PicksInSix Review: The Drowsy Chaperone - Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre
Total Foolery and Fun at Theo!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
So, it's like this... “The Drowsy Chaperone,” which runs through April 19 at Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre on the Evanston/Chicago border, is fluff. There's no getting around it, it makes no serious statement about life and its endless issues. It's an absolute distraction from the reality of our world at present. This is all good. The production elements are startlingly immersive and constant in breaking the fourth wall with and for the audience. And one doesn't mind that one bit; this is how energetic and entertaining it is, with its tight, purposeful direction by L. Walter Stearns. It's a piece that plays directly into Mr. Stearns' historical milieu of tried-and-true musicals. You see why as the show unfolds. And it's a joy to watch.
It all begins and ends with an ingenious tool that becomes the guiding thread for the entire musical. He's a kind of lonely "narrator" of sorts whose character name is Man In Chair. He does encyclopedic research into the genre. He doesn't really narrate as much as he reflects and remembers. He plays LPs on his stereo in his small apartment, and he's a huge fan of old musicals. The story unfolds through a recording of this musical that he's never seen but he dearly loves entitled "The Drowsy Chaperone." Chicago stalwart Steve McDonagh literally becomes the Man before our eyes. It's subtle, interesting and informative. And endlessly charming and warm. This Man is the character we all envy in the fun and love that he shares. It's like hand in glove. And an almost effortless portrayal.
The plot to the show itself is almost irrelevant as it opens up into the apartment, performing literally in front of its occupant and, in the intimate confines of the staging, the audience. The pretext is a wedding day for Broadway baby Janet (Kelsey MacDonald plays it all to the hilt), a star who is on the cusp of giving it all up for love, and Robert (Trey Plutnicki dances up a storm and even puts on roller skates), who met on a cruise and fell in love almost the same night. All the other characters are vital decoration for what seems the intent of the musical—total foolery and fun. And wonderfully drawn characters they are, too, from both Broadway and Hollywood models.
A few examples. There's the title character that the wonderful Colette Todd offers, a supposed chaperone assigned to looking after Janet, and who is a full-blown lush—a character creatively pulled from the Marie Dressler/Margaret Dumont stable. Her character falls in love with Aldolpho (Darian Goulding with a proper chew-the-scenery presence, like in a Marx Brothers film), an opera singer who finds his way to seducing the chaperone. We see two bumbling gangsters (Jimmy Hogan and Chase Wheaton-Werle) who can't do much right. But when they do, they are scene stealers, a reminder of two similar gangsters in Kiss Me, Kate.
Peter also has a chaperone of sorts in his buddy George (Kevin Chlapecka, properly supportive and hovering), who makes sure that the groom does not see the bride before the wedding—all thrown out the window, of course, as the show progresses. They share a fast-moving tap number "Cold Feets," which leaves us all breathless. A direct theft from old-time radio comes from Feldzeig (Reginald Hemphill in a crackling, gruff George Burns character), a manager of talent and, in particular, Kitty (Luiza Vitucci is literally channeling Gracie Allen here), who wants so badly to be onstage that she reinvents herself as... a really bad clairvoyant. Example: "Give me a number between five and seven!" You get the picture.
The tight pit orchestra led by veteran keyboardist/conductor Eugene Dizon and the crisp choreography by Jenna Schoppe takes us all along swimmingly. By the time it's all done, there are not one but four weddings that happen, because everyone falls in love with each other. It's goofy and quick and becomes a paean to the theatre, to living life as fully as we can, and to the joy of performing for all these young people who cannot stop smiling the entire time. The story might not have the same effect, arguably, if the Man In Chair was not ever-present. But it's the gravitas of that Man in the capable hands of Mr. McDonagh and under the watchful eye of Mr. Stearns, we hop onboard gladly.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. www.solochicagotheatre.com. Coming in May 2026, his new solo play about Ben Franklin, THE FIRST EMBASSY, in the NOMA at the Reilly Arts Center, Ocala, Florida.
PHOTO | Brett Beiner Photography
Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre
presents
The Drowsy Chaperone
721 Howard Street, Evanston
through April 19, 2026
WEBSITE
PROGRAM
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