You’ll feel anything but drowsy when Red & Black Players present the hilarious “Drowsy Chaperone” on March 28-30
The Red and Black Players will celebrate the love for 1920s musicals in a hilarious new way when they present the infectious musical The Drowsy Chaperone at the Tupper Lake Middle/High School auditorium, 25 Chaney Avenue, on March 28 and 29 at 7 p.m. and March 30 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and senior citizens and will be available at the door. Children 5 and under admitted free.
There will be flowers and a bake sale in the lobby before the show and during the intermission of each show.
With the houselights down, a man in a chair appears on stage and puts on his favorite record: the cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical. The recording comes to life and The Drowsy Chaperone begins as the man in the chair looks on. Mix in two lovers on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theatre producer, a not-so-bright hostess, three gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan and an intoxicated chaperone, and you have the ingredients for an evening of madcap delight.
Hailed by New York Magazine as "the perfect Broadway musical," The Drowsy Chaperone is a masterful meta-musical, poking fun at all the tropes that characterize the musical theatre genre. Music and lyrics for The Drowsy Chaperone are by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar.
The cast features: Ayden Rabideau as Man in Chair; Sophia Staves and Hannah Barber as the Drowsy Chaperone; Aubrey Nadeau and Lacey Pickering as Janet; Haylee Callaghan and Bryce Richer as Robert; John Fallon as George; Niko LaVigne as Aldolpho; Noah Switzer and Jack Dukette as Feldzeig; Eliza Bujold and Ghost Switzer as Kitty; Nevaeh Toohey and Caydence Flagg as Mrs. Tottendale; Oliver Roberts as Underling; Sean Wood, Ash Barber, and Joelle Bedore as the Gangsters; Ava Facteau and Hannah Barber as Trix the Aviatrix; and the following students in various other roles: Yana Kucipak, Lance Schaffer, Gabby Frenette, Annabella Baker, Ashton Baker, Henry Bedore, Tori Hudak, Maria Martinez-Gates, Sam Mozdzier, Cailyn Norton, Mallory Snyder, and Delainee Wilson.
Stage crew for The Drowsy Chaperone are Hannah Callaghan, Alison Richer, Claire Snye, and Mariah Young. Lighting crew include Wilbur Humberstone and Maurice Fortune.
Stage director George Cordes and music director Elizabeth Cordes are again joined by their own intrepid team: lighting and tech director David Naone, assistant director Danielle LaMere, and choreographer Kendall Davison. They are assisted with this production by Samuel Brown. This production also continues a return to a live pit band, featuring an all-star lineup of musicians.
The Drowsy Chaperone is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI), and all authorized materials are supplied by MTI. It follows the Red and Black Players’ 2024 production of Legally Blonde The Musical and their 2023 production of Seussical, The Musical. With this production, the Red and Black Players celebrate their 19th anniversary of bringing musical theatre to Tupper Lake. Previous shows also include Disney’s Beauty and the Beast JR, Footloose: The Musical, Guys and Dolls, Godspell, Anything Goes, Hello, Dolly!, All Night Strut: A Jumpin', Jivin', Jam!, Back to the 80s: The Totally Awesome Musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella, Annie, The Boy Friend, and Bye, Bye Birdie. In 2020, they canceled their production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods because of the COVID-19 pandemic.