What started as a stag party gag - in Canada, of all places! - morphed into the most charming and effervescent musical in decades, The Drowsy Chaperone. Writers Bob Martin and Don McKellar, with composers Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison, would spoof old musicals for friends, and before they knew it, they had written their own show. The show, a multiple Tony Award-winner from 2006, is one of the delights of the stage, and no original musical in recent memory can touch it for its free spirit, wit and giggly pleasure. From the lights-out opening line, "I hate theater," to the ending, when our narrator, the Man in Chair, flies away into his own personal little world of Broadway musicals, the show is nonstop pleasure. Presented here by Masquerade Theatre, The Drowsy Chaperone is a hilarious parody of '20s musicals, with its whimsy and broad racial stereotypes. It's also a glorious, heartfelt, postmodern homage to the power of musicals to make us forget our troubles and "disappear for a while." 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Through November 27. Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, 800 Bagby. For information, call 713-868-9696 or visit www.masqueradetheatre.com. $26.25 to $65.25.
Fridays-Sundays. Starts: Nov. 19. Continues through Nov. 27, 2010