Director jumped at chance to stage 'Drowsy Chaperone'

Director/choreographer Marc Robin knew the moment he first saw "The Drowsy Chaperone" on Broadway that he wanted to direct it.

"Nowadays when I see something I haven't seen before," Robin says, "my first response is: 'Do I want to do it or don't I want to do it?' Some shows I see and I think immediately 'Oh gosh, that is not going to be part of my future.'"

With "The Drowsy Chaperone," he had the opposite reaction.

"I loved 'The Drowsy Chaperone.'" Robin says. "It is silly and entertaining. It is the kind of show you go to to leave all of your troubles outside. It isn't 'Les Mis." It isn't 'Miss Saigon.' You come to the show to laugh."

Which is why, when the folks at the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire got the rights to do "The Drowsy Chaperone" and asked Robin if he would like to direct it, his response was an enthusiastic yes.

"The show is an homage to everything I love about music theater," Robin says. "It is the story of a man who shares his favorite musical theater piece with the audience in a way that the audience is part of the show. The thing that hooked me is that I am the Man in Chair."

"Man in Chair" is how the narrator is identified in "The Drowsy Chaperone." He recounts the details of his favorite musical - a lively, lighthearted fictionalized show from the 1920s.

Robin, who came to Chicago back in 1982 to play "the back end of a cow" in a production of "Gypsy," has worked on a lot of shows over the past 28 years.

"I came to Chicago thinking I would work a few years and then move to New York," Robin says. "But I never stopped working."

His career in theater evolved over time. He started as an actor, became a dancer, then a dance captain. He later added choreographer and director to his resume.

For 13 years he was the artistic director of the late, lamented Drury Lane Evergreen Park. "That was my classroom," Robin says. "I learned my craft from all the people I worked with, people who knew how to do it."

Robin learned his craft so skillfully that now he is in the enviable position of dividing his time between Chicago and the gorgeous country around Lancaster, Penn., where he has a home and is artistic director of the Fulton Theater.

In leaner years, Robin has held "survival jobs" - like waiting tables to make ends meet. But, like the "Man in Chair," theater is, and always has been, Robin's life.

• "The Drowsy Chaperone" runs through June 27 at The Marriott Theatre, 10 Marriott Drive, Lincolnshire. Tickets may be purchased at the Marriott Theatre box office or by phone (847) 634-0200.