So what’s it like for Performance Network Theatre’s executive director, Carla Milarch, to direct her husband, Phil Powers, in the musical “The Drowsy Chaperone”?

“Well, it’s easier than directing him at home, I’ll tell you that,” Milarch joked.

“And it’s better, because I get paid for it,” Powers added.

In the Network's production of “Chaperone,” Powers plays the Man in the Chair — a charming, agoraphobic musical theater fan who listens to a cast recording of a beloved, Jazz Age show in his apartment while guiding the audience through its plot.

“One of the reasons I like show is because of the script and the frame of play,” said PNT artistic director David Wolber. “ … I just thought it was a really clever and engaging way to pull the modern audience into that old, big time, Busby Berkeley kind of 1920s musical.” “Chaperone” had humble origins, beginning life as a bachelor party spoof of 1920s musicals, created and presented in Toronto for Second City performers Bob Martin and his fiancée, Janet Van De Graaff. “Chaperone” lyricist Lisa Lambert and book writer Don McKellar had been friends with Martin since high school, and composer Greg Morrison had contributed to Martin’s television series, “Slings and Arrows.”

For the Toronto Fringe Festival, the Man in the Chair narrator, played by Martin, was added to “Chaperone”; and about a decade after its inception, the show arrived on Broadway in 2006, winning five Tony Awards.

“I’ve never really been involved in a musical quite like this, where everything is completely over the top,” said actor Scott Crownover, who plays Latin lothario Adolpho in “Chaperone”’s show-within-a-show. “There’s no such thing as subtlety in this. … There was a point in the production where I just realized that … you just have to run with it and say, … ‘There’s no way that I could go far enough.’ And once you get to that point, then it becomes completely fun, and you can just let go of yourself.”

The show that the Man in the Chair adores, called “The Drowsy Chaperone,” tells the story of a young star who is poised to leave “Feldzeig’s Follies” to marry a rich oil man. “Follies”’ producer hires Adolpho to seduce the actress, in hopes of retaining his star performer and, consequently, pay off his debts, while a chaperone who’s supposed to keep her eye on the actress spends the bulk of her time tossing back martinis (and is, consequently, “drowsy”).

“Where it breaks new ground for us as a theater is in the dancing,” said Milarch. “We’ve never had a show that has this much dancing in it before. … There’s a big tap dancing number in the middle of this. So it’s certainly going to be a new experience for people, as far as what we’re offering in the realm of musical theater at the Network.”

But the linchpin that holds the whole enterprise together, and speaks directly to the audience, is the Man in the Chair.

“When I watch Phil in rehearsal, … I absolutely love how (his character) loves the show,” said Crownover. “Because the Man in the Chair absolutely adores this show, the joy that comes out of his eyes and his smiles and his laughs can really only come from somebody that enjoys plays, that enjoys musicals, that would do this anyway in life. Sometimes — I shouldn’t be doing it — but even in rehearsals, I catch myself looking at Phil because he gives me this inspiration to keep trying to be funny.”

Milarch noted that “Chaperone”’s show-within-a-show indeed resembles the lavish spectacle musicals of the 1920s. “There wasn’t much character-driven singing,” she said. “Like the Man in the Chair says, the characters provide a way to move you from one big production number to the next big production.”

“And it doesn’t always make sense how they got there,” added Wolber.

But Wolber also noted that the same sensibilities that drew people to escapist fare then are likely to draw them to “Chaperone” now.

“Musicals of the ‘20s were very big, escapist pieces,” said Wolber. “And a lot of it had to do with economy of the time, and people wanting an escape. And I think it’s perfect that we’re doing that right now, in this economy as well. Because it’s just going to be a fabulous night out for people.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.