When I went to see a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie last week on the Stanford campus, the first thing I noticed was the Egyptian gold arch that frames the stage. For me, the Egyptian arch embodies the main themes of the show: our culture’s obsession with the “American dream” and the collision of the old with the new.
The main character, Millie Dillmount, is a small town girl from Kansas who moves to New York in search of adventure. When we first meet Millie, she is lost on a New York street; somebody has stolen her purse, she does not know where to go, she lost her shoe, and nobody will to stop and help her. Until she sticks her foot out and trips Jimmy, that is. Jimmy is a New Yorker and harshly informs Millie that she will never make it in New York City. He proceeds to give her the address of a hotel where she can stay for the night and insists that she wire home for a railroad ticket. From this point on, the audience empathizes with Millie and wants her to succeed in the “land of opportunity.”
We discover that Millie wants to find a job in which she can marry her boss to become rich. She declares that the modern woman is above love and that she plans to take charge of her destiny. Ironically, Ms. Dorothy, an innocent young woman from LA, who wants the exact opposite, becomes her best friend. During their first interaction at the hotel, they both declare that they want to change their social class and discover how “the other half lives.” This fascination with class and money and its connection to the realization of the American dream is a reoccurring theme throughout the play.
For weeks Millie is unsuccessful in her search for a job and the hotel manager, Mrs. Meers, threatens to kick her out. We feel sorry for Millie and when the phone rings with a potential job offer, we hold our breath. But she is not hired. Later, she walks into an insurance office and receives an interview with the boss, Mr. Trevor Glaydon. Mr. Glaydon shoves a piece of paper into her hands and tells her to transcribe his words. He bursts into song and as an audience we become scared because we do not think that Millie will be able to keep up with him. The suspense rises as Millie appears to be distracted by Mr. Glaydon’s appearance. However, she transcribes his speech perfectly and we are relived for her. Then the tension rises again; Mr. Glaydon asks Millie to type up his letter in less than two minutes. Millie appears scared and we fear that she won’t be able to do it. The secretaries of the insurance office burst into a quick song and dance, intensifying the tension, but Millie, to our delight, succeeds, and finally receives a job.
At the beginning of the show, Millie is confident that marrying rich will ensure her lifelong happiness. She is told by many people to follow her heart, but she shrugs off their advice, believing that money is more important. There is an obvious connection between Millie and Jimmy, the man she tripped at the beginning of the show, and as an audience we want them to be together. In the end, Millie realizes that love is more important than money and admits her love to Jimmy. We then realize, along with Millie, that Jimmy is a rich man and has been in disguise all along. The moral of the story seems to be that when you follow your heart with enthusiasm you will achieve happiness and the American dream. But I think that the show also contains a darker message.
Mrs. Meers, the evil hotel manger, kidnaps the hotel guests and sells them into prostitution in Asia. She represents the corruption that comes along with the American dream and our obsession with money and power. As an audience we know that Mrs. Meers is guilty and recognize the careless clues she leaves, but the hotel guests remain painfully clueless of her actions (until the very end of the show) as they are too consumed in the glitz and glam of NYC. I think that it is a warning to the American public to question where they are living, specifically their government and its actions. The show opened in 1967, a year filled with anti-Vietnam war protests and mistrust of the government. What I see as the main message of Thoroughly Modern Millie is that anyone can achieve the American dream, but that we must be aware that its foundations are not always as flawless as they appear.
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