WAKE-UP CALL 'THE DROWSY CHAPERONE' CELEBRATES THE POWER OF MUSICALS TO MOVE US.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

There's this guy, see, and he really digs this old musical from the 1920s. Fanatically. So he sits in this chair in his lonely New York apartment and he just has to tell you - his visitor - all about this show. In fact, he has to play you the phonograph record and tell you everything you want to know (and maybe a few things you don't) about all the people singing.

And while he's in the process of conducting this rather pathetic little tour of this thing you've never heard of, something kind of unexpected happens. The damned musical comes to life in his living room.

Everyone still with me? Maybe not. OK, let's have one of the actresses actually performing this bit of surrealism give it a stab.

Take it away, Sutton Foster.

``It's basically like someone is coming to your house, and you're going, 'OK, I'm going to play you my favorite album ever, and I'm going to talk you through the whole thing,' '' says Foster, one of the ``conjured-up'' stars of the new musical, ``The Drowsy Chaperone,'' opening Friday at the Ahmanson Theatre. ``You think it's one thing, and it becomes something else by the end.''

Uh, OK. Please ignore the furrowed brow.

Foster, who in 2002 became the original Millie of the Broadway musical, ``Thoroughly Modern Millie,'' continues:

``People ask me, 'What are you doing?' and I say, ' ``The Drowsy Chaperone.'' ' `` 'What? What does that mean?' I'm like, 'Well ... just come see it.' ''

Fewer people scratch their head over ``Chaperone'' in Toronto. That's where Greg Morrison and Lisa Lambert first created a 30-minute version of the show - with a handful of songs - as a stag-party gift for engaged comedians Bob Martin and Janet Vann De Graaff. Knowing Martin and Vann de Graaff's love of old-style musicals, they crafted ``Chaperone,'' complete with original songs and costumes. Lambert, a composer and award-winning comedian in Canada, also happened to be Martin's best man and thereby in charge of the party.

``I had said, 'I don't want any strippers or anything embarrassing,' '' recalls Martin, a veteran actor/writer and former artistic director at Toronto's Second City. ``So I had no idea what Lisa was going to do.''

Not only was the ``gift'' a hit, the pair ended up expanding it, with Van de Graaff producing ``Chaperone'' for a sold-out engagement at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1999. Subsequent performances at the Passe Muraille and Toronto's Winter Garden Theatre added a narrative framing device with Martin playing the Man in Chair/narrator, a role he'll repeat at the Ahmanson.

Once ``Chaperone'' drew raves at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's annual festival of new musicals in New York late in 2004, the buzz began to more closely resemble a roar. Producers Kevin McCollum (``Rent'' `'Avenue Q'') and Roy Miller came aboard, and the ``Chaperone'' team tapped ``Spam-a-Lot'' choreographer Casey Nicholaw to make his directing debut.

Assuming the Ahmanson run goes favorably, Broadway would be the next stop, lending some weight to Martin's assertion that his ``Chaperone'' ``is more than just fluff.''

``I think it really says something about frustration and why people need to be entertained,'' says Martin. ``The central character really doesn't have a very nice life, and there's great value for him in those types of entertainment. I've described this show as being 'in defense of light entertainment,' which does make it sound like fluff. But it actually is defending light entertainment.''

Foster, who had neither acted in nor seen any of the earlier incarnations, counts herself a fan of less-weighty musical fare as well. The fact that ``Chaperone'' will be her follow-up project after the considerably more demanding work in ``Millie'' and ``Little Women'' was an enticement as well.

Playing a Broadway starlet who wants to give up the biz to get married, Foster finds herself part of an equally weighted ensemble. And loving it.

``I still have so much to learn, and I want to have some experiences where I'm not the only person in the spotlight with that type of pressure,'' she says. ``You read a lot of things, but there's something about this show. I read the script, I laughed out loud, and I thought, 'There's something really special here.' ''

Martin cites the Marx Brothers and the lesser players of Preston Sturges comedies as influences for the ``Chaperone'' sensibility. When the piece was first conceived, he said, it followed on the satirical/celebratory trail of ``Urinetown,'' another show about the experience of seeing musicals.

``This was written at a time when musicals were really preaching, and they had become political and heavy-handed,'' says Martin, ``and it was like, 'You know what? Entertain me!'

``I think people will laugh. I think they'll be moved by the plight of the man in the chair somewhat. I hope so,'' he continues. ``But it's not fluffy.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

THE DROWSY CHAPERONE

Where: Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: Opens Friday. Performances are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; through Dec. 24.

Tickets: $20 to $90. [phone].

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Photo:

Angela Pupello, left, Sutton Foster, Patrick Wetzel, Beth Leavel, Jason Kravitz and Garth Kravitz star in the 1920s musical ``The Drowsy Chaperone'' at the Ahmanson Theatre.