Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Totally and utterly entertaining ! |
| Disadvantages: |
Prices for the seats at the back ! |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
“OK – baby is arriving in July, let’s make a list of the things we’d like to do together before I get too huge and round to do them and just go out and do it!” said my wife to me at the beginning of the year.
“Sure, what’s first on the list?” I replied.
“Go to New York and do that…actually no. If we go there we need to save up and do it properly and there’s no time for that.”
“Fine – no New York then. Anything else?” I enquired.
“I would love to go to see Amanda Holden in Thoroughly Modern Millie in the West End.”
“OK. That’s settled then – anything else?”
“Nope. I think that’ll do for now, that’s probably quite enough for you to be getting on with!”
She’s getting more fanatical than me – I’m actually really rather worried…
***THE THEATRE***
The Princes Theatre was the last theatre to be built on Shaftesbury Avenue and it opened on Boxing Day in 1911 with a production of ‘The Three Muskateers’.
It seems to be a relatively small theatre (though it seats 1404 people), nestled in a corner of the Avenue, but not small enough for Adele and Fred Astaire who performed 263 times in George Gershwins ‘Funny Face’ in 1928.
It was renamed as The Shaftesbury Theatre in 1963 and has attracted names such as Eric Sykes, Ertha Kitt, French and Saunders and Eddie Izzard.
Recently musicals have not done too well at the theatre, mostly because of critical maulings from the press with ‘Lautrec’ and ‘Napoleon’ two of the most notable flops.
Fresh from its triumph on Broadway where it won 6 Tony awards, including the award for Best Musical 2002, ‘The Shaftesbury’ is home to the musical ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’
***THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE***
-THE STORY-
The story begins on the streets of New York with new arrival to the Big Apple Millie Dillmount and her desire to do away with her old life from Kansas and become a totally modern girl with a bobbed haircut and a short skirt.
Millie checks into the Hotel Priscilla run by Mrs Meers, an eccentric Chinese lady with an eye for the orphan girls. After being unable to repay her week’s rent Mrs Meers so kindly agreed to wait for her, she has to team up with new arrival Miss Dorothy to make ends meet.
Mrs Meers, however, is not as she seems and is a little concerned about the fact that the newspaper is reporting a trade in white orphan slave girls.
Millie is determined that she is going to get a job and after seeing them list of the 10 most eligible bachelors in town tracks each down to see if they need help with their typing. Luckily she gets a job working for Mr Graydon at the Sincere Trust Insurance Company and makes her plans to get him to marry her – after all a modern girl marries not for love, but for money.
However, things don’t go according to plan… Her boss is slow in proposing and falls head over heels in love with someone else, whilst Millie starts to fall in love with a drop out who can’t seem to hold down a job and young girls are checking in and out of The Priscilla Hotel at an alarmingly fast rate and Mrs Meers has been acting very oddly recently. Everything is not what it seems and before the end of the story there are a few surprises to be had…
***THE CHARACTERS***
MILLIE DILLMOUNT – the Kansas girl with a modern attitude.
JIMMY SMITH – the most unhelpful man in the world at the beginning of Millie’ adventure and the one Millie begins to fall in love with at the cost of her plan.
MRS MEERS – the owner of The Priscilla Hotel with a dark and nasty secret operation running out the back door. Chinese? I don’t think so!
MISS DOROTHY BROWN – a well to do orphan girl who becomes Millie’s best friend.
TREVOR GRAYDON – the boss Millie wanted to marry for the money.
MUZZY VAN HOSSMERE – a filthy rich singer whose help and advice proves to be the turning point in Millie’s adventure.
***THE PICK OF THE CAST***
DONNA STEELE – Millie Dillmount. Understudying the role of Millie whist Amanda Holden was on holiday and all I can say is if Donna is the understudy Amanda Holden better be blinkin’ brilliant. Donna was fantastic as Millie – a wonderful voice, cheeky attitude and excellent dancing. Her rendition of ‘Gimme Gimme’ sent shivers down the spine. Absolutely wonderful.
MARK MCGEE – Jimmy Smith. Great voice, very sympathetic actor. Wonderful performance. ‘West Side Story’, ‘Starlight Express’ and ‘Whistle Down the Wind’ to his name amongst other shows.
MAUREEN LIPMAN – Mrs Meers. Hilarious - wonderful performer, held and played up her part to the audience entirely. Played Aunt Eller in the National Theatre production of ‘Oklahoma!’ and has made 55 TV ads for British Telecom – remember them?!
CRIAG URBANI – Trevor Graydon. Hilarious actor taking Trevor through a range of emotions from strict boss to sick little puppy in love. Great voice. Starred in ‘Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story’ ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ and ‘Grease’ amongst other things.
SHELIA FERGUSON – Wonderful voice and once again played up her part to the audience alongside Maureen Lipman. Has 28 gold and silver records to her name as the lead singer of ‘The Three Degrees’.
***THE SONGS***
As the show is based on the 1967 Oscar winning film, you may notice some of the songs in the show, though of the eighteen songs in the show only three are from the 1967 film. As it is set in the Jazz era you can probably guess what style the majority of the songs are! This is my pick of the songs that stayed in my head!
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE – the title song sung by Millie and the company.
THE SPEED TEST – a sung typing test which just gets faster and faster with the stenographers (typists) tapping tap shoes in the background to simulate the noise of a typewriter.
