My Way of Life
When I was in London Chris and I saw two shows, The Drowsy Chaperone and The 39 Steps. The posters said The Drowsy Chaperone with Elaine Paige! Who the hell is Elaine Paige, I asked? Of course Chris didn’t know either. Of course any self respecting theater geek would know that she was the first Evita, and a theater legend. I’m a bad theater geek, and even worse gay. She was good in The Drowsy Chaperone, but the truly outstanding performer was Bob Martin, the guy who wrote the book. Maybe because it was a Monday performance but I thought the actors could have had a little more ‘zing’. The story and book are delightful, funny and very clever, but for the life of me I can’t remember much of the score. The premise is very Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical. There’s a man in the chair, and he plays his favorite old cast recording, ’The Drowsy Chaperone’, and it comes to life in his apartment- like Poseidon! The his apartment capsizes. Hey…I’m calling my lawyer…
Filed under: My Way Of Life
Yes, Elaine Paige is to England what Patti LuPone is to us…she’s THE grand dame of musical theatre in England now. She was also recently in a “Marple” mystery on A&E. I hadn’t realized she was that old! Damn…it was only yesterday I was listening to her on the “Chess” London cast recording!
Drowsy is a great show, though some of the songs are forgettable. And EP is a little person. I’ve seen her a few times and marvel at how no one steps on her.
Oh, and just to make you theater queens jealous, I’m seeing the workshop of 9 to 5 in a couple of weeks. Dolly’s gonna be there!
SOME of the songs? More like most of the songs….