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conannxl · 2 months

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THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY HANDS DOWN THE BEST INTERPRETATION OF THIS MUSICAL I'VE READ.

I know lots of underrated musicals that deserve more attention, but if I had to choose ONE to just make people magically see how amazing it is, it’d be The Drowsy Chaperone.

So many different factors play into this show that make it so unique from any other musical and it’s just hilarious and beautiful and heartwarming and all around the most fun I’ve had watching a musical. It has such a funny cast of characters, but the one that really makes the show special is the narrator, man in chair. (I would also like to note the the OG cast man in chair literally wrote the show, an absolute genius)

The man in chair starts of the show with his cute lil monologue about live theater, and he says that whenever he’s feeling blue he likes to put on his musical records. He then narrates the audience through the drowsy chaperone, the show on his record (it’s a show within a show). I think that the man in chair is a character neurodivergent people can relate to, or at least I can. Just seeing how happy he is when talking to the audience about this musical makes me so happy because it’s this rare feeling I can immensely relate to that I’ve never really seen displayed before. Like, I often find myself just going on rants in my head about my hyper fixations or special interests as if there’s an audience in my head I’m narrating too, and when others will allow me to speak about my hyper fixations that’s honestly when I’m happiest. Along with this, whenever I info dump about an interest to a friend or someone I love, it’s because I want them to feel that same happiness I’m feeling. This is also shown within the man in chair’s narration- he wants to please the audience, and he wants them to love the show as much as he does.

That also brings me to my next point- drowsy chaperone is a somewhat self aware show, but not in the way you would think. The man in the chair knows that the musical the drowsy chaperone is not the best show. It’s poorly written, parts make no sense, parts are even offensive/behind the times. And yet he loves it so much because of his own personal reasons (ima get into that later). Man in chair’s whole goal is that he just wants the audience to enjoy the record and be entertained as much as he is, even though he is fully aware that it’s not necessarily a good musical. Because of this, his commentary throughout the show goes from (to quote the show) “Yes, I know it’s flimsy, but I love it BECAUSE it’s flimsy!” To more and more defensive. Farther into the second act, he realizes maybe the audience isn’t liking the musical, or maybe their realizing how bad it is. There’s even a part where the Drowsy Chaperone (the character) gives the Janet advice- the one line that will change the whole outcome of the show. And you can’t fully hear it because a broom dropped in the recording. The man in chair can’t tell wether she’s saying “Love while you can”, or “Live while you can.” He goes on a whole tangent about how much he loves that quote that he doesn’t even know if it was she actually said or not, as if he’s trying to find an actual reason for the audience to love the show as much as he does. so he feels the need to defend it more and more until he realizes he can’t. Because the reason he loves the show so much is because of his own personal experiences and trauma he has associated with it.

“You have to understand I love this show so much- my mother gave me the record, this was just before my father left us … I know it’s not a perfect show … but none of that matters, it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world, and it gives you a little tune to carry with you in your head, you know? A little something to help you escape from the dreary horrors of the real world. A little something for when you’re feeling blue.”

The finale of this show has got to be the most heartwarming finale to a musical I’ve seen. After the song Love is Always Lovely in the End, man in chair ends up going on a rant about his past marriage, and how it fell apart. You can tell within this monologue that he doesn’t really intend to go into detail about the process of his divorce- at first he just made a simple comment about love- but he ends up going on a tangent. And while this is a funny moment, it’s kind of one of those “am I supposed to laugh or not” things, because while what man in chair is saying is funny, you can see he’s struggling to talk about it. He’s so happy and cheerful throughout the show, besides when he’s ever angry about something within the show. But it’s the first time you see man in chair beyond the narrator for the show, and the first time you see him not so funny and energetic but uncomfortable. The show continues, until the power goes out and the record shuts off right before the very last note of the show. The mechanic comes to fix it, he leaves, (I’m gonna go more into that scene in a bit). The man in chair then gets really angry and annoyed claiming that the moment is ruined and there’s no way he can go back and relive the magic of that last note again, because of the real worlds interruptions. He sort of breaks and says what’s one of my favorite monologues ever, (part of what I quoted earlier), admitting he knows the show isn’t perfect but he just loves it SO much for no real reason- just his own feelings and experiences he has with it. After he finishes, he puts his head down and you hear him quietly crying. He starts to sing the song As We Stumble Along. No music or anything, just the man in chair silently singing the song while trying to not cry. Miss Totendail (this spelling is probably wrong) then pulls out a ukulele to accompany his singing. Robert joins in singing his own song, Accident Waiting to Happen. All the characters slowly bring him to the center of the stage and start joining in with their own songs, making a medley of the songs in the show. The show ends with the man in chair sitting on the plane (long story, it has to do with the drowsy chaperone show itself) hold the drowsy chaperone record very excitedly and smiling, while all of the characters sing.

