Gateway 60th Season Celebration continues with the Long Island Professional Premiere of The Drowsy Chaperone

(Bellport, N.Y.) The Roaring 20’s come screaming back with laughter in the hilarious new musical comedy, The Drowsy Chaperone, which premieres at Gateway Playhouse’s historic Bellport Theater on July 29.

Gateway is New York’s first regional theater to grab the rights for the Tony Award winning Broadway hit, which takes a modern day spin on musical comedies of old. The show is a “tale within a tale” of a reclusive theater fanatic, known simply as “Man in Chair,” who chases away his blues by living vicariously through old musicals played on his ancient Hi-Fi record player. The show kicks into high gear when he drops the needle on his favorite LP, the (fictitious) 1928 musical comedy The Drowsy Chaperone, and the musical magically bursts to life in his small apartment, which morphs into a lavish 1920s style Broadway musical stage.

“It’s a unique show that audiences, across the boards, love. It was a surprise hit on Broadway,” said Gateway Producer Paul Allan.

It was one of the most celebrated musicals of the 2006 Broadway season and walked away with more Tony Awards than any other musical that year, including Best Book by Bob Martin and Don McKellar and Original Score from Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison. The show is rife with 1920’s musical comedy style characters – that include a debonair groom, a dizzy chorus girl, a Latin lover, an English butler, two thugs disguised as pastry chefs, and a chaperone who isn’t as much drowsy as she is tipsy.

Gateway’s production includes a cast featuring TV and Film veteran Lauren Cohn (“Bored To Death”, “House M.D.”, “ER”, Solaris, Catch Me If You Can, among others) as the titular character, Broadway veteran Bob Freschi (original broadway companies of Annie and 1940’s Radio Hour) as “Underling”, and NY Stage veteran Nat DeWolf (Take Me Out and Betty’s Summer Vacation) as the charismatic “Man In Chair”, to name a few. Also in the cast is Allyce Beasley playing the role of “Mrs. Tottendale”. Ms. Beasley is most remembered for her role as “Agnes DiPesto” on the hit TV Show “Moonlighting” where she received both a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her work, however other credits include “Taxi”, “Cheers”, “Remington Steele”, “ALF”, “Touched By An Angel”, “Felicity”, “Diagnosis Murder”, “Medium”, Stuart Little, Legally Blonde, and Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers to name a few.

Gateway veteran director Dom Ruggiero said that the narrative framework of the show is an exercise in escapism, adorned with just enough postmodern footnotes to make the average theatergoer feel as though they’re part of the overall joke.

“He’s envisioning what’s going on – on stage,” Mr. Ruggiero said. “That’s what’s going on in his living room and we just happen to be part of that experience.” The big production number of the show is suddenly ceased because of a power outage in the “Man in Chair’s” apartment. “The other thing about this show is the music,” Mr. Ruggiero said. “It’s beautiful, it’s funny, and it’s well constructed. This is a gem of a musical, it’s purely original, and it’s going to be done for a long time.”

The Drowsy Chaperone opens on the Bellport stage, Wednesday, July 29 with performances through Saturday, August 22. Gateway Playhouse – Broadway caliber entertainment at an affordable price.

For more information visit www.gatewayplayhouse.com and for tickets (631) 286-1133 or 1-888-4TIXNOW