| Thoroughly Modern Millie | |
|---|---|
 Original Broadway Windowcard | |
| Music | Jeanine Tesori |
| Lyrics | Dick Scanlan |
| Book | Richard Morris Dick Scanlan |
| Basis | Thoroughly Modern Millie by Richard Morris Chrysanthemum by Robin Chancellor Neville Phillips Robb Stewart |
| Productions | 2000La Jolla Playhouse 2002Broadway 2003 US tour 2003West End 2005 UK tour 2017 UK tour |
| Awards | numerous, including: Tony Award for Best Musical Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical |
Thoroughly Modern Millie is amusical with music byJeanine Tesori, lyrics byDick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan.[1] It is based on the1967 film of the same name,[2] which itself was based on the British musicalChrysanthemum, which opened in London in 1956.[3]Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes toNew York City to marry for money instead of love – a thoroughly modern aim in 1922, when women were just entering the workforce. Millie soon begins to take delight in theflapper lifestyle, but problems arise when she checks into ahotel owned by the leader of awhite slavery ring inChina.[4] The style of the musical is comicpastiche. Like the film on which it is based, it interpolates new tunes with some previously written songs.
After previews at theLa Jolla Playhouse inSan Diego, California, in October 2000,[5] the show opened onBroadway on April 18, 2002.[1] The production subsequently won six2002 Tony Awards, includingBest Musical.[6] Due to the success of the original Broadway production, there was both aUnited States tour[7] and aWest End production[8] launched in 2003, followed by aUnited Kingdom tour in 2005.[9] The musical has since become a popular choice for high school productions,[10] but has garnered controversy over itsracial stereotyping of its Asian characters,[11] and has been described as "a piece [that] walks the line of being entertaining and highly offensive".[12]
Act I
In 1922, Millie Dillmount arrives inNew York City fromSalina, Kansas. Determined to be successful, she tears up her return ticket ("Not for the Life of Me"). She bobs her hair for a modern "flapper" look ("Thoroughly Modern Millie"). She is soon mugged, losing her hat, scarf, purse and a shoe. Seeking help and in a panic, she trips bypasser Jimmy Smith, a handsome, carefree young man who goes through life on whims and wits. He lectures Millie on why she should return home: she is just another girl with false hopes who does not 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 [reprise]").
A week later, Millie is confronted by the mysterious and sinister Mrs. Meers, the hotel proprietress. A former actress, Meers now works for awhite slavery ring in Hong Kong, kidnapping orphaned girls and shipping them to the Orient, which she has just done to Millie's hall mate, Ethel Peas. Mrs. Meers declares that Millie "has two minutes to pack, or find her things on the street!" Millie then meets the wealthy Miss Dorothy, who wants to learn how the poorer half lives ("How the Other Half Lives"), and asks to rent a hotel room. Millie suggests Miss Dorothy can room with her until another room become available, but only if Miss Dorothy pays the rent. Mrs. Meers says Millie can get a rent extension and Miss Dorothy can take room next to Millie's that just became available. When Millie asks what happened to Ethel, the former occupant, Mrs. Meers claims she got an acting job in the Orient.
In the hotel 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 US ("Not for the Life of Me [reprise]").
After researching some of the richest and most eligible bachelors in the world, Millie comes to Sincere Trust, looking for a job and also to set her sights on the company's boss, Trevor Graydon III ("The Speed Test"). Her lightning speed stenography easily lands her the job. Meanwhile, Ching Ho attempts to capture Miss Dorothy for Mrs. Meers with a drugged apple but when he sees her, he falls in love with her instantly and wants to save her from Mrs. Meers. Before Dorothy eats the drugged apple, Millie arrives (Mrs. Meers has to act like she was getting a stain out of the carpet with "soy sauce") with the good news that she has found a job and a boss to marry. As the girls rush off to their rooms, Mrs. Meers thinks about how stupid the girls are never to realize her evil plan to ship them to Southeast Asia ("They Don't Know"). To celebrate their success the girls go to aspeakeasy, where they meet Jimmy, but the club is raided by the police. While waiting for his release in the jail cell, Jimmy realizes that he loves Millie ("What Do I Need with Love").
