Thoroughly Modern Millie

Joanne · **Posted:** Fri Oct 03, 2003 1:32 am

Article from The Times.

Quote:

THE GLARE from the combined choruses of grinning pearly whites this autumn might warrant a West End health warning. This month sees two major musical productions, both as bright and frothy as a well-shaken cocktail. Cole Porter’s zany Anything Goes — in the National Theatre’s revival — transfers to the West End. Thoroughly Modern Millie, the musical of the film, is about to open in London after its Broadway run.

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Joanne · **Posted:** Mon Oct 06, 2003 12:59 am

A preview article from The Times.

Quote:

When Thoroughly Modern Millie opens in London next month, will it be a thoroughgoing West End hit? On Broadway, the show survived mixed reviews at its opening, 18 months ago, to win an impressive six Tony awards, best musical among them, and spawn an American national tour. Whether its estimable track record will continue in London remains to be seen. But the little-remarked-on truth is that most Broadway musicals flop — or, at best, barely break even — when they transfer to Britain.

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Joanne · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2003 2:31 am

Review from The Times.

Quote:

WHAT a nice 65-minute movie is buried therein” was one American critic’s judgement on Thoroughly Modern Millie, the 135-minute film, and I felt somewhat the same as I left Thoroughly Modern Millie, the 150-minute stage musical, last night.
I’m not saying it’s all a fuss about nothing, but there’s got to be something, well, insufficient about a show whose prime merit is its costumes.

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And from The Independent.

Quote:

This is the kind of admission that can lose you friends and the last vestiges of credibility, but I must confess to a sneaking affection for the original movie version of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

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And The Guardian.

Quote:

This modern Broadway musical is based on a 1967 movie, which was a hymn to the madcap 1920s. With each new version, one gets further from the original period; and far from evoking a raucous decade that saw, in Edmund Wilson's words, "the liquidation of genteel culture", this feels like a synthetic showbiz confection with all the personality of a paper cup.

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<small>[ 22 October 2003, 04:53 AM: Message edited by: Joanne ]</small>

Joanne · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2003 5:01 am

Review from The Telegraph.

Quote:

It is the great misfortune of this far from essential musical comedy that it has opened a fortnight after Trevor Nunn's glorious production of Anything Goes. Compared with Cole Porter's masterpiece, Thoroughly Modern Millie is like viewing an exhibition of costume jewellery rather than the Crown Jewels, or as one of its lyrics has it, green glass rather than an emerald.

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Joanne · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:32 am

Review from The FT.

Quote:

once had hopes that Britain might outgrow its Julie Andrews fixation, but now I give up. Julie Andrews retro is upon us. We've had Singalonga Sound of Music, we've had My Fair Lady back at Drury Lane, now we've got the stage show of Thoroughly Modern Millie, and next year we're promised the stage show of Mary Poppins. Wasn't it bad enough the first time round? That governessy charm, those squeezed vowels, that nursery sexlessness?

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Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Sun Oct 26, 2003 3:55 am

The now show
Thoroughly Modern Millie is slight but stunning, says Clifford Bishop in The Sunday Times

The wonderful thing about a piece of fluff is that it takes only a gentle, well-directed breath to make it soar. The Tony-winning Thoroughly Modern Millie (Shaftesbury) is hardly what you would call a heavyweight musical, no classic songs (unless you count the imported Al Jolson number Mammy) and only a couple of really memorable ones, no innovative, knock-’em-dead dance routines, and a plot that if you wrote it on the back of a stamp would leave room for most of Hamlet.

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Stuart Sweeney · **Posted:** Fri Oct 31, 2003 6:04 am

Thoroughly Modern Millie
By John Martland for The Stage

Based loosely on Richard Morris' screenplay for the 1967 movie starring Julie Andrews, this musical has been running on Broadway since April 2002. It purports to be an affectionate spoof of the roaring twenties but director Michael Mayer's London version feels more like a cynical production-line affair that lacks both charm and genuine feeling.

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