From scorpion lady at CV Amusing Antics by Clay Aiken, Beth Leavel, & Co. Make “The Drowsy Chaperone” a Must-See Musical “American Idol” season-two runner-up Clay Aiken wins the hearts and minds of Triangle theatergoers with his pixilated performance as the star-struck Man in Chair in the North Carolina Theatre‘s uproarious rendition of The Drowsy Chaperone, playing now through Sunday in Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts in the downtown Raleigh, NC. Aiken, who made his professional debut at age 17 in NCT’s 1996 productions of 1776 and Shenandoah, is a hoot as an eccentric, effete musical-theater snob with a special affection for a forgotten 1928 Broadway musical romance entitled The Drowsy Chaperone. Although he doesn’t have much of an opportunity to sing, Aiken demonstrates a fine flair for comedy as Man in Chair sets the musical ball rolling as he spins remastered LPs from his favorite guilty pleasure and — like magic — the original Roaring Twenties cast of The Drowsy Chaperone materializes all around him — to flirt and dance and crack wise. Meanwhile, Man in Chair scampers around and through the action, introducing the characters and the actors and actresses who play them with pep in their step, thanks to NCT artistic director Casey Hushion’s robust recreation of the original 2006 Broadway direction and choreography devised by her friend Casey Nicholaw, while Hushion served as his assistant director.Clay Aiken’s fellow Raleigh native Beth Leavel is a scream as she reprises Tony Award®-winning performance as the perpetually sozzled and always hot-to-trot title character, whose signature song — belted in a big Broadway voice — is “As We Stumble Along.” While Leavel is hamming it up hilariously — and stealing every scene in which she appears — Johnny Stellard and Paige Faure keep the waves of laughter rolling with their antics as well-heeled groom-to-be Robert Martin and his fabulous fiancée, big Broadway star Janet Van De Graaff, who would be having cold feet if they ever cooled off from her sizzling dance routines. The caffeinated comic characterizations of the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed supporting cast and the invigorating accompaniment of the red-hot NCT orchestra, under the direction of Edward G. Robinson, help elevate this offbeat musical- within-a-musical from a “star package” to a full-scale musical extravaganza that compares favorably with the deluze touring versions of Broadway musicals that regularly visit the Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. (Indeed, the North Carolina Theatre is the Triangle’s foremost purveyor of home-grown Broadway musicals!)