Saturday, August 11, 2018

Day 294 Pittsburgh CLO -Thoroughly Modern Millie-Jazzy Tapping and Vaudeville Laughing




  Thoroughly Modern Millie  transports  you to  the NYC jazz age of the 1920’s where skirts were shorter, hair was bobbed, flappers were dancing  the Charleston, and  everyone was living it up during prohibition. This musical has a  nostalgic vibe with wonderfully choreographed  jazzy tap numbers and  a vaudeville comedy thread. Although the overall story is a bit simple, it's a feel good musical with a fantastic cast that will have you laughing and enjoying  the energetic  rhythms of high speed stepping.


Reflection
Spunky Millie (Laurie Veldheer ), from a one light town in Kansas, travels to the big apple to flee her small town life "Not for the Life of Me" . Her plan is to forgo love  and marry for money (her future boss). She assumes the  “modern”  flapper  lifestyle to become  a “Thoroughly Modern Millie”.  Of course wide eyed Millie gets mugged on her first day. Broke and alone, she meets  handsome, free spirited, paperclip salesman, Jimmy (Bobby Conte Thornton ) who's advice is to get a ticket home as he directs her to the Hotel Priscilla For Single Women.  

Leslie Uggams(Mussy) and Lenora Nemetz (Ms. Meers)

The hotel is run by, ex-con, ex-actress, Ms. Meers (Lenora Nemetz), disguised as a sweet Chinese house mother, who kidnaps orphaned  girls for a white slavery ring in  Hong Kong with her  two sidekicks, Ching Ho (Sam Simahk) and Bun Foo (Colin Miyamoto).  This part of the story line is a bit creepy. Nemetz makes it work with her over the top fake Chinese accent singing “They Don't Know”, while tip toeing past the girls’ rooms like a  Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoon villain. It's all so playful and exaggerated that  we  laugh and forget  how  wrong this part of the story really is.  Simahk’s  and Miyamoto’s Chinese rendition of "Not for the Life of Me” and  their dialogue with audience English subtitles, brilliantly adds punches of vaudevillian humor pulling it all off.    
  
Laurie Veldheer (Millie) and Bobby Conte Thorton (Jimmy)

 Creative rhythmic tapping mimics the sound of the typewriters at Sincere Trust where Millie pursues employment as an assistant  to  a  rich boss, Trever Grayson (Paul Schaefer ).  She lands the job after  she  passes her stenography “Speed Test" which delights us with lighting speed song from Schaefer and Veldheer.

Mr. Grayson shows no interest in Millie but has a "love at first sight moment" with  Dorthy (Jessica Fontana), a wealthy girl in town to see, How the other Half Lives. Of  course Millie eventually  falls for  penniless Jimmy, “I Turned the Corner/ I Fell in Love”- giving up her plan to marry for money as she follows her heart.

Leslie Uggams(Mussy) and Laurie Veldherr (Millie)

Leslie Uggams, a Tony and Emmy Award-winning singer-actress, as a famous singer Mussy Van Hossemer,  gives  two show stopping jazzy numbers, “Only for the Life of Me” and “Long as I'm Here with You”. My favorite  grand tap dancing moment was in  Act II as  Millie’s  coworkers advise her to  “Forget the Boy” when  she  mistakenly believes Jimmy to be a womanizer.


Thoroughly Modern Millie is fanciful, fun, and even a bit frivolous as it entertains with some fantastic hoofing, singing and vaudeville comedy.  

(Thoroughly Modern Millie runs August 7 through 12, 2018 at Benedum Theater. For tickets  and the new 1019 season line up go to pittsburghclo.org)

Spiritual Reflection
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income;this also is vanity. (Ecclesiastics 5:10)

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