Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Drowsy Chaperone
There’s a big difference between the show and the show within the show when it comes to Hornby’s elements. Two big differences occur in duration and rhythm. In the “play”, duration is pretty smooth. The script suggests that Man is nothing more than what he is (a man playing a record for the audience); essentially, he’s the narrator. He appears quite often through the show and his actions do effect the presentation, but he’s not part of the plot. On the other hand, the actors who are part of the musical are on stage a lot. I should probably watch the videos, but I feel like it’s safe to say that the songs get lots of stage time compared to the actual dialogue and Man. I agree with Man; musicals aren’t really about conflicts and solutions, they’re about music. I believe a song is sung in every scene and each one deals with a different situation. Then there’s the huge contrast in rhythm. In the musical, tension is constantly being built between characters (Janet calls off the wedding, Feldzieg is avoiding the thugs, Aldolpho gets bamboozled, etc.) until there’s a huge release at the end (everyone gets married except George and Trix, but we assume they live happily ever after in Rio too). Besides the spit scene and the Mimi scene, there really isn’t a release of tension and even those are filled with comedic tension. In the “play”, tension is built and then released by Man. He occasionally interrupts with comments/info, the record skips, he puts the wrong disc on the player and eventually, the power goes out just as the musical is about to end. If we talk of the piece as a whole, then Man is definitely the release of this play because of his interjections. Choice is big too. There are lots of motifs in this piece, along with a lot of parodies. Two strong choices in this piece are 1) Man breaks the fourth wall but the other actors don’t and 2) there’s tons of dramatic irony.
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I liked how you compared the tension/release pattern in the play within the play and the meta play. Like how the play within the play almost has no sense of tension release and only augmentation and the only real tension release would be in the spit-take scene, which wasn’t even staged, and that you mentioned that basically the whole meta-play is tension and release every time the man speaks. I completely agree. Also, I like how you mentioned all the parodies. There consistent reappearance is what made the show as enjoyable as it was and just added to the ridiculousness and confusion of it.
ReplyDeleteRhythm was the biggest thing that I had noticed that contrasted between text and music. Of course this is to be expected. I like how you focus on tension as well, I wasn't quite sure to what degree I noticed this, but seeing someone post this makes me feel reassured that I wasn't looking into nothing.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that the Man and dialogue get just as much stage time as the music. Of course the musical numbers and huge and loud, but we do see a lot of the man and he's even in some musical numbers even if it's just to put in his opinion or tell the audience something.
ReplyDeleteThe tension you talked about is great, I wish I would've thought to do that in my post. But yeah, I really like what you said about the rhythm created by the Man in the Chair's constant interjections or other actions that directly influence the world of the meta play.
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