A musical with puns, taps, and a gay (fun) wedding! What more do you need for an evening’s entertainment?
After months of preparation, Weber High’s Production Company will officially open “The Drowsy Chaperone” on March 4 and will close on March 9.
“[‘The Drowsy Chaperone’] is a story in a story,” Senior Emorie King, who plays the Chaperone, said. “The man in the chair is telling the story of his favorite musical, and there’s a leading lady, Janet, who’s the bride and she wants to get married to Robert but everyone doesn’t want her to, because they’re worried that if she gets married they won’t have their big show girl that they want. The whole plot is basically everyone trying to stop the wedding.”
Senior Mylie Harkness, who plays the leading lady Janet Vandegraff, has many rousing anthems and dance numbers in the show. She has to do many tricks while singing, but luckily she has been singing and dancing for many years.
“I did competitive dance [at Utah Dance Academy] for 11 years and I stopped after eighth grade,” Harkness said. “And now I get to dance in the show.”
While Harkness is showing her years of dedication within dance, others are putting in the hard work to learn new skills, such as tap.
“[My biggest challenge in the show] probably got to be tap dancing, because I’ve never tap danced before, and so learning to do that for the first time was hard,” Senior Porter Munson, who plays George, said. “It’s a lot of fun actually, once you actually get it. It was really cool. I was constantly tapping back stage during ‘Anastasia’ just trying to figure it out, especially since I’m a lead and I have to be upfront and center for it.”
Senior Owen Talbot, who plays Robert Martin, is also finding out more about himself and his abilities while performing in this show.
“Something I’ve learned about myself is probably just that I can do more than I think that I can,” Talbot said. “I think that sometimes I see myself as just more of like the background-side character and being in this role shows I can tap dance and sing at the same time and do different things that I never would’ve thought I would be able to do.”
Talbot also said one of the songs in the show that he can’t get out of his head is ‘Toledo Surprise’, which is a song the Pastry Chefs/Gangsters sing. The Gangsters are played by Senior Sam Marriott and Junior Samuel Taylor. They are a comedic duo disguised as Pastry Chefs. They have multiple pastry puns throughout the show and both of them happen to have the same favorite pun.
“[My favorite Gangster pun] is actually not mine, it’s Sam Marriott’s,” Taylor said. “There’s a point where we’re threatening Feldzieg, and I tell him ‘You’re in truffle now’ and Sam says ‘And there’s a muffin you can do about it.’”
There are many comical moments throughout the entire show. Senior Tyler Modesitt plays the man in the chair. The man in the chair loves ‘The Drowsy Chaperone’ and guides the audience through each scene. He has many lines and monologues throughout the show.
“It was fun [learning all his monologues]. It continues to be a challenge to get every single word perfect,” Modesitt said. “There’s been a lot of times where I’m looking around my kitchen at home and like doing different tasks to try and get it to where I can spit out the monologues while doing things in my apartment in the show.”
Aside from all the hard work and comedic lines throughout the musical, there is a deeper meaning behind it. Senior Mitchell Morgan, who plays Aldolpho,said he hopes the audience will be able to take something away from the show.
“I think that there can be times where it’s like even when we feel sad or we feel lonely, just like how the man in the chair is, a song or a nice tune can help change your mood and help you kind of process what’s going on,” Morgan said. “It helps you step back from yourself and the problems that you’re going through and gives you kind of like a break. And that’s like the fun and fantasy of theatre. That’s the fantasy of life, is that you can step back and then it gives you a breath. Also have a good laugh, as this musical is a comedy.”
