My sister was in a production of The Drowsy Chaperone. It’s a musical that on the surface, is a flimsy story about a wedding day that almost doesn’t happen due to a series of misunderstandings. The story, set in the 1920’s, features a slightly stupid pair of lovers and an entourage of their friends and business acquaintances who bumble around trying to either get the two together or pull them apart for various reasons, usually achieving the exact opposite of what they mean to. And of course there is the play’s namesake, the drowsy chaperone. Her only job is to look after the bride and make sure she doesn’t bring bad luck on the day by letting the groom see her before the ceremony. The story being mainly an excuse to perform a bunch of songs and dialogue, the musical itself would be a poor example of musical theater. Luckily the musical isn’t the only thing going on here. From the beginning of the show we are guided by a man who owns the record of the musical. He serves as narrator/emcee/commentator/audience member. As such, he is always present in the background enjoying the show, despising the deplorable characters, singing along with the production numbers, or pausing the record here and there to explain something. At first quiet and helpful, he intrudes increasingly on the action with his own opinions and lifestory. By the end of the show we realize it is really his story we have seen. Alone in his small apartment, his records serve to take him beyond his four walls to all the places and times available to the imagination. We see it all as he sees it, all the glamour and action in the very midst of his living room. In the thinness of the story he finds wings for his own imagination. In the hesitancy of the bride he sees all the pros and cons of love and love lost. In one garbled line of advice from the Chaperone he sees all hopes and fears of the future. Should we love while we can or leave while we can? He finds eventual hope in the final happy ending that all can be well, no matter what life’s ups and downs. Like a work of art that lets us dream what we like into its abstraction, this musical shows us what we can dream, what is possible, and the power of the imagination to captivate and take us where we want to go.