Something to help you escape

After tackling more well-known shows like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Guys and Dolls and Into the Woods in recent years, students at Ashwaubenon High School are going off the beaten path and bringing a lesser known show to the stage starting this weekend with their production of The Drowsy Chaperone.

“[The Drowsy Chaperone] won five Tony Awards back in 2005, so it’s a good show, just not a well-known one,” said Director Bernie Rocheleau. “The basic synopsis is that there’s this guy who we call ‘the man in the chair.’ He’s a divorced older guy who spends a lot of time in his apartment listening to old records of Broadway recordings and musicals. He plays one from 1927 called The Drowsy Chaperone, and when he puts the record on, the show comes to life in his living room and he provides commentary — funny commentary — throughout the whole thing. It’s a take on musical theater from a humorous perspective… It’s a musical within a comedy.”

Rocheleau said he hopes those planning to attend the show will be able to take advantage of the opportunity to be transported to another world, if only for a little while.

“It’s one of those shows you can go to and just sit back and let it happen and enjoy yourself,” Rocheleau said. “‘Here’s a little something to help you escape from the horrors of regular life.’ That’s one of the lines and it’s a line we chose to put on our t-shirts — ‘Here’s something to help you escape.’ And that’s really what it is. It’s an escape. Especially now, we could all use a little escape right now.”

One thing attendees of The Drowsy Chaperone can count on? “They will be laughing,” Rocheleau said. “We’re cracking up in rehearsals. It’s funny.”

With comedy, Rocheleau said, comes added challenges for the students performing in the show.

“The kids all love comedic acting and they think they’re great at it,” Rocheleau said. “But it’s actually very difficult to get the timing down. The jokes require precision. A lot of time, kids learn their lines and if they mess them up a little bit, it’s not a big deal. With this show, you have to have the exact line in the exact way or you blow the joke… That’s one of the things that they’re working hard at. That’s the big thing, and then the other comedy stuff — knowing when to pause for laughs, knowing when to move on, that kind of stuff. The comedy of the show is different for them and that makes it a little more difficult, and the music is not easy either.”

Rocheleau said the cast rose to the challenges brought on by the difficult show, but now, the week the show is set to open, a new challenge has arisen that has understudies preparing to take the stage.

“The big challenge that we’re navigating right now is pneumonia,” Rocheleau said. “Fingers crossed we have a full cast on Friday, but we’ll see. We have such a strong cast this year, though, that I’ve got understudies who are very good and won’t miss a beat. They have to prepare like they are first-string now because they could be.”

The strength of this year’s cast, Rocheleau said, is the result of a strong program behind them, meaning that even though this year’s cast features a large number of seniors, he has no doubts about the future of the program.

“I’m not going to panic about losing this senior class because we will have some strong people for the next several years,” he said. “In the old days, we used to worry about stuff like that. Now, our program is so strong that it’s just almost expected… I think this program has developed kids and encouraged them from middle school on up… So there is continuity in what we do and it’s a pretty good program.”

Tickets for Ashwaubenon’s upcoming performances of The Drowsy Chaperone can be found at ashwaubenonpac.org.