What is The Drowsy Chaperone about?
Bob Martin: It’s about a man sharing his love of an obscure 1928 musical with the audience, about the joy he gets from a type of escapist musical that’s a bit out of style now. He knows the show in great detail, including the backstory of the actors who play the roles ,and he shares all that information with the audience. He plays a record of the musical for the audience, and recreates most of the show either by describing it or actually showing it on stage. How did the show come about? I was getting married to my wife, Janet Van de Graaf, and [lyricist] Lisa Lambert was my “best man. Instead of a stag party, she rented a small nightclub in Toronto and she and Greg Morrison and Don McKellar and a few other people created this homage to a 1920s musical called The Drowsy Chaperone. It was about 40 minutes long and was a series of songs about a show-girl bride leaving the business to get married. Janet and I were so excited that we decided to mount the show at the Fringe of Toronto festiv