FORGET ABOUT THE BOY – sung by Millie after being hurt by Jimmy.
I’M FALLING IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE – sung by Mr Graydon and Miss Elizabeth. Hilarious as this is the song where Mr Graydon comes out of his stuffy executive shell!
GIMME GIMME – Millie’s big number.
***THE SET***
I’ve heard unfair complaints about the set but I think it is really very good and it serves it’s purpose very well.
The back of the stage is covered in a stylised landscape of Manhatten – almost Art Deco in look, but then I don’t know the first thing about art so I could be incredibly wrong on that one!
The lobby to the Hotel Priscilla has an elevator that moves up and down as the occupants’ tap dance in it to get it moving.
There is a lot of work at the very front of the stage as the scenes are being set behind the curtain, though that doesn’t detract from the feeling of the show at all and is a good way of getting scenery on whilst the story is continuing in the ‘tabs’!
Overall, I thought the set was great – no problems with it whatsoever!
***THE CONCLUSION***
OK then. Did I actually like it?
Absolutely, totally and utterly – it was a wonderful show with a great cast and was a thoroughly entertaining evening out.
The show has a suitably silly story that offers some surprises – take note Ben Elton a story and a plot – with a group of characters you can really begin to care about. No foul language, no sexual innuendo and therefore perfectly acceptable to families with children.
The songs are toe-tappingly wonderful and the choreography stunning. The scene with the stenographers behind their typewriters making the typing sound with tap shoes is wonderful.
The only criticism I could offer to it is the fact that there is a lot of expounding of dialogue that takes places without the aid of music or dancing and some of those scenes tend to drag.
That is only a small criticism though and overall the show was a wonderful evening out. Delighted to have seen it and would love to see it again. Full of energy, full of talent and full of fun. One of the most cheerful shows in the West End.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
***WHAT ABOUT AMANDA?***
Wifey was upset not to have seen Amanda Holden, but after some reviews I’ve read about her performances it seems we really did get our money’s worth out of the evening. No doubt we shall have to see it again just to see how Amanda copes with an incredibly demanding role.
***THE PRICES***
Performance times:
Monday to Saturday evenings: 7.45pm (Finishes 10.20pm)
Thursday & Saturday afternoons: 3.00pm
These are the prices up until 8th May 2004.
Prices:
ALL PERFORMANCES:
Stalls: £40.00 & £35.00
Dress Circle: £40.00
Upper Circle: £27.50 & £20.00
Boxes: £40.00 per ticket.
From 10th May.
Stalls: £45.00 & £35.00
Dress Circle: £45.00
Upper Circle: £27.50 7 £20.00
Boxes: £45.00 per ticket.
Booking is open through to January 2005 at the moment!
NB: You pay the same price sitting 19 rows back as you do at the front of the stalls. Do not sit too near the front as some of the dialogue and singing is in Cantonese and as a screen lowers from the top of the stage with the subtitles on it you will have to crane your neck looking at it as it hovers around for a while before disappearing back into the roof! Also, the stage seems to be quite high.
Sit further back and as central as you can to get a good view. Jo and I were sat in Row K seats 19 and 20 of the Stalls and had a perfect view of the stage and the screen… I wanted to take hedge trimmers to the hair of the women in front of me, known only to me as 'Big Hair'.
Don't forget to add on your booking fee, £2.00 per booking over the phone from Ticketmaster. If booking from firstcalltickets.com you will have to pay a £1.50 booking fee per ticket.
Tickets have also been frequently available at the TKTS half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square priced at £22.50 (that price includes a £2.50 fee).
***ACCESS ISSUES***
Wheelchair access is to seats in Boxes A and B where there are four spaces thought you will need help negotiating about 3 steps to get to them. Alternatively wheelchair users are allowed to transfer to seat in Row A (seats 4 – 10) in the Dress Circle where access is at street level. Each wheelchair user must bring a non-disabled companion to help them and motorised wheelchairs cannot be accommodated.
A maximum of 6 guide dogs are permitted to sit in the auditorium with their owner’s at an aisle or can be dog-sat by theatre staff.
An Infra-red system is fitted with 20 headsets 15 neckloops available for use. Book in advance and collect from the box office.
Check out www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/access for more information about access issues.
***OTHER STUFF***
Souvenir Brochuer costs £7.50 and is full of photos though sadly not a synopsis of the story.
The smaller programme costs £3.00.
A 100ml tub of Haagen Daas ice-cream costs £2.50
***GETTING THERE***
Nearest Underground stations are Holborn (Central and Piccadilly lines), Tottenham Court Road (Northern and Central lines) and Covent Garden (Piccadilly line).
We used Holborn, not a long walk away (about 5 mins) and easy to get to. I would personally avoid Tottenham Court Road as the Dominion Theatre is right next to it and likely to be incredibly busy after the end of ‘We Will Rock You’ currently showing there. Covent Garden is just busy most of the time and the only way to get to the trains is by lift – eeek! Not good with lifts..!
I hope you have found this review helpful and entertaining.
Thanks for reading.
C :o)
www.modernmillie.co.uk
www.ticketmaster.co.uk
www.firstcalltickets.com
For excellent seating advice pay a visit to www.theatremonkey.co.uk .
PS – no scary news this time as nothing is scarier than a Village People musical written by Mike Read. Although ‘H’ from ‘Steps’ is in Joseph in London and that comes a close second.
