Modern Millie 1922


 

 

Ballston Spa High School Students present 'Thoroughly Modern Millie'

 

Ballston Spa High School Troupe Proudly Presents for your enjoyment Thoroughly Modern Millie. Millie is a Musical about a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City in 1922 determined to marry for money instead of love. Problems arise as soon as she arrives in New York. Come see if Millie has all her dreams come true or if she heads back home to Kansas. The show is being used by permission from Music Theatre International. Original story and screenplay by Richard Morris, Music by Jeanine Tesori and Lyrics by Dick Scanlan.

Thoroughly Modern Millie runs One Weekend Only Friday March 30th at 7:30 pm and Saturday March 31st at 1:00 and 7:30pm. Tickets are available at the door for $10.00 for Adults and $5.00 for Students & Seniors day of show.    Shows are held in the Ballston Spa High School Auditorium.

The multi-talented cast includes Gretel Wilson as Millie Dillmount, Keenon McCollum as Jimmy Smith, Melissa Ferlo as Alice, Jack Rogers as Bun Foo, Mark Camilli as Ching Ho, Darcy Schacher as Muzzy van Hossmere, Ethan Magee as Trevor Graydon, Gwen van den Heever as Daphne, Julianne DeGuardi as Dorothy Parker, Julia Turano as Mrs. Meers, Catana Chetwynd as Rita, Courtney Butler as the Pearl Lady, Jenna Seifert as Dorothy, Danielle DiLorenzo as Cora and many more.

Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical for the whole family to enjoy. The music and dancing will have the audience wanting to dance in the aisles. Come join us for a day of 1920’s fun. Thank you for supporting the arts.

 


Expanded Plot Summary  

The film is set early in the flapper era - Thursday, June 2 (according to the calendar behind Mrs. Meers' desk) of 1922 (as stated in the title song's lyrics) (in fact this day was a Friday). Millie Dillmount's (Gretel Wilson) ambition is to find work as a stenographer to a wealthy businessman and then marry him—a thoroughly modern goal. Millie befriends Miss Dorothy Brown  (Jenna Seifert) as the latter checks into the Priscilla Hotel. When house mother Mrs. Meers (Julia Turano) learns Miss Dorothy is an orphan, she remarks, "Sad to be all alone in the world." Unbeknownst to Millie, the woman is selling her tenants into white slavery, and those without family or close friends are her primary targets.

 

At a friendship dance in the hall, Millie meets the devil-may-care paper clip salesman Jimmy Smith (Keenon McCollum) , to whom she takes an instant liking. However, she carries on with her plan to work for and then marry a rich man, and when she gets a job at Sincere Trust, she sets her sights on the attractive but self-absorbed Trevor Graydon (Ethan Magee). Jimmy later takes her and Miss Dorothy on an outing to Long Island, where they meet eccentric widow Muzzy Van Hossmere (Darcy Schacher) . Jimmy tells the girls that Muzzy’s former gardener was his father.

 

Although Millie is falling in love with Jimmy, she is determined to stick to her plan and marry Trevor. One morning, she goes to work dressed as a flapper and attempts to seduce him, but her effort fails. Eventually, Trevor sees Miss Dorothy and falls in love with her and vice versa, leaving Millie heartbroken.

 

Meanwhile, Jimmy's attempts to talk to Millie are continually thwarted by no-nonsense head stenographer Miss Flannery (Emily Venturiello). He eventually climbs up the side of the building and when he finally gets to talk to Millie, she tells him she is quitting her job since Mr. Graydon is no longer available.

 

Mrs. Meers makes several attempts to kidnap Miss Dorothy and hand her over to her Asian henchmen Bun Foo (Smiling Jack Rogers) and Ching Ho (Mark Camilli), but Millie manages to interrupt her every time. When Mrs. Meers finally succeeds, Millie finds Trevor drowning his sorrows, and he tells her Miss Dorothy stood him up and checked out of the hotel. Jimmy climbs into Miss Dorothy's room and lets Millie in, and they find all of Miss Dorothy's possessions still there. Millie realizes Miss Dorothy is just one of several girls who have vanished without a word to anyone. Together with Trevor Graydon, they try to piece the puzzle together. When Jimmy asks what all the missing girls had in common, Millie mentions they all were orphans.

 

Jimmy disguises himself as a woman named Mary James seeking accommodations at the Priscilla Hotel, and casually mentions she is an orphan in front of Mrs. Meers. Mary James is captured by Mrs. Meers and Bun Foo, and Millie follows them to Chinatown, where the unconscious Jimmy has been hidden in a room in a fireworks factory where Miss Dorothy is sleeping. Trying to look casual, Millie has been smoking a cigarette outside the building, and when she begins to choke on it, she tosses it into a window, setting off the fireworks. As a series of explosions tear through the building, Millie dashes into the factory and finds several white girls tied up and about to be sent off to Beijing. She unties a couple of them, who then free the other girls, and then bumps into Miss Dorothy. They carry Jimmy out of the building, and head for Long Island and Muzzy.

 

Mrs. Meers, Bun Foo, and Ching Ho follow Millie and the gang, but under Muzzy's leadership everyone manages to subdue the nefarious trio. Millie then discovers Jimmy and Miss Dorothy are millionaire siblings and Muzzy is their stepmother, who sent them out into the world to find partners who would love them for who they were and not for their money. Millie marries Jimmy and Miss Dorothy marries Trevor.