"Thoroughly Modern Millie" Performance

Last evening I had the pleasure of watching Rogue Music Theatre’s production of  “Thoroughly Modern Millie” at the Grants Pass High School Performing Arts Center.  A beautiful venue in itself, “Thoroughly Modern Millie” was the 2002 season’s most awarded new show on Broadway, winning six Tony awards including “Best Musical”.   Based on the 1967 Academy Award-winning film starring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore, which is itself based on the 1956 British musical “Chrysanthemum.”

As the curtain lifts you find myself teleported back to 1922 and the height of the Jazz Age in New York City.  Here you meet a “modern” flapper named Millie Dillmount, a spirited country girl from Salina, Kansas who comes to New York in search of a new life for herself.  Her grand plan is to secure a job as a secretary to a wealthy man and then marry him.  Unfortunately for Millie, her plan goes awry.  She meets Mrs. Meers, the owner of the dingy hotel where she seeks refuge.  Turns out Mrs Meers is the leader of a white slavery ring in China, kidnapping young girls to sell to the Far East and Millie was in her crosshairs.

It doesn’t take long for Millie to realize that her wealthy boss is not going to propose marriage anytime soon.  Jimmy Smith, the man Millie actually falls in love with, doesn't have a dime to his name - or so he tells her.  Remember, Millie is looking to marry for money, not for love.  

The evening was filled with several other “moderns” where bobbing of the hair, rising of hemlines, entering the workforce and rewriting the rules of love were the norm.  Choreography included a tap number craftily performed while seated at a typewriter and a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers routine on a window ledge.

Jessica Daggett was cast as Millie Dillmount and represented the character quite well, both in script as well as singing and dancing.  I was a little disappointed with the singing ability of the leading men but overall it was a fun energetic and well-done production.  We were 12 rows back with center seating and the senior rate was only $10 per ticket, a bargain these days and worth going to see.