Review by Darren Oke

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” is one of the most thoroughly entertaining musicals that I had never seen before, and Village Theatre Kidstage delivers a first-rate performance of it that anyone and everyone will enjoy.  Sassy, saucy and very smooth, this production grabbed my attention from the very start and had me laughing and cheering the whole way through.

Let me take a couple paragraphs to introduce the humorous plot and delightful characters.  The story, set in 1922, follows an ambitious young lady named Millie Dillmount (Madie Polyak) as she arrives in New York determined to succeed in life as a “modern”, which is an image she thinks must include wearing her hair short, dressing in new and brighter colors, shucking traditional expectations about women, and marrying her boss at whatever job she can find.  In fact, she specifically looks for jobs only at companies owned by rich, single men, and lands herself a position as a stenographer at Sincere Trust, a company owned by one Trevor Graydon (Chance Michael Eldridge).  Meanwhile, she also takes up residence at the Hotel Priscilla, a questionable boarding house for single young women.  It is managed by a strange woman named Mrs. Meers (Megan Langston) who dresses like a Japanese geisha girl and attempts to speak with an accent.  She meets and befriends Miss Dorothy Brown (Hannah Schuerman) and several other young ladies there, and also becomes acquainted with a seemingly aloof, streetwise, opportunistic young man named Jimmy Smith (Eric Bayne).

Early in the story, the audience learns something that Millie, Dorothy and the others do not realize:  Mrs. Meers is really a notorious con woman named Daisy Crumpler who is aiding a white slavery ring by kidnapping and selling young women staying at her hotel if she finds out they have no family who would miss them.  Meers is aided by two immigrant Chinese siblings named Bun Foo and Ching Ho (Ly Nguyen and Erik Hasstedt) who do not speak English and who are themselves being exploited by Meers.  And the final main character in this story is a wealthy, widowed, famous, beautiful singer named Muzzy Van Hossmere (Carlie Watson), who Jimmy introduces Millie to at a party.

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Framing the characters and the story is the wonderful setting of New York City in the “roaring twenties”, complete with high society folk, scrappy newsies on the street, greed, flappers, fashion, speakeasies and prohibition.  Another special highlight from revisiting this era was the fantastic music and vigorous, irresistible Charleston dancing!

Each of the main characters seemed perfectly cast.  Despite the youth of the performers, the characters were all brilliantly portrayed – not only in personality, but physically as well.  These actors are as polished and talented in their craft as any you will ever find, and I loved the delivery of every line and every reaction and gesture.  Polyak is especially amazing as Millie, and carried the lead role with charisma and charm.  I am especially delighted at her versatility in delivering lines; she transitions between different approaches and emotions so effortlessly…from strong to subtle, from bold to demure, from serious to humorous…and seems to have a special knack for sliding one-liners in under her breath.  On top of that, her singing voice is powerful yet beautiful, and she exudes style and enthusiasm throughout the entire performance.  Millie is a fantastic and fun character to portray, and Polyak certainly seized the moment to develop a truly brilliant performance.

As Dorothy Brown, Schuerman also grabbed my attention.  Her acting was spot-on with coy reactions and spunky personality…but her singing was even more amazing.  She has an absolutely gorgeous voice and knew how to control it for the types of songs she sang.  I heard operatic qualities in her tone and I’m sure she could belt out a number that could be heard across the city, but she did an excellent job of blending in with Polyak, Eldridge and others.  However, if she ever gives a live concert of her own, it will be an occasion not to be missed.  Speaking of Eldridge, he was also outstanding as Trevor Graydon, and he also possesses a fantastic singing voice that I really took note of.  His range is amazing; his voice reached falsetto-high sections and lower baritone register with ease, and sounded perfect in both.

As the villain of the story, Langston relished her wacky role as Mrs. Meers.  She held nothing back.  She managed to be alternatively seething with rage, sweet and motherly, sneaky and conniving, and comically unable to communicate with her Chinese assistants…and did all of this with an intentionally terrible, exaggerated, inconsistent Chinese accent.  Between her strange costume and wild antics, I kept thinking of her as a cartoon character – maybe some sort of weird cross between Cruella De Vil and Heinz Doofenschmirtz.

