Thoroughly Modern Millie was performed by final-year undergraduate students at Guildford School of Acting at the Ivy Arts Centre, Guildford.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Any stage production of Richard Morris, Dick Scanlan, and Jeanine Tesori’s Thoroughly Modern Millie inevitably calls to mind the 1967 film on which the theatrical adaptation is based, which casts a particularly long shadow since it features the legendary Julie Andrews in the lead role alongside a stellar array of luminaries including Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing and James Fox.
Guildford School of Acting’s production, directed by Dominic Shaw, exceeds all expectations in rising to this challenge. So perfectly does Courtney-Brogan Smalley fit the lead role of forward-thinking flapper Millie Dillmount that in places one is led to imagine that the part could have been written for her. But Smalley’s is just one of many standout individual performances.
Joshua Gannon (Jimmy Smith) proves himself to be an especially fine actor, even delivering some remarkably credible impersonations of other characters in the show. Thoroughly believable as celebrated lounge singer Muzzy Van Hossmere, Nicola Espallardo certainly owns the stage in ‘Only in New York’ and ‘Long As I’m Here With You’.
The Viennese waltz style of ‘Falling in Love with Someone’ yields some notably operatic singing from Megan Ashley (Miss Dorothy) and Jack Whittle (Trevor Graydon). Whittle’s breakneck patter in ‘The Speed Test’ – an artful reworking of ‘My Eyes Are Fully Open’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Ruddigore – is so proficiently executed that it would have made the pros jealous.
Ashten York presents a suitably nefarious Mrs Meers, the seemingly innocent mastermind of a white slavery ring, affecting an Asian accent that is sufficiently clearly put-on to indicate to the audience that all is not as it seems, while remaining as culturally sensitive as one might hope. Alistair So and Jamie Hocknell approach the roles of her two Chinese-speaking henchmen, Ching Ho and Bun Foo, with both aplomb and linguistic versatility.
Tesori’s original score, ably executed by an eight-piece pit band under the musical direction of Mary McAdam, features some ingenious pastiches of flapper-era music, as well as using pre-existing melodies such as a jazz version of ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ (from Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker) during ‘The Nuttycracker Suite’ in the Act I speakeasy scene, and the Chinese-language quotation of ‘My Mammy’ (popularised by Al Jolson) in Act II’s ‘Muqin’.
Equally evocative of the optimistic zeitgeist of 1920s New York City is Joseph Prouse’s excellent Charleston-inspired choreography, as well as the lavish set designed by PJ McEvoy, constructed on two levels to represent Hotel Priscilla’s lobby and 12th floor. A series of video projections gives the show a professional gloss even before the actors have taken to the stage.
Unquestionably a shining emerald rather than a green-glass production, GSA’s Thoroughly Modern Millie truly lets the roaring 1920s roar again.
Christopher Wiley
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.