Jimmy asks Millie to a party hosted by famous singer Muzzy van Hossmere, and she accepts. Before the party, Muzzy sings of her love for New York ("Only in New York"). At the party, Millie spills wine onDorothy Parker's dress, which Millie tries to get out with soy sauce, following Mrs. Meers' example. After the party, Millie explains to Jimmy how she is going to marry Trevor. She also tells him off for being a "skirt chaser" and "womanizer." As they argue, Jimmy suddenly grabs Millie and kisses her, then runs away. Millie realizes that she loves Jimmy ("Jimmy"). Millie returns to the hotel and overhears a conversation between Miss Dorothy and Jimmy, "I really want to tell her, she's my best friend" followed by "You know we can't". Millie sees Jimmy sneaking out of Miss Dorothy's room after what appears to be a late-night tryst; confused and horrified, Millie decides she never wants anything to do with Jimmy ever again.
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"). Millie places more conviction into marrying Graydon, but when Dorothy comes to visit Millie at work, Mr. Graydon is immediately smitten with her instead ("Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life"/"Falling in Love with Someone"). The two set up a date together. While Millie is brooding over her lost chances, Jimmy breaks in through the window and asks her to dinner. She initially tells him off but then agrees ("I Turned the Corner"/"Falling in Love with Someone" [Reprise]).
Back at the Hotel Priscilla, Mrs. Meers along with Ching Ho and Bun Foo get ready to drug Miss Dorothy, when Ching Ho refuses because he loves her. Mrs. Meers stops his ranting by reminding them of why they work for her, to raise money to see their mother again. She convinces them to go along with the plan ("Muqin").
Jimmy finally declares his feelings for Millie while washing dishes to pay their tab at Cafe Society while Muzzy is performing her hit ("Long As I'm Here with You"). Millie is confused by her feelings for Jimmy and her desire not to be poor and initially rejects him. She runs to Muzzy, who tells her she's a fool for throwing away true love for the sake of money. She tells the story of how she met her late husband, a supposedly poor but goodhearted man who gave her a green glass necklace. Regardless of his income status, she loved him anyway, and she later realized that her green glass necklace was actually genuineemerald. Millie reconsiders her feelings and finally realizes that she would rather have a green-glass love with Jimmy ("Gimme, Gimme").
Just as she returns to Jimmy to confess her feelings, they encounter Graydon, who was stood up by Miss Dorothy for their date, and is drunkenly singing, annoying Dexter and his wife, Daphne, who are also on a date. Graydon 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 them were orphans, Millie, Jimmy, and Graydon realize what Mrs. Meers is doing. They persuade Muzzy to pose as a new orphan in town to trick Mrs. Meers, who takes the bait, is exposed as the mastermind of the slavery ring, and is then 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 named Dorothy Carnegie Mellon Vanderbilt van Hossmere, and (unlike the 1967 film) she ends up not with the dismayed Trevor Graydon, but with Ching Ho. Muzzy reveals that to help Jimmy and Dorothy avoid getting caught by fortune-hunters, she sent them out into the world so that they could find spouses who weren't in it for the money. Both Jimmy and Dorothy had disguised their family name to avoid being found out as society heirs. 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. At the very end of the musical (after the bows), Bun Foo and Ching Ho are once again reunited with their mother ("Curtain Call/Bows").
| Characters | Role Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Millie Dillmount | Lead | A young, "modern" woman from Salina, Kansas. Originally, her goal was to marry for wealth, rather than love. |
| Jimmy Smith | Lead | An attractive young paperclip salesman. He does not show pride in his wealth. |
| Miss Dorothy Brown | Lead | A new actress from California, Millie's best friend. |
| Mrs. Meers | Support | Evil owner of the Hotel Priscilla who is a former actress. Leader of a white slavery ring in the Orient. |
| Trevor Graydon III | Support | Sincere Trust Insurance Co. Head. |
| Muzzy van Hossmere | Support | Singer andbon vivant, stepmother of Jimmy and Dorothy. She was the second wife of her late husband. |
| Ching Ho | Support | Chinese henchman, falls in love with Miss Dorothy. |
| Bun Foo | Support | Chinese henchman, focused more on the task at hand. |
| Miss Peg Flannery | Support | Curmudgeonly head stenographer at Sincere Trust. |
Whoopi Goldberg is credited as one of the producers; the Tony win forBest Musical in 2002 earned Goldberg the "T" in herEGOT status.
