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Thoroughly Modern Millie
Music by Jeanine Trasori Lyrics by Dick Scanlan Book by Richard Morris & Dick Scanlan Thingamajig Theatre Company, 2018 Director: Dennis Elkins Choreographer: Pia Wyatt Music Director: Boni McIntyre Set Designer: John Santangelo Costume Designer: Adrienne Young Sound Designer: Hannah Shutt Props Designer: Tanya Quinn Lighting Designer: Elaine Wong Scenic Artist: Jill Fives Prod. Stage Manager: Samantha Rohr Photography by Elaine Wong and Jeff Laydon. This production was performed in repertory with a shared lighting plot with three other productions, The Little Shop of Horrors, Legally Blonde, and Pinkalicious. A comic pastiche that evokes the spirit of classic Golden Era musicals, Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of Millie Dillmount, a young country girl who moves to New York City with aspirations of style, modernity, and, of course, to marry rich. When she is immediately seen as a greenhorn and mugged, Millie is forced to live in the Hotel Priscilla, a home for wayward actresses run by the evil Mrs. Meers, a washed-up actress pretending to be a Chinese businesswoman to cover her secret overseas slavery racket. Once settled, Millie starts on her plan of working as a stenographer for one of New York's richest bachelor businessmen so that she can marry her boss. Through a comedy of errors and big tap dance numbers, Millie is able to find true love, foil Meers' plan, and discover her own happy ending.
While the 2002 script aims to humanize its Chinese characters, casting them as the heroes of the story whilst deliberately setting up Mrs. Meers (a white woman pretending to be Chinese) as a transparent villain, there is strong debate about whether the script actually accomplishes its ambition. In order to support the vibrant feeling of the music, the lighting design featured heavily saturated, upbeat colours used in contrast with a more naturalistic style of lighting in the book scenes. To accent the beautiful art-deco pillars created by the scenic design, about 150 feet of LED tape was used to bring the pillars to life as dynamic light boxes. |
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