Playing the Chinese siblings Bun Foo and Ching Ho, Nguyen and Hasstedt were absolutely priceless.  They spoke Chinese during almost the whole show, with a reader board always dropping down to give us subtitles…yet they conveyed emotion so well.  One comical thing about them is that Ching is supposed to be Bun’s younger brother, yet Nguyen was one of the tiniest kids in the cast and Hasstedt was twice her height…but both brought excellent comic timing, fun and spirited singing, and a pitiable innocence to their roles.

And then there’s Bayne as Jimmy Smith.  Oh what a smooth operator he is!  This handsome young man has a great acting personality, and blended cocky, condescending, crafty, streetwise, love struck, heartbroken, conniving and charming all into a great leading man for this show.  It wasn’t until “What Do I Need With Love” that I realized he is also an excellent singer who can deliver a solo feature number as capably as anyone! But it was his character portrayal that I particularly enjoyed the most.

It is through Jimmy that Millie also meets socialite singing sensation Muzzy, and at a coming home party for her, we are treated to a brilliant, over-the-top singing performance that will blow you away.  Watson looked luminous, sitting on the piano a la Michelle Pfeiffer in the jazzy “Only in New York”.  She redefined the term diva in this number, and ended it by holding out one of the longest notes I have ever heard anyone sing!

Many other elements really stood out for me in the overall performance, starting with the incredible dancing.  What fun styles these kids got to learn from that era!  Their movements were crisp and polished, and there was fantastic choreography in many songs.  The costumes were also amazing with great detail and a fabulous array of varying colors.  They really added an artistic exclamation point to a show that had so many other things already going for it.  Plus, the live orchestra sounded fantastic, and you could tell they had really worked to polish some of these quirky and not-necessarily-easy to play numbers.

My list of random highlights or moments/people/scenes I enjoyed:

• The newsies!  These four smaller kids dart in and out of various scenes, and win your heart with their polished routines.
• Millie and Jimmy dancing on the window ledge:  Even though they’re only pretending to really be hundreds of feet up in the air, it still makes your palms sweat when their dance steps take them over the line of safety on that ledge!
• The set’s columns:  Fantastic sets overall, I felt, and a huge part of it was the use of several columns that were decorated differently on each side, and rotated and rolled around in different formations to create the various scenes.  They were effective, efficient and artistically done.
• Speaking of the awesome set, there is a really cool elevator that Millie and Dorothy get in to, that really rises up!
• Mrs. Meers tries using a Chinese-English translation dictionary, and its a total crack-up when she substitutes “ya ya ya ya ya ya ya” for every word when trying to explain something to Ching.
• Speed talking and tap dancing!  “The Speed Test” was an especially fun number which included quite a large helping of advanced group tap dancing, which is always fun to watch.  And then, when Millie and Graydon recite her stenography of his dictation back and forth to each other, Eldridge pulls off some incredible speed-talking.  I hope this kid doesn’t become an auctioneer, or I’ll never be able to understand him!
• It was a small blocking item, but I loved the scene change when the stenographers were all rolled out in their desks in a parade, and then went through some formation changes a bit later, all while sitting and working.
• I loved the snooty lady in the restaurant who tried to get a drunken Graydon to quiet down during her dinner.  Great acting by the actress in that role!
• Polyak was especially powerful and passionate in her solo number “Gimme Gimme”.
• The score of this musical is creative, snappy, and pokes fun at itself by using comical versions of well-known tunes, such as the Nutcracker Suite and the William Tell Overture.  I am guessing the orchestra had a ton of fun sorting all that out.

This musical was SO GOOD, that I am buying tickets for the rest of my family to go see it.  Performances run from Aug. 12-21, and you definitely do not want to miss this show.  I thank the show’s brilliant director, Christian Duhamel, and his amazing cast and crew for putting together one of the most polished and entertaining performances anywhere.  Huge kudos to you all!

Darren Oke for NW Theater News

(darren@nwprintdesign.com)