I Put a Monkey on a Pedestal

While in New York last week, I splurged on a single orchestra aisle seat for the Tony-award winner The Drowsy Chaperone. This little bit of cotton-candy fluff was the perfect show for me to see on my own on a very hot day. When you enter a theater to see a musical, you've really got to leave your cynicism, your snark, and your logical mind behind, cuz musicals are really the most fun when you just go along for the ride, giggling all the way. And this is certainly a silly one, an homage to musicals for everyone who loves musicals.

The plot of the story is goofy and doesn't hold up to rational explanation -- but suffice it to say that the audience gets to watch the narrator listen to one of his favorite records. Yep, that's it. And as he listens to this record - the cast recording of a nearly-century old musical - the cast of characters comes to life in his living room, and they act out all the trials, tribulations, and tra-la-las of falling in love. The musical theater-loving narrator gets to interact with his idols and we all get to laugh along with him as he does his own little MST'ing of the silly musical itself.

It's cute, it's funny, and it includes a ballad that repeats the line "Oh monkey, monkey, monkey, you broke my heart in two." Plus, in addition to seeing Broadway phenom Sutton Foster as the leading lady, you get to see Georgia Engel (Georgette from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) do repeated spit takes saying "That's pure vodka, you poop!" Good times. Worth every penny of that exorbitant ticket price!