The Drowsy Chap.

Oh goodness. Well, if I were to analyze a just the play itself I would look at duration because if you take out Man in Chair's lines, the focus would switch to Janet and Robert and the Major Dramatic Question would be: Will they actually get married? And therefore, scenes would strive to be longer and the plot to be drawn out. But in the play within a play, the writer's chose for the Man to be the main character and because of his increased amounts of stage time, the scenes of the actual play are shorter because it is not about The Drowsy Chaperone, but of the Man and his POV of the play he is listening to. The rhythm of the actual play verses the play within a play also differs because if it were just the play, the rhythm begins with a big opening number and intro of all the characters within the script, then the tempo decreases as the storyline unfolds. The tempo would then increase with each song being sung because the plot is thickening and keep increase till the climax which is Janet calling off the wedding. The play within a play does not begin with a big, blonde, and beautiful number. Instead the rhythm has not really begun because the Man is talking about his life and about this musical he loves to listen to. The rhythm actually picks up when the opening number of the show comes to life. Every time the Man speaks though, the musical drops and there is this rhythm of stopping and starting, just like in a tech rehearsal, where you don't know what will come next, but you pray to Jesus that you can make it through the next scene without someone calling, "HOLD." It would be much easier to analyze The Drowsy Chap. how it is instead of the fictional story because the Man is a choice, and an important one. He is the one who sets the pace and creates this dissonant flow that works for the show.