Be on Time! Advertising Deadline: 12 Noon on Tuesday

Friday, April 25, 2025

For PDF version of this week paper, please click here...

In May, Virden Collegiate is presenting The Drowsy Chaperon, “the most comedic out of the musicals that we've done so far. So should be a hit with the crowd,” says VCI choir and drama teacher Luke Munchinsky. He’s also the English language arts teacher and this is his third musical with the school and they’ve all been hits.

The show is a musical set within a 1920s Broadway play: A man (in the chair) shares with the audience his favorite record, the 1928 musical, The Drowsy Chaperone. As he plays the record, the show comes to life in his apartment, mixing two lovebirds on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theater producer, a not so bright hostess, gangsters posing as pastry chefs, a misguided Don Juan and a sleepy chaperone -the ingredients for this hilarious show.

It’s slapstick, “an over exaggerated, very physical style, some patter…who's on second…rapid fire stuff. Goofiness. And there's some fun little gimmicks where the record (needle sticks) and they keep repeating the same dance move… where [the man in the chair] keeps pausing the show to share funny little things.”

With a total of 31 students in the production, an audition helped to cast 14 different role characters (dialogue and

vocal solos) with the other 17 in various ensembles.

Munchinsky says, “Comedy can be way harder than drama in terms of getting the timing and the beats and all that stuff right.”

But, the young actors are making it their own. “They're getting what makes it click and enjoying it themselves…. That's like the most important part.”

The Drowsy Chaperone is a 90-minute dramatic musical with some character depth. “I think it's a good one for having a bit of something for everybody,” says Munchinsky.

“These musicals are, like a big undertaking for me,” he says, adding that the sense of community that it builds is an important feature that arises with the camaraderie at practices and in the final product on the Aud Theatre stage.

“It's them doing it themselves. I'm here facilitating and doing tons of stuff, but really, it's their own work that they're creating, that they're deciding, that they're doing their own practicing. I think that they learn the ability to apply themselves and create something through their own work.”

The Drowsy Chaperone hits the stage in Virden Aud Theatre between May 8 to May 10.

The Drowsy

Chaperone most

comedic musical

By Anne Davison