Thoroughly Modern Millie @ The Arts Centre

Weekend catch up post 2:

Sunday afternoon, fresh from sleeping in, I rushed off to catch up with Neale for his birthday dalliance with Thoroughly Modern Millie, a musical based on the Julie Andrews film that I'd never heard of.

I can't really comment on the first act because I didn't see all that much of it. From the more lucid patches between my mini-sleeps I know it was quite tappy. Tap-dancing has a lulling effect, don't you think? I didn't really follow the story that well either because it bungeed maliciously from hammy Chinese abduction/love story to thoroughly twenties modernity of Millie's hunt for a husband. At one stage it was all in Cantonese. I thought I was dreaming. Everyone was laughing. I thought it more likely that I was dreaming than that the entire audience spoke fluent Cantonese. Then I realised there were surtitles.

I am being harsh. It was actually a lot of fun (especially the second act, for which I was awake).

The program states quite proudly: For anyone who says they don't make musicals like they used to, point them in the direction of Thoroughly Modern Millie.

True enough, it certainly has that, classic musical feel but I have reason to believe that that air of authenticity is drawn from the fact that the show sounds like a pastiche of the twenties. Actually, to be fairer to the musical theatre of the twenties, most of the songs were ripped almost note for note from the period.

But it was fun.

Even funner was dinner and drinks at Taxi and Transit.

Tags: theatre, musical, review