The Drowsy Chaperone

I don't love Drowsy - it doesn't come close to fulfilling the promise of its nifty concept, it celebrates the most banal thing about musicals (escapism), almost all its songs are throwaways, and I'm annoyed rather than charmed by the antisocial pathos of its narrating main character. But, on a second visit, I could put all that aside and just enjoy the knock-'em-dead energy of the ensemble and the fun, cartoony performances in the show within the show. They've gotten even more (delightfully) over the top since I saw a preview almost a year ago. While Sutton Foster and Beth Leavel are especially terrif, as is newcomer Peter Bartlett (replacing Eddie Hibbert and getting laughs out of thin air), the surprise for me was Danny Burstein. He's perfected his cheesey, grandiose Aldolpho to the point where his first scene gets applause even without a song. That's purrrrrrr-worthy stuff.

Also blogged by: [David]