Though this revved-up spoof of a 1920's song-and-dance frolic, as imagined by an obsessive 21st-century show queen, seems poised to become the sleeper of the Broadway season, it is not any kind of a masterpiece.

(Brantley) 'THE DROWSY CHAPERONE' A pasteboard pastiche of 1920's musicals, as remembered by a witty show queen (1:40).

Accordingly, even the unlikeliest candidates are feeling free to unleash their inner show queen.

The book also received the imprimatur of Oprah Winfrey, the Mississippi-born talk- show queen whose views carry great weight with her overwhelmingly female and African-American audiences.

(Brantley) 'THE DROWSY CHAPERONE' (Tony Awards, best book of a musical and best original score, 2006) This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920s stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece.

Clum is laudably refreshing when rejoicing in the stereotype of the show queen, a stereotype he proudly "aspired to," and a relic, he believes, of the pre-Stonewall era in which he himself first came out.

(Brantley) 'THE DROWSY CHAPERONE' This small and ingratiating spoof of 1920's stage frolics, as imagined by an obsessive show queen, may not be a masterpiece.