EN Presents: The Drowsy Chaperone!

Photo+courtesy+of+Kelli+Brennan

!Rachel I Smolinske

Photo courtesy of Kelli Brennan

On April 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th of 2015, EN proudly presented “The Drowsy Chaperone.” This play was directed by Mr. Craig Munk. Out of all the plays from 2014-2015, I would have to say this was the best and funniest. I have never laughed this hard in my life until after watching this play. It was a huge success and the characters made you laugh. If you didn’t see this play, then you missed out.

The Man in the Chair (played by Lucas Graden) was so funny. He mimicked Janet Van de Graff (played by Lydia Tremaine) when she sang and right before intermission he said “That protein bar went right through me,” and had to “go to the restroom.” It was genius how that part was in the script, so they could take an intermission during that scene.

Other characters were Kitty (played by Jenna Boese). After intermission the Man in the Chair put the “part 2” record of “The Drowsy Chaperone” in, he accidentally put in the “Message From Nightingale” record and told the actors on stage singing the song to scurry off stage because it was the wrong musical. Also Kitty was wearing this very cool, yet exotic form of dress that was amazing to see (and came straight from Broadway, according to Mr. Munk).

Aldolfo (played by Jake Erne) was hysterical throughout the whole play. He did amazing with his Latin accent throughout the whole play.

Other funny scenes where when Mrs. Tottendale (played by Sophia Shultz) spit in Underling’s (played by Kenny Woody) face. I felt sorry for him because this happened about 5 times. An amazing part that occurred during the play was the tap dancing that Robert Martin (played by Daniel Kane) and George (played by Hall Sonne) did in the scene of Robert’s room. This part was probably extremely hard to do, but looked like the actors had fun doing it. The Drowsy Chaperone (played by Alyssa Gulick) was outstanding how she really played the role of the chaperone. She had the accent, the outfit, and everything set down and was great at it. This play was a musical, so a lot of singing and dancing occurred, and I think the EN cast did magnificent.

A former EN graduate, Dhara Patel, went to go see it and she said that she has seen many plays performed, and that this was her favorite out of all of them. She laughed constantly and was impressed of how all of it came together.

Miss Atz, a teacher at East Noble doesn’t think she ever stopped laughing during the performance. All the actors knew their parts and how to have fun with them. It was, “one of the best musicals I’ve watched at EN.”

The ending of the play was truly amazing how they had a plane on stage (made by the crew of Alum-Elec Strucutres) to come take the four couples that were getting married to Rio. The married couples included Janet Van de Graaff and Robert Martin, which the play was all about. The Drowsy Chaperone married Aldolfo, Mrs. Tottendale married Underling, and finally Mr. Feldzieg married Kitty. I was curious when the lights went out at the end of what happened, but then a knock at the door is heard. The Man in the Chair goes to open it and there is Sput the Electrician (played by Jakob Speelman). He said that he was trying to call him to say that the power was going to go out, and previously the phone was ringing and he ignored it. So they fixed the lights and he sent him on his way to finish the ending. In conclusion, how the crew then brought up the Man in the Chair on the plane, was a nice twist put into the script. This play was fantastic and well produced! Great job to all the performers!