“I know it is not a perfect show, the spit-take scene is lame and the monkey motif is labored, but it does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world,” says senior Julian Hermano as the Man in Chair.

This year’s musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, directed by Ezra Flam, did exactly that. This Tony Award-winning play was pulled off magnificently, and audience members found themselves in hysterics throughout. With beautiful costumes and incredibly catchy music, the play spoofs American musicals from the Jazz Age.

Flam’s production wowed the audience with its elaborate musical numbers, but what really made the show remarkable was Hermano’s sophisticated performance as the nostalgic and mousy Man in Chair. Although the audience never hears the full story, Hermano’s character is clearly suffering from a divorce. To comfort himself, he puts on a record of a fictional 1928 musical comedy, The Drowsy Chaperone, and his dingy apartment becomes an impressive Broadway set.

This play-within-a-play humorously depicts the good and bad aspects of theater in the 1920s. However, for Hermano’s character, musicals are not supposed to be perfect; they are supposed to put a little bit of happiness into people’s otherwise miserable lives. As a result of this compelling philosophy, the satirical overacting, lavish musical numbers and unrealistic plot line of this play-within-a-play felt surprisingly meaningful.

“I thought he did a really good job of creating nuance in a character,” said junior Noah Krawitz of Hermano’s performance. “The more the audience watched him, the more captivated we were by the story outside of the play.”

This play-within-a-play stars Janet van de Graaff, played by junior Lily Waldron, a showgirl who is planning to give up her career in order to marry oil tycoon Robert Martin, played by senior Eli Cherry. As the play progressed, the plot became more and more ridiculous, as it introduced gangsters disguised as pastry chefs; senior Dave Friedman as the Latin “King of Romance;” and Janet’s droll and alcoholic chaperone, played by senior Laura Jacobs.

“We have a bride who’s giving up the stage for love, her debonair bridegroom, a harried producer, jovial gangsters posing as pastry chefs, and an aviatrix, what we now call a lesbian,” says Hermano as Man in Chair.

To put it mildly, the humor in the play was risqué. At one point, the Man in Chair compares the value of dialogue in musicals to the value of dialogue in pornography. “What kind of society do we live in that we can’t discuss the similarities between musical theater and pornography?” he asks the audience.

“I know Julian from improv class, and it was great to see him step out of his own body and play a character that was so unlike him,” said junior Danielle Balanov.

The Drowsy Chaperone certainly is not your typical musical. With Hermano’s performance, it goes above and beyond. It explores why people love musicals.

For Hermano’s sad character, these 1920s musicals are his only solace. As he says at the end of the play, “It does what a musical is supposed to do. It takes you to another world. It gives you a little tune to carry in your head for when you’re feeling blue, you know? As we stumble along on life’s funny journey.”