The production starred Bob Martin himself as Man in Chair, Sutton Foster as Janet van der Graaff, Beth Leavel as The Drowsy Chaperone and Troy Britton Johnson as Robert Martin. The production with music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, and a book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar (members of the original stag/hen party production) opened on Broadway at The Marquis Theatre. This reading gathered the interested of other producers who banded together to mount an out-of-town try-out in LA in 2005 before taking the show to Broadway, bowing in May 2006. This production caught the eye of Broadway producer Roy Miller, who optioned the rights and produced a New York based reading of the show. The show underwent further development and financing, before playing Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre in 2001. However, when Toronto Fringe expressed interest, Martin came on board to co-write and added the role of Man in Chair to serve as a narrator. Originally, the jokes within the show were far closer to the line and Man in Chair didn’t exist. The show first came to life in 1997 when the show’s author, Bob Martin’s friends created a spoof of old musicals for the stag/hen party of him and his future wife Janet van de Graaf. As Man in Chair plays the recording of the show, the musical comes alive in his apartment, replicating production number after production number. He reminisces with the audience about his love of theatre, in particular his favourite musical, the fictional “The Drowsy Chaperone”. The show centres on “Man in Chair” who is an agoraphobic Broadway fanatic. The Drowsy Chaperone is a musical that parodies the comedies of 1920’s America. ‘Show Off’ from The Drowsy Chaperone at the 2006 TONY Awards ceremony. This week, it’s back to the mid noughties for some show-offing musical theatre.
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