“We call ourselves off-Broadway,” said Roz Patterson, running Tuesday around the halls of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School Arts Building, home to the Fitzgerald Theatre. The quip is in reference to the school’s location: off 459 Broadway in Cambridge, where the fall student musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” is set to debut Friday.
While Patterson herded cast and crew as stage manager during the show’s second night of dress rehearsals, she described the musical – which will be accompanied by a live orchestra – as corny and fun with some adult humor sprinkled in. “The Drowsy Chaperone,” although coined a “musical within a comedy,” also gets “a little bit emotional, especially at the end,” said Patterson, a CRLS senior.
Under the direction of Monica Murray, with technical direction by Joanne Farwell, the show introduces a man in a chair – character name: Man in Chair – experiencing “a little self-conscious anxiety resulting in nonspecific sadness.” To cheer himself up, Man in Chair invites the audience to join him in listening to a recording of his favorite 1928 musical, the fictional “Drowsy Chaperone.” While he listens, the musical comes to life, production manager Sophie Crafts writes.
The spoof of old musicals, created by three Canadian writers for a friend’s bachelor party, moved quickly to a debut in the late 1990s at the Toronto Fringe Festival. It later ran on Broadway (the one in New York) and in the West End of London from 2006-2007.
“It is an opportunity to see a newer show,” Crafts said. “You can spend hundreds of dollars to see Broadway in Boston or you can spend $10 to see an incredible show here.”
The school’s stage productions have a reputation for excellence that results in frequently sold-out performances. Part of that comes from a respect for Murray evident from the number of students who stay with the theater program for all four years at the school. Some even return: Lillian Michael, lighting supervisor for “Chaperone,” graduated last year but is back as part of the team; choreographer Thomas Koen is a CRLS alum from 2008, and a former student of Murray from her 23 years as drama teacher at Rindge.
Murray said this year’s production is remarkable – a bit more risqué than some high school fare, while still being family friendly. “We could not have done this 10 or 15 years ago,” she said.
In Man in Chair’s favorite musical, every 1920s cliche is crammed in: The star of “Feldzieg’s Follies” on Broadway is about to quit to marry an oil tycoon, while her producer begs her not to; there’s a dowager and the kind of household help dowagers of the era used to have; a flapper, Latin lover, gangsters and an Amelia Earhart-style aviatrix. And there’s a chaperone meant to prevent indiscretions until the wedding takes place, while cast members crash into each other with their varying agendas of Broadway profits, a big break or a happy marriage – or preventing a happy marriage.
The production offers show tunes lightly roasting the Jazz Age and ’70s humor wrapped up in a modern-day, gender-bending extravaganza, all while leaving the audience with an uplifting ending that Crafts said would “deliver comfort and soothe our souls.”
“Expect the unexpected. I don’t think people will know what is coming, and that is part of the surprise of this musical – it is absurd,” Murray said.
“The Drowsy Chaperone” runs for 90 minutes with one intermission and is appropriate for all ages. Performances 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School’s Fitzgerald Theatre, 459 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. $10 for adults and $5 for children, students and seniors (60-plus) here or in person for cash.
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