Drowsy Chaperone Outing - 24 May
We’ve been meaning to start this Outings blog forever, but now we have a fresh impetus as we had one of our biggest and busiest events in years last night to The Drowsy Chaperone. Our allocation for this Outing kept selling out so, thanks to the producers, we kept adding on more tickets, but we had to draw the line at 300.
The Novello was packed to the rafters at last night’s performance – thanks in large part to our 300, of course! – and the show seemed to go down a storm, with particular appreciation for some of the anglicised jokes. Elaine Paige got an especially hearty response for her first West End role in six years as the tipsy title character, and London-born Canadian Bob Martin, one of the show’s co-creators and original Broadway stars, was warmly welcomed in his West End debut playing the musical comedy’s narrator, “Man in Chair”.
We were delighted and frankly surprised at just how many people stayed on afterwards for the post-show reception in the theatre’s Waldorf bar. We normally anticipate with post-show drinks that half to a maybe two-thirds of the group will stay – post-theatre appetites and train schedules being what they are. On this occasion, however, it felt like all 300 theatregoers stayed on to celebrate and collect their free drinks (they’d already collected their free programmes and, as an extra bonus, souvenir brochures beforehand).
Clearly, the theatre staff were surprised too. The Waldorf was absolutely packed and initially the queue for the bar stretched down several flights of stairs to the foyer. Would the bar staff be able to cope? Two Whatsonstage.com staffers leapt behind the bar to help serve while others ran up and down the stairs with bottles and cups to try and make sure everyone got a tipple as quickly as possible.
And luckily most theatregoers seemed more than happy to withstand the crush and heat – what a warm night for May! – once the cast arrived. We were joined by most of the principals including the inimitable Elaine Paige, Bob Martin, on-stage lovebirds Summer Strallen and John Partridge, Nickolas Grace and Selina Chilton, all of whom chatted amiably with theatregoers, signed programmes and posed for photos.
We’ve added a few photos here - click on the Drowsy Chaperone gallery to the right of this entry to view them. If you attended the event and took photos, please do email them to editorial@whatsonstage.com and we’ll share them here too. And of course, add your own comments about the event either here or on the main Discussion Forum. You can also add your verdict on The Drowsy Chaperone to our User Reviews for the show – and spread the word!
We look forward to seeing you all again soon.
- Terri Paddock, Editorial Director