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Thoroughly Modern Millie
Music by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan
Book by Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan
Graduating Students of the
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
13 – 21 February 2009
cast list | reviews | photographs
Cast List
Millie – Clare Dunne
Jimmy – Matthew Aubrey
Miss Dorothy – Elin Phillips
Mrs. Meers – Mairi Phillips
Muzzy – Rebecca Millett
Mr. Graydon – Tom Cullen
Miss Flannery – Abigail Parmenter
Alice/ Dorothy Parker – Sarah Ovens
Ruth – Ruth Leavesley
Gloria / Daphne – Catrin-Mai Huw
Ethel Peas / Lady Pearl – Amy Rose Downham
The Letch / Chorus – Michael Aubin
Policeman / Chorus – Kyle Lima
George Gershwin / Chorus – Rhys Jennings
Rodney / Chorus – Alun Hill
Kenneth / Policeman/ Chorus – Nico Lennon
Mathilde / Lucille – Joanne Mayling
Dexter / Chorus – Chris Hughes
Ching Ho – Yao Yuan
Bun Foo – Wu Zekun
Chorus – Rose Wyatt, Bethan James, Alice Tucker, Katy Sobey, Grace Williams, Louisa Harrison, Louise Thompson
Directed by Phillip Breen
Choreographed by Frances Newman
Musical Director – John O'Hara
Set by Caroline Melia
Costumes by NIkki Lightfoot
Lighting – Steve Bartlett
Sound design – Andy Collins
Repetiteur – Chris Fossey
Assistant Choreographer – Abigail Parmenter
Stage Manager – Sarah Hellicar
DSM – Olivia Roberts
ReviewTHOROUGHLY JOYOUS MUSICAL
www.theatre-wales.co.uk
by Adam Somerset
The 1967 film of Thoroughly Modern Millie was a bit of a damp squib. Its 2002 reincarnation as a musical by contrast has been a consistent and popular success. With not much more than a featherweight plot, slightly mad in parts, it has a stream of bouncy melodies and gives a creative team opportunity to let rip with a world of bobbed hair and sparkly dresses, speak-easies and lavish Manhattan parties. It is an opportunity seized joyfully by director Phillip Breen and his collaborators, among many, musical director John O'Hara, choreographer Frances Newman, and set designer Caroline Melia.
With a cast of twenty-four a snappy start opens in a fast-moving Manhattan. Clare Dunne's wide-eyed Millie, fresh from Salina, Kansas is promptly robbed of her bags and even a shoe. Mairi Phillips' Mrs Meers makes for a wonderfully over-the-top villain, a stage hack turned ludicrous Chinese. She is proprietress of the 'Hotel Priscirra', welcoming in single girls like 'Groria' and 'Rucille'. Her partners-in-crime are Chinese brothers Ching Ho and Bun Foo, their laundry baskets ever ready for despatching girls off to the wicked Orient. As played by Yao Yuan and Wu Zekun these kidnappers are marked more by charm than threat. When their English breaks down, as it mainly does, their dialogue is spelled out via a series of silent movie dialogue cards.
The production bubbles with pieces of directorial wit; maybe they are borrowings from the US production, but it does not matter. A hotel lift that will only rise with movement is an excuse for tap-dancing. In a 'juice joint' - this is 1922 and the days of prohibition- drinks are served by a blonde mermaid from a bath full of hooch. When Millie loses her romantic target, Tom Cullen's comically formal Mr Graydon , to her new best friend, Elin Phillips' Miss Dorothy, she first slips a rose between his teeth, then climbs on her desk to hold out a rotating mirrored disco bill.
In 'the Speed Test' the typing pool - or 'stenogs' - sit at self-propelling desks that move in a choreography of their own. The dancing is good throughout but tap-dancing honours go to Abigail Parmenter's Miss Flannery, the dragon of the typing pool. The singing is confident but some of the numbers require big treatment from young voices. 'Only in New York' gets from Rebecca Millett's Muzzy van Hossmere everything it needs. Similarly, in Act Two's 'Gimme, Gimme', Clare Dunne shows she not only has big eyes that can act all on their own but a voice on the same scale.
Rhys Jennings gets to briefly play a suave George Gershwin. The programme, a clever mock-up of a New York Times, makes no menion of the writers. So a word for composer Jeanine Tesori, lyricist Dick Scanlan and co-writer Richard Morris; without them everyone would be singing the number that Gershwin gave to his Porgy 'I Got Plenty o' Nuttin''.
On a clammy day in mid-February Thoroughly Modern Millie gave me a great night out.
Mairi Philips as Mrs Meers. Photo: Kirsten McTernan
The Nutty Cracker Suite: Alun Hill, Tom Cullen, Abigail Parmenter, Amy Rose Downham. Photo:
Kirsten McTernan
Rhys Jennings, Chris Hughes, Nico Lennon, Alun Hill, Kyle Lima, Michael Aubin. Photo:
Kirsten McTernan
Ruth Leavesley, Catrin-Mai Huw, Sarah Ovens, Elin Phillips, Clare Dunne. Photo:
Kirsten McTernan
Clare Dunne and cast. Photo: Kirsten McTernan
Amy Rose Downham. Photo: Kirsten McTernan
Abigail Parmenter. Photo: Kirsten McTernan
Clare Dunne, Michael Aubin. Photo: Kirsten McTernan
Photo: Kirsten McTernan
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