There is something just so special about this finale and seeing the man in chair finally interacting with the characters. Seeing him with all of the characters he’s loved and the characters that have helped him throughout his life just makes me so incredibly happy, and when watching the OG cast man in chair I can literally feel the happiness coming from him. Even though he’s just some man cooped up in his apartment listening to his records, he’s a character that I relate to the most. I feel like his character is so personal to me, because I also have something fictional that I love so much and feel like it’s had a huge effect on my life, even though it’s not the best or most well written thing in the world. I can’t find any specific reasons why I favorite it so much more than anything else, I just do.

Also, to add more to my man in chair autism head cannon, I noticed the OG actor did a lot of hand stims throughout the show that are very common hand stims among ND people, although I don’t know if that was intentional or not. He’s also just very anti social, which isn’t necessarily an autistic trait but it just makes him so much more relatable lmao, since he mentions basically just staying in his apartment the majority of time and also quickly rushes the maintenance man out even when he talks to him about musicals, something he loves. We stan an anti social and possibly autistic king

Please, if you haven’t watched this show, there’s a super good quality bootleg on YouTube in four parts. I promise you won’t regret it.

TLDR; the man in the chair from The Drowsy Chaperone is one of if not the most well written narrator in musical theater, and this musical deserves more attention

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conannxl · 2 months

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Okay, Drowsy Chaperone fans unite to help me.

If I get the part of man in chair, what should I do. There's a bunch of you little critters out here and I figure if there's a general consensus I will follow it, and of course whatever my director says. Here's my absolute YAP session of a post:

I'm just going to put it out there and say that whenever I do a show even though I'm extremely amateur, I study it. A lot. I've been going through Reddit, YouTube, news articles and interviews etc. trying to find a good answer, although I guess good is objective. I find man in chair to be a very confusing character at times.

Many theorize that the whole thing could be him with his aforementioned zoloft addiction finally overdosing and living through his final moments hallucinating the show, or perhaps at the very end it's when he overdoses which allows him to finally interact with the characters. I've heard people say that he kills himself at the end, which I agree is feasible, but it takes away from the point of the show, along with the zoloft theories. I'm not saying that his love for the show is only boiled down to just being high, but its a show that's near and dear to him, and having it be "hahaha I kill myself my favorite show" seems really just unnecessarily edgy even though it might come off as more deep.

I really, really, deeply enjoy Bob Martin's portrayal of the character and I admire him so much. I feel like the Broadway's ending was very ambiguous, but I'd like to believe that if anything, it's him finally becoming content with the ending of the show (and his opinion of the show) and the direction his life went, or just him finally dying, not from some sort of drug induced episode. With other posts that have the same question as this one, many commenters mention how you really need to go with the director's vision which makes a lot of sense.

But like I said, I really want a more definite answer. Is it leaning more towards him finally giving in and taking his own life at the end, or finally being happy with himself? Moreover, do people really believe that its just him dying?

I really like people saying that he's agoraphobic, Jewish, or a closeted gay man which really gives me a decent idea of where to place his character. I can get the first half down. (Where he's just talking about the show or defending it, whatever, basically before the drinking) But after he gets tipsy, towards live or leave, I'm a bit lost again. Is it more anger and sadness, or just recounting the story in a funny way because he's under the influence?

