Drury Lane assembles a thoroughly delightful 'Millie'
If you look closely, many of the people who find the greatest success in New York have actually fled there from small towns in the Midwest and beyond. Determined to satisfy all their pentup dreams and appetite for discovery and prosperity, they will need all the grit and delusional thinking they can muster to survive.
The story of innocents hellbent on making it in New York is the stuff of many books, movies and Broadway musicals, including "Thoroughly Modern Millie," the 2002 TonyAward winner now receiving such a snap, crackle and pop production at the Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace Theatre that it seems entirely new.
Frankly, this show has thoroughly bored me over the years. But director William Osetek has gathered a slew of sensational actor-singer-dancers, a hugely inspired design team, ace music director Ben Johnson, and, best of all, choreographer Tammy Mader (Chicago's answer to Broadway's Susan Stroman, who has created a series of knockout dance numbers). And along the way, they have uncovered both the heart and the adventurously steely core of the show. They've also brought out the wit and richness of its score -- the work of Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan (with a few holdover songs from the 1967 film).
"Millie" takes us into classic musical comedy territory. It is the 1920s, and Millie Dillmount (the gifted Holly Ann Butler, in a deftly unsentimental but never strident performance) has just arrived in Manhattan from Kansas in a floral frock.
Before she barely raises her eyes to glimpse her first skyscraper, her bags are stolen and she is penniless in the big city. But she will not be deterred.
Determined to be one of the "modern girls" of the flapper era, she intends to forgo love and marry whoever her wealthy employer turns out to be. Of course the first guy she runs into is a seemingly hapless ne'er-do-well -- the snappy, fast-talking Jimmy Smith (the easily charming Mark Fisher) -- who offers her little solace but gives her the name of a cheap hotel for unemployed actresses.
And that's when the real fun begins, with everything from outings to a Prohibition juice joint and cafe society to an insurance company job where typing is akin to tap dancing, and yes, even a close shave with white slavery.
Paula Scrofano's comic genius is in full play as Mrs. Meers, the wicked empress of a hotel manager. Dara Cameron is a hoot as the Southern belle who goes slumming, as is Randall Dodge, the romantic WASP executive. The hilarious Sharon Sachs is all strong arms and beautiful elbows as office veteran Miss Flannery. Richard Manera is wistfully and comically lovesick as a Chinese laundryman. Melody Betts brings down the house with her big voice and big heart as a cabaret diva. And the crack ensemble of tap dancers would make Busby Berkeley smile.
Tatjana Radisic's scores of costumes (from Bauhaus to Poiret) have a delicious Broadway flair. And Kevin Depinet's towering Art Deco skyscrapers (like a Georgia O'Keeffe painting) are magically lit by Jesse Klug, and glow with a thoroughly modern Manhattan romance.