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Peer Reviews Thoroughly
Modern Millie Directed by Larry Chaney Reviewed by Sherry Deatrick Entire contents are copyright © 2009 Sherry Deatrick. All rights reserved.
Derby Dinner Playhouse presented Thoroughly Modern Millie last year, so I won’t belabor the plot and production history here, except to remind you of the basics. The show was based on the 1967 movie musical, but bears only a passing resemblance to the film. The songs are all new, except for "Thoroughly Modern Millie." The Broadway production swept the 2002 Tony and Drama Desk awards.
Starry-eyed Millie Dillmount (Rebecca Chaney) arrives in Manhattan fresh from Kansas in 1922. She is robbed, and no one will help her except Jimmy Smith (Ben Gierhart). He points her to the Hotel Priscilla, where you don't have to pay in advance. Mrs. Meers (Sage Martin), the proprietress, has a habit of selling the wayward female occupants into "white slavery" in Hong Kong. With her fake Chinese accent, butterfly-style kimono, and Kabuki hair and make-up, Mrs. Meers looks like she stepped right out of The Mikado. Lots of cartoony plot twists later (think girl meets boy, ditches boy, takes boy back again), Millie finds true love, after learning the lesson from wealthy ex-showgirl Muzzy (Kathy Todd Chaney) that gold-digging may be modern, but it's no different from the oldest profession. Opening night jitters simply can't account for the lukewarm performances phoned in by most of the Clarksville Little Theatre cast of regulars, directed by Larry Chaney (Rebecca Chaney's father and Kathy Todd Chaney's husband). The piped-in synthesizer music often drowned out the singers. Lackadaisical dancers missed their marks, scurrying to find their places. Lines were muffled and unintelligible, even though I sat in the third row. Actors collided with props, knocking them to the floor. The audience was packed with friends and family of the cast and crew, who continuously laughed artificially at unfunny lines to whip up the crowd. Or so it seemed. The best performances were given by many in supporting roles, unfortunately, with one exception. Gierhart is in fine voice as the lead male character, Jimmy. He hit that "sweet spot" during his solo, "What Do I Need With Love," and held it just long enough. Katherine Moser is peppy and nearly perfect as Miss Dorothy Brown, a hotel resident that Mrs. Meers keeps trying to kidnap. Caren Borden and Jason Potts provide laughs as Bun Foo and Ching Ho, who assist Mrs. Meers in her dastardly deeds. They speak Chinese while subtitles appear on a screen stage left. This is unfortunate. First, some audience members may not notice the screen and thus they miss the funny translations. Second, and most egregious, the ones who do notice the screen miss what's happening onstage unless they're fast readers. Surely the crew could have devised a way to project the translations overhead instead of doing these actors a disservice. The costumes and props are, with a few exceptions, dazzling. "There's some serious sewing going on there," my friend remarked at intermission. "Very tailored," I answered, picturing a horde of volunteers furiously matching up the biases on the striped cloth. Close examination of the program revealed, however, that CLT rented many of the props and costumes from the Hardin County School System, which snagged them from the original Broadway and national touring productions. The wildly striped outfits worn by the bespectacled "stenogs," under which peek out brightly colored tights that match the stenogs' collars, make a lasting impression during "The Speed Test" and "Forget About the Boy."
Thoroughly Modern Millie Featuring Rebecca Chaney, Ben Gierhart, Katharine Moser, Sage Martin, Kathy Todd Chaney, Greg Wood, Jason Potts, and Caren Borden. Music Director - Dennis Blake
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