| Character | Demo | Broadway | US Tour | West End | First UK Tour | Fort Worth TX | Second UK Tour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2014 | 2017 | ||
| Millie Dillmount | Kristin Chenoweth | Sutton Foster | Darcie Roberts | Amanda Holden | Donna Steele | Anneliese van der Pol | Joanne Clifton |
| Jimmy Smith | David Campbell | Gavin Creel | Matt Cavenaugh | Mark McGee | Richard Reynard | Sam Barrett | |
| Mrs Meers | Bea Arthur | Harriet Sansom Harris | Hollis Resnik | Maureen Lipman Marti Webb | Lesley Joseph Elaine C. Smith | Michelle Collins Lucas Rush | Michelle Collins |
| Miss Dorothy Brown | Amanda Serkasevich | Angela Christian | Diana Kaarina | Helen Baker | Robyn North | Katherine Glover | |
| Mr Trevor Graydon | Marc Kudisch | Sean Allan Krill | Craig Urbani | Andrew Kennedy | Graham MacDuff | ||
| Muzzy Van Hossmere | Yvette Cason | Sheryl Lee Ralph | Pamela Isaacs | Sheila Ferguson | Grace Kennedy | Jenny Fitzpatrick | |
| Miss Flannery | Ruth Williamson | Anne L. Nathan | Janelle A. Robinson | Rachel Izen | Nicola Blackman | Catherine Mort | |
| Ching Ho | Ken Leung | Andrew Pang | Yo Santhaveesuk | Damian Buhagiar | |||
| Bun Foo | Francis Jue | Darren Lee | Unku | Andy Yau | |||
| Rita | N/A | Jessica Grove | Heather Parcells | Rachel Barrell | Emily Shaw | Emma Housley | |
| Ruth | N/A | Megan Sikora | Laura Shoop | Zoe Hardman | Emma-Gina King | Lotty Somers | |
| Ethel | Unknown | Joyce Chittick | Bradley Benjamin | Vikki Coote | Victoria Hay | Katherine Glover | |
| Gloria | N/A | JoAnn M. Hunter | Juliana Ashley Hansen | Donna Steele | Lauren Adams | Alice Baker | |
| Alice | N/A | Alisa Klein | Diane Veronica Phelan | Selina Chilton | Laure Clemments | Laura Marie Benson | |
| Lucille | N/A | Kate Baldwin | N/A | Gabriella Khan | Vanessa Barnby | N/A | |
| Cora | N/A | Catherine Brunell | Renee Monique Brown | Nancy Wei George | Nicky Wilson | N/A | |
Songs are by Tesori and Scanlan, unless otherwise noted.
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+ not included in Broadway Cast Recording
An original Broadwaycast recording is available on theRCA Victor label.
The musical, directed byMichael Mayer, underwent several workshops in New York in 1999. Included in the workshops casts wereKristin Chenoweth,Marc Kudisch, andBeatrice Arthur.[13]
It then played out-of-town tryouts at theLa Jolla Playhouse atUniversity of California, San Diego in October 2000 through December 2000.[5] Despite nurturing the role through the workshop process,Kristin Chenoweth did not continue with the role of Millie in order to film her own sitcom. She was replaced byErin Dilly, but prior to public previews,Sutton Foster, her understudy, was chosen to assume the title role, a move that propelled her to stardom.[5]
After a long production history, the musical premiered on Broadway at theMarquis Theatre on April 18, 2002 and closed on June 20, 2004 after 903 performances and 32 previews. Directed by Michael Mayer andchoreographed byRob Ashford, orchestration was byDoug Besterman and the lateRalph Burns, scenic design was byDavid Gallo, costume design was byMartin Pakledinaz, and lighting design was byDonald Holder. The original cast included Sutton Foster as Millie,Marc Kudisch as Trevor,Angela Christian as Miss Dorothy,Gavin Creel as Jimmy,Harriet Sansom Harris as Mrs. Meers,Sheryl Lee Ralph as Muzzy Van Hossmere,Ken Leung as Ching Ho,Francis Jue as Bun Foo, andAnne L. Nathan as Miss Flannery.
Replacements later in the run includedSusan Egan as Millie,Delta Burke andDixie Carter as Mrs. Meers,Christian Borle as Jimmy,Christopher Sieber andKevin Earley as Trevor Graydon,Leslie Uggams as Muzzy, and Liz McCartney as Miss Flannery.Cheyenne Jackson also joined the cast as ensemble and an understudy for the two male leads. At the April 2, 2003 performance,Meredith Vieira appeared in three minor roles for a segment later broadcast on her daytime talk showThe View.
