"Thoroughly Modern Millie , a CurtainUp London review

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A CurtainUp London Review

Thoroughly Modern Millie

by Lizzie Loveridge

I won't stand by while critics praise yer,
You're getting shipped to South East Asia.
Mrs Meers

Rachel Izen as Miss Flannery and Amnda Holden as Millie and the Company
(Photo: Alastair Muir)

Michael Mayer's Broadway production of Thoroughly Modern Millie has transferred to London's West End completely recast. Amanda Holden, in a West End debut is in the title role as the girl from Kansas (why are these heroines always from Kansas?) determined to make her way in the big city. Well, not so much make her way as determined to find a rich husband. Thoroughly Modern Millie works like a reverse of the show Joe Millionaire. Girls prove their love first and then discover that their fiancé isn't a starving office boy or fork lift truck driver, but that he owns the firm. Not exactly the message we working women want to hear, is it?

I can't agree more with my editor Elyse Sommer when she saw this production in New York in last May (see link below). This is not a bad musical but it doesn't really have any oustanding melodies. It has the gravitas of a feather boa. The whole is a cheerful, prettily dressed confection which rather sums up Ms Holden. She looks stunning in her red bobbed wig, very pretty, her acting and dancing are fine and she can sing the soft numbers well. The problem for me came in the songs which she is required to belt out when her lack of stage experience showed.

Things improve in the second act when there seems to have been a conscious decision to send themselves up. At this point the audience was enjoying Millie hugely. Maureen Lipman's arch-villainess (Mrs Meers) lacked any conviction in the first half but let's face it, "it ain't easy" playing a white slaver recidivist disguised as a Japanese hotel proprietor. Much of the comedy, as it was in New York, is stolen by the Ho brothers, (Unku and Yo Santhaveesuk). The decision to put up surtitles for the rapid Chinese dialogue is a masterstroke.

There was lots that I enjoyed about this production, the scenes in the illegal drinking club, "The Tie-One-On" saw some very high standard choreography, like a little piece of Contact. The massed ranks of the stenographers in the office, earphone hairstyles and spectacles, striped in black and white with touches of orange under the eagle eye of Miss Flannery (Rachel Izen) were fun and when the typing becomes a tap dance it achieves a sparkling synthesis. Craig Urbani and Mark McGee are the male leads and both have good voices. Sheila Ferguson, once lead singer of The Three Degrees, steals the singing honours as we all suspected she might, as Muzzy van Hassmere the society hostess who doesn't forget her roots. Thoroughly Modern Millie isn't the best musical of all time but it is definitely not the well dressed turkey than some London critics would lead us to believe.

For Elyse Sommer's review which includes a complete song list go here.

Thoroughly Modern Millie
New Music by Jeanine Tesori
New Lyrics by Dick Scanlon
Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan
Original story and screenplay by Richard Morris for the Universal Pictures Film
Directed by Michael Mayer

Starring: Amanda Holden, Maureen Lipman, Sheila Ferguson, Craig Urbani, Mark McGee
With: Zoe Hardman, Donna Steele, Rachel Barrell, Selina Chilton, Vikki Coote, Nancy Wei George, Gabriella Khan, Helen Baker, Yo Santhaveesuk, Unku, Rachel Izen, Pip Jordan, Tobias Walborn, Mike Scott, Phong Truong, Christian Gibson, Roberto Giuffrida, Adam Brooks, Matt Flint, Chris Bailey
Set Designer: David Gallo
Choreographer: Rob Ashford
Costume Design: Martin Pakleninaz
Lighting Designer: Donald Holder
Sound Designer: Jon Weston
Orchestrations: Doug Besterman and Ralph Burns
Vocal Musical Arranger: Jeanine Tesori
Dance Musical Arranger: David Chase
Musical Director: Mark Warman
Musical Supervisor UK: Gary Hind
Running time: Two hours 30 minutes with one interval .
Box Office: 020 7379 5399
Booking to 24th January 2004
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge based on 22nd October 2003 Performance at the Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2 (Tube: Holborn)