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It isn’t often that I can heartily recommend a show with a two synthesizer orchestra, a sound that usually drives me crazy, but at the Mac-Haydn Theater in Chatham, New York there is a production of the stage version of one of my favorite movies that is so clever and so much fun that even two and a half hours of that jarring, grating noise-machine accompaniment didn’t bother me a bit. This edition of the stage version of Thoroughly Modern Millie is a delight. It may not be the most memorable theater piece you’ll ever see, but you should see it for what it brings.
Karla Shook plays Millie. With her bobbed red hair and her big toothsome smile she resembles a youthful Lotte Lenya but sings like Betty Boop and Helen Morgan combined. She dances well and she makes love with an appropriately innocent passion. She tosses her body around the set’s furnishings with abandon and her comedy timing is superb. Her Millie is equally involved with the two men in her life, the difficult Jimmy Smith and the self-important Trevor Graydon. Millie’s dilemma in this version of the story is not which to choose but why to choose whomever. The choice ultimately becomes a simple one.
Graydon is played with an over-the-hill Jack Cassidy sort of grace by John Saunders. He manages to get the romance into the role without sacrificing the "ideals" espoused by the character and keeps the man’s despair at rejection to a low-key, comic minimum. Jimmy is defined in the playing of Austin Riley Green right from the "meet-cute" designed by the book writers. He is handsome, youthful, a typical New Yorker whose arrogance is mitigated by his obvious sexual attractiveness. When he softens during his pursuit of Millie, he becomes what she needs, an irresistible force. Green does all of this very well and he sings and dances as well.
If you remember the story you know there is a plot to kidnap young women and send them to China to work as prostitutes. Heading up this conspiracy is Mrs. Mears, the owner of the Priscilla Hotel where Millie and a whole host of young women live. This arch-villain is played to the comic hilt by Monica M. Wemitt. She handles the physical comedy, the music and the verbal distinctions between the woman she is at heart and the woman she plays for her roomers, with aplomb.
One of her intended victims is Miss Dorothy Brown from California, Millie’s new best friend. In this role, and in more pink than should ever be seen at one time, is Kat Fehrle. She does whatever she can to keep the saccharine levels at bay, but the role is what it is and she does have the surprise ending to end all surprise endings. Not a direction you expect if you know the movie, but still a delight.
Whitney Lee and Thom Caska are the two Chinamen cohorts of Mrs. Mears and they are very good in their roles, particularly Lee. An attractive chorus of women and men play everything under the sun and inside the speakeasies and they do it with amazing energy and talent.
As the socialite hostess Muzzy Van Hosmere Kathy Halenda has show-stopping moments in song and comedy. In fact, after the glamour of her first two appearances her final moments in the show are among the funniest the evening has to offer.
Directed and choreographed by first-time director at Mac-Haydn, Tralen Doler, this show is a pleaser as the dancing spills off the stage and into the aisles. There is more energy here than usual and more fun in his movement and his use of the stage. There are times, especially in the early numbers when it seems as though he might be uncomfortable in the theater in the round format, but he overcomes that quickly with his vivid and fervent ensemble work. Doler is a keeper. Hopefully he will be back next season to continue expanding the theater’s horizons in whatever directions he can use.
Jimm Halliday’s costumes are superb. No other word need apply. Andrew Gmoser’s lighting is excellent as well and Bob Hamel has provided a perfect set for this 1922 urban experience.
While the songs are not the equal of the score in the film (only the title song and the ballad, Jimmy, are retained) a few stand out including Forget About the Boy, What Do I Need With Love, They Don’t Know, Long As I’m Here With You and the trio Muqin (you’ll know it when you hear it).
Give yourself a treat. Go see the show that, in its first appearance on this stage, should become a habit. It may not be the most memorable evening in the musical theater, but it makes one heck of an impression.
◊07/08/2007◊
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