Thoroughly Modern Millie
27th November - 1st December 2007

Music by
Jeanine Tesori

Lyrics by
Dick Scanlan

Book by
Richard Morris & Dick Scanlan

Based on
Thoroughly Modern Millie (Film) (1967)

Reviews

The Team

Director - Briar Blake
Musical Director - Ian Skipper
Choreographer - Gill Miller
Stage Manager - Alex Murphy
Stage Assistants - Lucy Bedwell, Derrick Cathie, Ted Edgeler, Catriona Maclean, Laura Shepherd, Jade Hamilton, Wayne Trice, Nicole Wood, Louise Young
Publicity - Rick Baxter, Chris Beaney, Dawn Lambert
Wigs - Bright's Barnets
Sound - Tom Shipman
Set Designer - Scenic Projects
Rehearsal Pianist - Peter Thompson
Costumes - Costume Workshop, Isle of Wight
Properties - Bill Woodland
Wardrobe Supervisors - Chrissy Bright, Anne Cathie, Brenda Wren
Photography - Ron Mason
Front of House - David Apps, Elizabeth Murray, Gill Stone, Tracy Wrench
Posters & Program Design - Leslie Watts
Dressers - Pat Claxton, Maggie Hill
Lighting Design - Roger Firth
Prompt - Chrissy Bright & Ann Bowden

The Cast

Millie Dillmount - Corin Miller
Jimmie Smith - Andy Lingfield
Ruth - Vicky Terry
Gloria - Sarah Ioannou
Rita - Natalie Cave
Alice - Rowan Smith
Cora - Lindsay Spence
Lucille - Eugenie Dunster
Ethel Peas - Hazel Istead
Mrs Meers - Amanda Miller
Miss Dorothy Brown - Hannah Smailes
Ching Ho - Kevin Hayes
Bun Foo - Ray Beaney
Mrs Flannery - Dawn Lambert
Mr Trevor Graydon - Adam Damerell
Policeman - Rick Baxter
Muzzy van Hossmere - Jakki Brown
George Gershwin - Adam Boniface
Ira Gershwin - Shane Marsh
Dorothy Parker - Sue Reader
Rodney - Mark Unwin
Kenneth - Gary Wookey
Daphne - Katrina Trice
Dexter - Chris Beaney
Mathilde - Hayley Chilvers
Mama - Gill Miller
Company - Rick Baxter, Chris Beaney, Adam Boniface*, Natalie Cave*, Hayley Chilvers*,
Ricky Cox*, Eugenie Dunster*, Phoebe Dunster*, Sarah Ioannou*, Hazel Istead*, Shane Marsh,
Alex Neal*, Sue Reader*, Charlotte Simon*, Rowan Smith*, Lindsay Spence*, Nicola Stone*,
Vicky Terry*, Katrina Trice*, Hayley Tyrrell*, Mark Unwin, Gary Wookey
*dancers

The Story

Act I
It's 1922, and Millie Dillmount has just escaped to New York City from Salina, Kansas, and, determined to become a success, tears up her return ticket ("Not For the Life of Me"). Bobbing her hair, she assumes the modern look of a "flapper" ("Thoroughly Modern Millie"). But she is quickly mugged on the streets of New York, losing her hat, scarf, purse and shoe. In a panic for someone to help her, she trips bypasser Jimmy Smith, a handsome, carefree young man who makes his way through life on whim and wits, who promptly lectures her on why she needs to head back home: she is just another girl full of false hopes who doesn't belong in the big city. Almost taking his advice, she changes her mind and yells after him, "Who needs a hat? Who needs a purse? And who needs YOU, mister whoever-you-are?!" and soon takes a room at the Hotel Priscilla for Single Women ("Not for the Life of Me").

A week later, Millie is confronted by the hotel proprietress, the mysterious and sinister Mrs. Meers, an actress turned evil who now works for a white slavery ring in Hong Kong, kidnapping pretty unsuspecting orphan girls and shipping them to the Orient, for not paying her rent. Mrs. Meers declares that Millie "has two minutes to pack, or find her things on the street!" But then Millie meets the wealthy Miss Dorothy, who wants to learn how the poorer half lives, and tried to get a room in the Priscilla hotel. Unfortunately there were no rooms left. When Mrs. Meers suggested she go live with some family for a little while, she confides to her that she is an orphan, therefore giving Mrs. Meers a horrible idea to try to kidnap her. So she decides to room with a reluctant Millie and pay the rent until Millie finds a suitable, rich, and single boss, whom she plans to marry ("How the Other Half Lives"). Millie is showing Miss Dorothy to her room, but the elevator is malfunctioning again, so they have to tap dance to get to their floor. The two quickly become best friends.

In the Hotel Priscilla laundry room, two Chinese immigrants, Ching Ho and Bun Foo, are working for Mrs. Meers to earn enough money to bring their mother from Hong Kong over to the states ("Not For the Life Of Me [reprise]")

Millie comes to Sincere Trust looking for a job (and a single boss) and is appointed to Trevor Graydon III (The Speed Test). She quickly decides that she wants him to marry her and easily gets the job. Meanwhile, Ching Ho attempts to capture Miss Dorothy for Mrs. Meers with a poisoned apple but when he sees her, falls in love with her instantly and then wants to save her from Mrs. Meers. Before Dorothy eats the poisoned apple, Millie arrives with the good news that she has found a job and a boss to marry. To celebrate this success they celebrate at a speakeasy, where they meet Jimmy, but the club is raided by the police. Millie and Jimmy finally get to know each others names in a jail cell waiting for release. (What Do I Need With Love).

They soon begin to date, and go to a party hosted by Muzzy Van Hosmere where they finally fall in love. After a late night, Millie returns to the hotel to go to bed, and finds Miss Dorothy kissing Jimmy, she overhears a silent conversation. "I really want to tell her, she's my best friend" "You know we can't". Confused and horrified she breaks up with Jimmy.

Act II
At Sincere Trust, Millie tells the other stenographers that she is "completely over" Jimmy then realizes she is still in love, the girls try to convince her to let him go. (Forget About the Boy). Then Jimmy breaks in through the window and asks her to dinner, she tells him off for a while, then agrees. Jimmy finally declares his feelings for Millie while washing dishes to pay their tab at Cafe Society, a swank speakeasy. Millie is confused by her feelings for Jimmy and her desire not to be poor. Just as she returns to Jimmy, they encounter Mr. Graydon, who was stood up by Miss Dorothy. He tells Millie and Jimmy that Mrs. Meers told him Miss Dorothy had checked out of the hotel. When Millie recalls that several other tenants had also suddenly "checked out", and that all of the missing tenants were orphans, Millie, Jimmy, and Mr. Graydon realize what Mrs. Meers is up to. They persuade Muzzy to pose as a new orphan in town to trick Mrs. Meers. Mrs. Meers takes the bait, is exposed as the mastermind of the slavery ring, and taken to the police station. Meanwhile, Ching Ho had already rescued Miss Dorothy and won her heart.

Jimmy proposes to Millie, and, poor as he is, she accepts, "because if it's marriage I've got in mind, love has everything to do with it." Jimmy turns out to be Herbert J. Van Hossmere III, Muzzy's stepson, and one of the most eligible bachelors in the world. And Miss Dorothy turns out to be his sister, an heiress, and she ends up not with the dismayed Trevor Graydon, but with Ching Ho. Both Jimmy and Dorothy had disguised their wealth to avoid being targeted by gold diggers. In a final pairing, Bun Foo joins Graydon's company as a new stenographer after telling Graydon that he can type fifty words a minute.

(Sourced from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoroughly_Modern_Millie_(musical))