The original Broadway production won sixTony Awards and fiveDrama Desk Awards, including the win for Best Musical at both award ceremonies.
In 2003, the original creative team reunited to stage the show inLondon'sWest End at theShaftesbury Theatre. It began previews on October 11 and opened on October 21. UK TV personalityAmanda Holden starred in the title role, withMaureen Lipman andMarti Webb alternating as Mrs. Meers andSheila Ferguson as Muzzy Van Hossmere. When Webb subsequently left the production to joinTell Me on a Sunday, Mrs. Meers was played byAnita Dobson, and when Holden was forced to take time off due to illness, her understudy Donna Steele took over the role to great acclaim. Despite positive reviews and booking periods extended to January 2005,Thoroughly Modern Millie failed to catch the UK public's attention and closed on June 26, 2004.[14][15]
AUK tour beginning in March 2005 fared much better and successfully toured many of the country's major theatres until November, when it closed as planned inNottingham. The tour starred Steele as Millie,Lesley Joseph as Mrs. Meers, and Grace Kennedy as Muzzy Van Hossmere.
The school edition ofThoroughly Modern Millie was premiered at theInternational Thespian Festival on June 26, 2007. It was presented by the International Thespian Cast. The production starred Elizabeth Elliott as Millie, David King as Jimmy, and Rachel Buethe as Mrs. Meers. The creators of the show also appeared at the festival to help introduce the show.
A new UK tour began in January 2016 with direction and choreography by Racky Plews. The tour starredJoanne Clifton as Millie,Michelle Collins as Mrs. Meers (until March 2016) when the role was taken over byLucas Rush. The tour closed in June 2016.
A 2018 UK tour starringHayley Tamaddon and directed/choreographed by Racky Plews will start in March 2018 atRichmond Theatre. It will playEastbourne,Sunderland,Oxford,Torquay,Poole,Stoke,Bradford,Darlington,Southend andWolverhampton. More dates and further casting TBA.[16]
A German edition named "Höllisch Moderne Millie"(Infernal Modern Millie) premiered on October 26, 2018 atHof Theatre.[17]
A Japanese production of Thoroughly Modern Millie premiered atThe Imperial Theatre and went on tour in September 2022, It will also be performed again atThe Imperial Theatre and go on tour once more in July 2024. They both feature Manato Asaka as Millie Dillmount.
| Year | Award Ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best New Musical | Nominated | |
| Best Actress in a Musical | Amanda Holden | Nominated | ||
| Maureen Lipman | Nominated | |||
| Best Theatre Choreographer | Rob Ashford | Nominated | ||
| Best Costume Design | Martin Pakledinaz | Nominated | ||
Since the musical became a popular choice for high school productions due to its Tony awards and multiple roles for boys and girls,[10] controversy has arisen about the racial stereotyping of Asian people. The subplot of the show in which Mrs. Meers, a white woman, disguises herself as a Chinese woman and runs a white slavery ring with assistance of two recent Chinese male immigrants, Ching Ho and Bun Foo, plays on the close differences between satire and racism. According to the musical play writer,Dick Scanlan, the musical aims to shatter racist stereotypes and allows the audience to experience “the chasm between the stereotype and the real thing”.[18] The original actor for Bun Foo,Francis Jue, also said “this show can be done racist but it doesn’t have to and actually it can actually be anti-racist…And the Chinese guys are the heroes of the story”.[19] A 2020Encores! production was announced starringAshley Park in the title role with book revisions by playwrightLauren Yee. The proposed revisions sought to address some of the racist and sexist elements of the show, but the production was canceled due to COVID-19.[20][21]
| Date | Location | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| January 2014 | Dalton School, Manhattan, NY | Show cancelled; then script revised[22] |
| March 2015 | Newton North High School, MA | Theatre Director apologized in public[23] |
| December 2015 | Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, PA | Show cancelled[24] |
| April 2019 | Levittown Division Ave High School, Levittown, NY | Superintendent confirmed not to perform the show again[25] |
| April 2019 | Huntington High School, Huntington, NY | Superintendent apologized, confirmed not to perform the show and promised to add cultural proficiency program in the school district[26] |
