Thoroughly Modern Millie - OBC Question

[edmondj5]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 10:47am

Hi all. I don't usually post on here but I am working on a production of "Millie" right now and had a question. For those who saw the original Broadway production (or any of the out of town tryouts) - what did you think? I know it was a hit at the Tony's and critical reviews were mixed to positive. Just curious as to what those who saw it thought of the book, score, etc. I'm wondering how it would be received if it premiered today, instead of in the early 2000s, given some of the subject matters.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 10:54am

I saw it in La Jolla and found it incredibly charming. I'd never seen the movie and happened to be in the area for something else, and a friend wanted to go since it was there when we'd be there. I did think some parts were long or unnecessary, but I preferred Jimmy's song in La Jolla to what ended up on Broadway (am now blanking on the title).

I haven't seen the show since, but I can't say most of the changes (in my limited way of experiencing them) were for the better. I never understood why Mrs. Meers ended up looking like every Yellow Peril/Dragon Lady stereotype since it worked fine in La Jolla without it. I know she's doing it because she's a terrible person, but I always found it unnecessary and question why an audience laughs at her -- is it because it's "acceptable" and comfortable to laugh at her appearance and accent because she's a white lady in yellowface, and it's not okay to laugh at a real Asian for their appearance and accent?

I am Asian American and the daughter of a Chinese immigrant, and seeing Ching Ho and Bun Foo speak a Cantonese dialect very similar to my family's was both jarring and a strange source of pride for me. I'd never heard that in the theatre and I'd never heard it in any Western media at all. And then, once it transferred, they had to go and do that to Mrs. Meers?

[edmondj5]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:09am

Thank you for your response, Lizzie! I definitely agree with you about Mrs. Meers - I feel like the comedy of it never quite lands because it feels so uncomfortably inappropriate. Not sure why the creative time went in that direction. Would honestly love to know the thought process behind all that. Of course, those elements existed in the film but could have been altered for the stage.

[newintown]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:11am

Other than making Sutton Foster a star, I found most of Millie to be little more than serviceable. Several book alterations, such as matching Dorothy with Ching Ho, and Trevor with Bun Foo at the end, felt arbitrary. Worst of all (I felt), incorporating period songs (some with not-very-good new lyrics) undercut Tesori's work as the composer; she could easily have written some songs in the vein of G&S, Victor Herbert, and others, and the score would thus have had more integrity. In fact, my recollection of the entire piece (as a whole) was that it lacked integrity - that it was satisfied to copy many other things.

Another 20's-style musical that opened in the same theatre some time later felt much fresher and funnier - The Drowsy Chaperone.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:13am

This stills remains one of my favorite musicals ever plus it's choreographer Rob Ashford's finest work.  The choreography was exciting, energetic and a true showcase for Sutton Foster's dancing gifts.  

 

I saw this on Broadway countless times and seeing how Sutton transformed her performance during her long run was magical.  Never once did she phone it in - she just added nuances here and there so she was always giving a fresh performance.  

 

The set design, especially the working elevator, was perfection.  Still love the score.  And though I'm a huge fan of the 1967 film version, the Broadway incarnation is so different.  I just say they are based on the same source but nothing is similar: the costumes, the tone, the character interpretations, etc.  I mean, Carol Channing played Muzzy in the film and on Broadway, Muzzy was African-American.  That should say it all about how they were different from each other.  

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:32am

Isn't Carol Channing of African American and German descent?

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 11:52am

Yeah, but at the time that wasn't really common knowledge, and it's not like she's not white-passing.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 12:05pm

Plus, Carol played Muzzy fully Caucasian - not as an African-American.  The plot of the Broadway musical cleverly explained this difference.  

 

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 1:57pm

Regarding Mrs. Meers, I would have to agree that the joke is how terrible she is- and, to pony off of LizzieCurry's comment, having the villain be a tasteless, racist yellowface hack subtly plays up the multiracial harmony of the rest of the production. We have privileged white characters mixing and mingling with Harlem Renaissance luminaries, blues singers and heroic Cantonese immigrants in a story that has fairly little to say about race or privilege... but having the villain be tacky, reprehensible, racist and clownish makes the intended point. The joke is on her, in a way that it wasn't on Mickey Rooney to quote the most similar example.

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 2:33pm

I think because my only exposure to any incarnation of Millie was the La Jolla tryout, and Pat Carroll was so grimly, hilariously evil without the need for the pseudo-Chinese getup, that when they added it, it just looked like they wanted to do it because that kind of appearance was funny. Can you see them doing the equivalent if Ching Ho and Bun Foo had been immigrants from Nigeria?

Someone from the LJP (I didn't catch her name) said something at BroadwayCon along the lines of it not being racist because it was Mrs. Meers who was racist. But did she get her comeuppance, or does she only get in trouble for being a liar and a human trafficker?

Updated On: 7/21/16 at 02:33 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 3:04pm

There's a subject for debate: can one make jokes about racism without trafficking in racist jokes? See a very similar debate about the "Jacqueline/Jackie Lynn" plotline on "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt."

[newintown]

Posted: 7/21/16 at 3:07pm

There's a subject for debate: can one make jokes about racism without trafficking in racist jokes?

Like all such questions, you would get different answers from different people, all of them subjective. There could never be agreement, and no one would be "right."