Everyone has seen his or her fair share of Disney movies as a child and maybe even as a young adult. Everyone remembers and probably appreciates the corny jokes, the melodramatic soundtrack, and the trademark sing-along performances of the characters in these films. With those fond childhood memories on mental reserved, a young audience brought an array of expectations and preconceived biases to theThoroughly Modern Millie musical. Unfortunately, the musical fell victim to viewer’s lore by confirming people’s prejudices and suppositions.
Similar to a Disney production, the musical displayed no narrative complexity. I doubt that the straightforward plot serenaded any minds in the audience, for they were baby-fed by the musical dialogue. Set in the 1920s, lead character, Millie Dillmount, is an eager young woman from Kansas, who has hopes of hitting it big in New York City. Her initial plan to marry a wealthy employer is dashed, yet she gradually falls in love with a passing New York pedestrian. While the cliché love story is at work, Millie must also confront evil and unveil her landlord’s organization of white slavery.
The plot of Thoroughly Modern Millie came second to the music and dance. The sight of legs kickin’ and big hair flailin’ all over the place excited the crowd. In addition, the use of the whole stage kept the audience involved rather than distracting the audience. The live orchestration was close to perfection, giving the whole musical experience more authenticity and engagement. However, the musical became pretty predictable due to the soundtrack, for the musical alternated consistently with high and low emotional moments. For instance, the tones of the singers were either high to indicate cheerfulness or low to illustrate wickedness. Essentially, the sounds of resounding horns and heavy percussions cued either the audience’s sympathy for Millie or disdain for the slave-holding antagonist.
The fact that the play was predictable and prosaically simple, coupled with its durational length, created mental unrest in the audience. I mean the part of the auditorium where I was seated lit up with the lights of cell phones of impatient, pseudo-A.D.D. teenagers. As a participant in this offstage lightshow, I attributed my insolence or momentary disinterest to the musical’s predictable nature. A little suspense or more concision would have been more engaging, for the audience would have been compelled to concentrate on the storyline and to inoculate imagination when appropriate.
Furthermore, the individual performances by the main character were unnatural and sometimes too static during the up-tempo arrangements. Over the course of the musical,singers tend to grow tired doing number after number, yet the leading actress opened the show with an up-tempo routine that was undermined by what seemed to be a lackluster effort. She seemed to be going through the motions, thus the performances lacked conviction as well as an actor’s unique signature. However, the performances from the supporting cast earned a memory in the minds of the audience, for the simple fact of character immersion. Some actors and actresses really got into character. I knew a few of the actors personally and from other performances,yet I could not ascribe any of their real characteristics to their stage roles.They really loss themselves in the character. Specifically, the actresses who played the antagonist and the celebrity entertainer in the musical not only boasted big beautiful voices that reverberated through the auditorium but also engaged their whole bodies in alluring body movements to enhance their sets.
Thoroughly Modern Millie seemed so over-the-top and cliché in its themes and musical composition that I felt as though I was watching a parody or farce. In a general sense, the musical achieved a basic goal of entertainment, even if crowd interest was short-lived.
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