UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance sets the stage for an ambitious musical comedy opening Feb. 26 in the Wright Hall’s Main Theatre
By HANNAH OSBORN — arts@theaggie.org
Entering a world of ritzy costuming and jazzy overtures, the UC Davis Department of Theatre and Dance undertakes “The Drowsy Chaperone” as its winter quarter production. Led by Director Rhett Guter, winter 2026 Granada artist-in-residence, the show presents a story parodying the musical genre itself.
The show starts in the apartment of a Broadway fan (Man in Chair), but expands into a 1920s world as he puts on the record for a fictional musical and narrates to the audience throughout. Spoofing on early 20th-century musicals, the show features a wedding, oil magnates, Broadway starlets, a scheming manager and just about every convention of the genre, including the titular Drowsy Chaperone.
Guter discussed the ways his production brings the audience into this world.
“We start in the Man in Chair’s apartment,” Guter said. “It’ll be framed off [by an] all black border, all this furniture and [with] not a lot of space. Then, those borders literally push out and the furniture sort of expands as these characters arrive. It’s like his whole imagination just opens up and we play inside his world.”
Guter brings his expertise not just as an award-winning director, choreographer and actor, but as a magician, staging aspects unique to this production of the musical.
“I wanted to bring some magic elements to the show,” Guter said. “Traditionally in the opening scene the characters appear from different furniture, which we sort of homage to, but I wanted to have a handful of characters emerge from the record and for it to feel like a magic trick, as if they’re emerging out of nowhere.”
Guter also shared the impact of the show as a referential piece to the history of musicals.
“I appreciate the way it attempts to be sort of a love letter to musical theatre,” Guter said. “It also pokes fun at itself, even parodying and satirizing some of the more problematic history of musical theatre, all while saying [that] art is complicated. What I love about this piece is that it’s about someone sharing art with the audience and really talking through their complicated emotions about themselves as a person.”
The production features students, alumni and faculty. Seona Sherman, a fourth-year English major who plays the Drowsy Chaperone, shared the experience of working with the crew and 21 cast members.
“It’s been more fun with more people,” Sherman said. “As an actor who’s always felt like the smaller the cast, the more limited opportunities there are for other people to learn and grow, having such a big cast is actually really valuable.”
Being part of the production provides Theatre and Dance credits from the 180 course series, making it a learning experience for students. Having Guter as the director was a decision that the cast found meaningful.
“It’s really cool to work with [Guter],” Sherman said. “One of the reasons why I wanted to work with the [UC Davis Theatre and Dance Department] was because I wanted to grow as an actor. Here I really feel like we get to make this professional connection in the field, but also grow so much.”
The nature of the show also brings creative challenges to the crew as they attempt to stage for many moving parts: the cast, a monkey puppet and a life-sized plane, to name a few.
Stage Manager Mario Sandoval, a fourth-year theatre and dance major, shared his experience putting the show together.
“The conversation is sometimes a bit eccentric,” Sandoval said. “I was down in the costume shop last week, and they asked me if I could bring the monkey puppet down to get its costume fitted.”
Sandoval also discussed what it meant to hold a key role in putting on such a large production.
“We’re not just putting on plays to put on plays,” Sandoval said. “I think every story that we tell to the audience has a meaning or thematic message behind it. To know and be a part of the process of it starting from nothing, to then watching it on opening and closing night — that, to me, is the reward and what I love to see.”
Despite the comedic tone of the show drawing from stock characters, the production hopes to present a complex view of musicals, art and memory.
“We’re really being challenged by our director, who acknowledged that on the surface, [the show is] not being taken seriously,” Sherman said. “But as he likes to [say], we need to fill the characters with life. You need to fill the characters with depth, so that the audience understands there’s layers to it.”
For the cast, the presence of the audience is a motivating factor that pulls the production together.
“Ultimately, the real power of art, specifically theater, is that it is a communal experience that we share together,” Guter said.
“The Drowsy Chaperone” will be hosted at the Wright Hall’s Main Theatre on Feb. 26-27 and March 5-6 at 7 p.m. and Feb. 28 and March 2 at 2 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 530-752-2471 or at the UC Davis Ticket Office from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Written by: Hannah Osborn— arts@theaggie.org
