The Fullerton College Theater Arts Department presented its spring musical “The Drowsy Chaperone” to a near full house Thursday evening March 12.

This musical comedy follows the character only knows as “Man In The Chair”, portrayed by Nick Fawwaz, as he plays the record of his favorite musical, “The Drowsy Chaperone.” The record starts to play and the characters appear in his apartment which is transformed into a glamorous Broadway set. Man in the Chair provides commentary and narrates throughout the entire show.

The opening musical number “Fancy Dress”, introduces the premise of the show and characters. It’s the wedding day of Robert Martin (Brandon Burks) and his fiancee, Broadway star Janet Van De Graaff (Noelle Carney), who plans to give up her glittering Broadway career for the married life.

Other characters introduced like Feldzieg (Ernie Lopez), a Broadway producer who is hoping to convince Janet to call off the wedding so that she can continue her acting career, and Chaperone (Loressa McGowan), who is supposed to keep Janet away from Robert until the wedding.

The production featured a live orchestra played by members of the Fullerton College Music Department. Having a live orchestra helped bring that authentic Broadway feel to the campus theater. It was difficult to hear the singing during the opening number over the live orchestra but that problem was fixed by the second number. It was a good thing Man In The Chair was there to walk us through it or else no one would know what was going on.

The musical featured an entertaining, strong tap dance number “Cold Feets” featuring Robert and his best man George (Brandon Burks). Robert is getting cold feet and both Robert and George feel that tap dancing their worries away would be the best remedy. The audience cheered at the end of the number. It almost seemed like the performers had a hard time continuing on because the audience would not stop clapping and cheering for their outstanding performance.

The most outstanding performance of the night goes to Noelle Carney in “Show Off.” Janet talks to reporters about how happy she is to be getting married and give up her acting career. This song transforms into a big production and ironically, Janet is singing about how she is done being a Broadway showoff, all while showing off her Broadway talents. Carney treated the audience with her blend of comedy and powerful vocal skills, something she should feel very proud of.

Tucker Boyes, who played the role of Underling, did a splendid job on making sure that you remember his character. The few lines that he had were hilarious and every time he left the stage, the audience applauded his performance.

Fawwaz, although he only sang towards the end of the show, gave an outstanding performance. During his monologue in the final act, you really got a sense of the truly deep and troubling issues that the Man In The Chair has faced throughout his life.

For more information visit http://theatre.fullcoll.edu/