Thoroughly Modern Millie
Millie Dillmount
 |
Jeff Nomination |
“Tari Kelly gave Millie a strong vocal as well as a cute, Carol Burnett persona that easily wins our hearts. Her ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Gimme, Gimme’ songs light the torch with haunting emotions and her ‘Forget the Boys’ number with the typing girls demonstrate Kelly as a triple threat performer.”
 |
THEATER REVIEW Tari Kelly's `Millie' is just what the doctor ordered -- sillyTari Kelly, the cheerfully old-fashioned young performer headlining the Marriott Theatre's top-drawer production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" is a whole lot closer to Carol Burnett than Sutton Foster, who starred in this show on Broadway. And Kelly is exactly what this silly roaring '20s thing -- a hopelessly retro musical comedy with an emphasis on the gags -- needed from the start. Had Kelly (or, better yet, a more famous version of Kelly) been in place when this Chicago-produced endeavor opened on Broadway, it might actually have made a decent profit for Michael Leavitt and his crew, instead of getting a respectable but not entirely remunerative run. Her considerable talents notwithstanding, Foster is first and foremost a romantic lead. And I saw two other people play the title role thereafter -- in New York and on the first national tour. They were primarily romantic leads too. But this show -- a relatively recent live retrofit of the 1967 movie musical with the "42nd Street"-style plot about a Kansas rube finding her feet in the big city even as white slavers try to ship her ilk down the East River -- really requires a natural comedian who also happens to sing and dance very, very well. That combo is very hard to find today -- just ask the producers of the "Sweet Charity" revival. Modern leads like to also be legitimate leads. They don't necessarily like to stick their energy low in their body, set their jaws and thighs, then lumber and pratfall their way across the stage. Kelly doesn't seem to mind -- and by finding the comedy in her Millie's gut, she brings the woman to full and refreshing life. I'd argue that Marc Robin's Marriott Theatre production is at least as good as the Broadway "Millie" and a great deal better than the cheap first national tour. And the reasons go beyond Kelly. Granted, Marriott's version of the show lacks spectacle -- the famous elevator-tap number loses most of its oomph when there's no elevator to tap in (Come on Mr. Marriott, dust off those wallets). And the hysterical ending photo montage involving the bumbling kidnappers from Hong Kong and their beloved mother is sadly absent (although if you never saw it in New York, you probably won't miss it). But it looks like Robin persuaded the Lincolnshire bean counters to come up with a few extra bucks more than usual. He got some flash, and the show has what it needs. And while the material won't change anyone's life, it makes for one heck of a good time. This being a Robin production, the ensemble tap numbers sparkle. It's not so much that Robin does everything better than other choreographers (although he does everything better than most). It's that he does a whole lot more of it. When there's an easy way out of staging a scene, he coaxes his kids into doing it the difficult way. And thus even the minor moments gets so darned punched up, they win you over. And in a show like this one with a serviceable but second-tier score, that's pivotal. Kelly's Millie is well supported. Her opposite number, Stephen Schellhardt's sweet-voiced Jimmy Smith, is a central casting version of the retro lead male. Brian Herriott is slightly over-ripe as Milly's stiff boss, but without spoiling the credibility of his fruit. And as Muzzy Van Hossmere, E. Faye Butler has never sounded better (her voice just gets richer and richer). The humor with the diabolic, faux-oriental Mrs. Meers (exuberantly played by Rosalyn Rahn Kerins) needs more pace and certitude. And you wouldn't want it any broader. But with Catherine Lord firing on all cylinders as the hysterical chief nerd of the steno pool, the laughs flow thick and fast. "Millie" is silly. And there are only about three good songs. But in this terrific rendition, it's a shame when all the stuff and nonsense comes to a close. During these dreary days, one could stand a great deal more. "Thoroughly Modern Millie" Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune |
Bobbie Bagby, Tari Kelly and Amber Makalous
February 15 - April 23, 2006
Direct from Broadway!
Winner of 6 Tony Awards!
Fresh off the bus from Kansas, a thoroughly un-modern Millie comes to New York in search of a new life. She has a plan get a good job as a secretary to a very rich man and then marry him. She checks into the Hotel Priscilla where she encounters the eccentric proprietor Mrs. Meers and her riotous adventures in the razzmatazz of Jazz Age Manhattan begin. As she flaps, taps and Charlestons her way through the Roaring 20s, Millie learns there's more to being modern than the latest fashions, bobbed hair and a boss who is a rich, eligible bachelor. There's a little thing called love that never seems to go out of style.
“As the cheerful and ambitious Millie, Tari Kelly wins the audience over almost instantaneously and keeps them in the palm of her hand for the rest of the show. She's a fine singer, dancer and comedienne, and brings a goofy and exuberant charm to every moment of stage time. … She also gracefully yields the stage to supporting characters in equally fine comic form, including Johanna McKenzie Miller, Dawen Wang and Brian Herriott as parts of a secondary romance plot, and E. Faye Butler as a feisty club singer and millionairess. Butler in Little Bo-Peep drag (Costumer Nancy Missimi has a fine sense of period and clearly a dry wit as well) near the end of the show is a comic highlight.”
“Millie is played by Tari Kelly, a dynamite singer/dancer, and cute in a Carol Burnett sort of way. She's a sparkling comedienne -- particularly when trying to charm a marriage proposal from her straight-laced boss.
Kelly is the consummate heroine, belting out ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie,’ that fabulous song by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen, and later tugging at our heartstrings with ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Gimme Gimme.’”
“Tari Kelly makes an ideal Millie. Reminiscent of a young Carol Burnett, Kelly is a spunky heroine with sharp comic instincts and a knock 'em dead brassy voice.”