There are so many dreadfully sad monologues in this show that I think get over taken by the humor in it. You always want to be true to the material and your director's vision but just burning it all down to just for laughs takes away the meaning- I cant figure out his intentions- I despise when people laugh during those monologues because like I said its so sad but its a comedy so why do those jokes have to be in there? And when people finally do portray him in a way that takes away from that humor during those deep moments, the actor gets absolutely torn into. Please help! If I even get the part, I want to be able to feel like I did it right, and not have some snappy guy be like, well this left a bad taste in my mouth because blah blah blah. No offense to anybody who might've left a comment like that but if you don't agree with somebody's choices for a character you can say it in a way that isn't being a dick jesus christ.

Thanks if you can help.

(I apologize if this is hard to read/follow, I'm not a good writer)

(Forgot to mention, I saw this very interesting video called "The Intoxicating Nostalgia of The Drowsy Chaperone" on YouTube. please go watch it if you're interested!!!! It talks about how the show itself was racist at times and not defendable and the whole show is really the man in chair finding reasons to still endorse the show with its nature.)

#the drowsy chaperone #theater

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conannxl · 2 months

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POC MAN IN CHAIR WOWIE!

l-ve while you can

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conannxl · 2 months

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Me if i don't get man in chair

they dont even know how man in chair i am rn

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conannxl · 2 months

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And to those people I say.... shut up.

POV you just said Percy Hyman was a bad actor

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conannxl · 2 months

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I'm about to be in a production of the drowsy chaperone and I am so pumped!!!! I'm glad that this will be my first reblog or whatever. Thanks for the trivia. I'm also really desperately hoping for man in chair.

Today you're getting trivia dump on the musical The Drowsy Chaperone because I saw it last night and it's immediately become one of my dream shows (with the dream role of Man in Chair of course- look as a theatre kid who can't sing of course I'm going to latch onto a monologue-heavy character).

Let's begin!

The musical originated as an entertainment piece for the bachelor party of real life couple Bob (Robert) Martin (Canadian writer and actor) and Janet van de Graaf (Canadian improv and television artist). It was performed at the Rivoli Night Club and the admission costs were used to help fund their wedding

The original show did not have the role of the Man in Chair!

Despite having less than stellar reviews (notably being called a "sleeper" and having "forgettable" songs by critic Ben Brantly), TDC recieved thirteen Tony nominations and won five (Book, Original Score, Featured Actress, Scenic Design, and Costume Design)

The first translated version of the show opened in Japan (January 5th, 2009)

In the original Broadway production, during the Man in Chair's "intermission monologue", there's an added line about the Morosco theatre being torn down and a hotel being put in it's place. This line is a reference to the Marquis Theater (where the run took place) being part of the Marriott Marquis complex which was built where the Morosco Theater once stood.

The use of a deus ex machina in the form of Trix's plane at the end of the second act is one of the most literal version of the trope. The history of the term comes from ancient Greek performances, where, in resolution to conflicts, the Greek gods would appear in the show, often being delivered to the stage via a crane. So, the appearance of a character who can resolve the unsettled issue via a device from the sky is a fitting homage to the trope.

The Drowsy Chaperone is qualified as both a parody and a pastiche. If you didn't know what a pastiche means (aka me about five minutes ago), a parody mocks aspects while a pastiche celebrates aspects. Some examples of other pastiches are Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (for Hamlet) and The Second Mrs Darcy (Pride and Prejudice).

The song Love is Always Lovely in the End replaced a song in the original production titled I Remember Love

In many productions, the animal Robert is compared to in Bride's Lament is changed from a monkey to a bunny to avoid racist undertones.

Aldopho says his name 15 times in the song I am Aldopho (the chaperone says it four times)

Whilst on Broadway, TDC had 32 previews and 674 performances before it closed in 2007.

Robert and George's tap dance before Underling's entrance in Cold Feet is approximately 1 minutes and 32 seconds long.

The longest song on the cast recording is Bride's Lament at 5:13, whilst the shortest (excluding Man in Chair's actor backgrounds) is the Act 1 Finale with 47 seconds.

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