Fri Feb 10 2012

Thoroughly Enjoyable Millie
by Julie and Harvey Wasserman
February 23, 2005

The Broadway in Columbus Series's "Thoroughly Modern Millie" opened Tuesday night at the Palace Theater with a tight, light and thoroughly enjoyable musical cream puff to adorn the Palace stage.

This is, of course, no major work of angst or passion. Miss Saigon has come and gone.

But as advertised, Millie is a perfectly lovely milk chocolate trifle, served light and frothy. The performances are clean, competent and engaging. The staging is unpretentious and credible. The lines are delivered right, the music sung nicely, the pacing reasonable and the plot line so thoroughly predictable as to be downright relaxing.

Lead Darcie Roberts (Millie) and her cohorts Stephanie Pope (Muzzie), Robyn Payne (Miss Flannery) and Pamela Hamill (Mrs. Meers) balance each other nicely, while the men---mainly Bryan McElroy (Jimmy) and John Ganun (Trevor Graydon), along with Emir Yonzon (Bun Foo) and Richard Feng Zhu (Chin Ho)---more than deliver on their end of the bargain.

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening, easy on the eyes, ears and psyche.

Julie especially liked the women of Mrs. Meers's boarding house, led by Anne Warren. She has this to say about the show as a whole:

Thoroughly Modern Millie painted us a colorful picture of the big city. A typical young Kansas girl, Millie, comes to New York in the 1920s. Fresh, inexperienced, and idealistic, she has no idea whatsoever of the raw New York City that lays before her.

Still, she is completely confident, with her heels high and her short red hair bobbing. She would be the Modern Millie, marry her boss (as soon as she finds one) and settle down, finding love later.

And soon she's got it all: the job, the perfect boss...all she's got to do is wait for him to pop the question.

But she soon learns that he likes her best friend (played by Anne Warren, my favorite).

But that doesn't even matter any more, because Millie has met Jimmy---the man she never imagined she would end up with. Because the difference between Jimmy and the boss is...she loves Jimmy.

Millie and all the talented singers and dancers of the cast deliver clever lines, tap terrific numbers and truly entertain their audience.

I loved Muzzy (played by Stephanie Pope) with her powerful, beautiful voice and confident character. I loved Millie's cute, amusing friends at the rooming house. They were fun to watch.

A huge factor, I think, was the glamour of it all. The 1920s style was pointed out for viewers very nicely. The sparkling outfits added perfect touches that livened things up even more.

The entire cast did a magnificent job and are all extremely talented dancers and singers and actors. Each one of them was great and did a beautiful job of serving us with a Thoroughly Modern Millie.

--
Julie Wasserman is in eighth grade at Columbus Torah Academy. Harvey Wasserman is senior editor of www.freepress.org and author of HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE US (www.harveywasserman.com).

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