“The Drowsy Chaperone” will keep things lively through October 25

The UF School of Theatre + Dance presents its fall musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a Tony Award-winning musical comedy with book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar, music and lyrics by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, and direction and musical staging by professor Tony Mata. The show runs until Oct. 25 in the Constans Theatre located in the Nadine McGuire Theatre and Dance Pavilion on UF’s campus.

“The Drowsy Chaperone” takes place in the apartment of a shut-in Broadway afficionado where an old recording of the fictional 1920s musical classic of the same name comes to life through the imagination of its listener and brings the whole audience along for the ride. This play pays tribute—and pokes more than a little fun—at the liveliness and spectacle of the early 20th-century American musical genre, featuring stock characters, comedy gags and a plot that ties up a little too neatly, but that leaves the audience doubled over and perhaps a little less “blue” than when they arrived.

Premiering at the Rivoli in Toronto in 1998 and making its Broadway debut in 2006, “The Drowsy Chaperone” celebrates the musical form and is so unashamedly irreverant at the same time that people just fall in love with it,” says Mata. “The musical is a very specific art form and, at the same time, pokes fun at all the devices that we use in musicals to make these well-oiled machines that people love without even knowing that they have this formula.” A short behind-the-scenes look at the UF School of Theatre + Dance’s production can be viewed here.

Performance times are 7:30 p.m. October 20-24, and at 2 p.m. October 25. Tickets are $13 for UF students, $15 for UF faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $18 for the general public.

Mata has directed past School of Theatre + Dance productions as “Sweeney Todd,” Guys and Dolls” and “Chicago,” and is being honored in October at the Library of Congress for his documentary film, “Theatre of Rice and Beans,” a retrospective look at New York Latino theatre.

For more information, please contact Leah Spellman at lspellman@arts.ufl.edu or 352-273-1489.