Thoroughly Modern Millie

Thoroughly Modern Millie is set in 1922 and tells the story of young Millie Dillmount from Kansas who arrives in New York City in search of a new life for herself. Her plan is simple - to find a job as a secretary for an eligible bachelor and then to marry him. It doesn’t take long, however, for her ‘thoroughly modern’ plan to go awry. The owner of her dingy hotel kidnaps young girls, who are all alone in the world, to then sell them into slavery in the Far East. Her wealthy boss seems entirely uninterested in her and, worst of all, the man she actually falls in love with doesn’t have a dime to his name.... or so he tells her! 

The show totally relies on and is totally centred around Millie, so to do justice to this massive and demanding role you need a performer who can carry off this onerous task and Jen Lewis most definitely was that person. She so easily transformed from a country bumpkin into a ‘flapper’ and was then full of enthusiasm and energy, she was bubbly and vivacious, she ‘thoroughly’ immersed herself in the role and her outstanding singing, dancing and acting skills were absolutely top notch - a most captivating performance. Jimmy Smith, a suave city slicker, was superbly portrayed by Martin Counter. He captured the easy charm, the flirtatious and playboy characteristics of Jimmy to perfection and the developing relationship between himself and Millie was most convincingly portrayed. Miss Dorothy, one of the girls Millie befriends, is a wealthy but naive young lady and was delightfully played by Elizabeth Brookes who demonstrated her frothiness, innocence and joy exquisitely and her singing was just glorious. Mark Jennison commanded the stage as the wealthy bachelor boss of Millie, Trevor Graydon. He portrayed his obsessive and serious nature ideally and his singing of ‘The Speed Test’, a very fast and wordy  song, was most impressive. Sarah Stone was in her element playing Mrs Meers, who was an actress and is now a trafficking hotel owner purporting to be Chinese, when it suits! Sarah coped extremely well with the two accents and her larger than life portrayal of this manipulative, bossy and domineering character was excellent. She employed two men from ‘Asia’ to do her dirty work, Ching Ho and Bun Foo. These two characters were played by Richard Stonier and at the performance I attended by Anya Staton (Sarah Jackson alternated with Anya). They made a good team coping extremely well with their ‘non-english’ speaking and singing - just a shame that, as I was sitting right at the back of the auditorium, I couldn’t see the projected translations. Jan Outram was most elegant, vivacious and glamorous as Muzzy Van Hossmere, the wealthy, big-hearted society widow and Stacey Hyndman was super as the no-nonsense, uptight Office Manager, Miss Flannery. Excellent support came from Isobel Davidson (Ruth), Katy Varney (Gloria), Danni Stringer (Alice), Sydney Hemstock (Rita), Jessica Allinson (Cora), Lorna Bramall (Ethel, Alison Walker (Lucille) and from the ensemble, who played muliple roles. The singing throughout by principals and the ensemble was of a very high standard and equally matched by some lovely choreography which was superbly executed, especially the energetic and stunning tap routines. The set was quite simple with trucks and props depicting the various scenes which were aided by excellent back projections and videos. The costumes were absolutely stunning and all in all this was a fun -filled, heart-warming and up-lifting show. Many congratulations to everyone involved.

Joyce Handbury

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