The musical theater, that uniquely American invention, has come a long way in the past 90 years. But if you yearn for the good old days when musicals made little sense and their cartoonish plots were little more than excuses to get from one production number to the next, then, boy, has the Maltz Jupiter Theatre got a show for you.
It is Thoroughly Modern Millie, based on the Julie Andrews-Mary Tyler Moore movie from the ’60s. That was a carefree celebration of the flapper era influenced by the homage musical The Boy Friend, the show that first brought Andrews to our shores in 1954.
In the title role here, the Maltz has its own star-in-the-making in winsome Laurie Veldheer, playing the spunky, modern-thinking gal, newly arrived in New York City from her native Kansas, eager to forge a career and land a wealthy mate, whether or not she loves him. (If you sense that she will instead fall for a guy with no financial prospects, please try not to get ahead of the story.)
Veldheer is perfectly cast, having a belter’s singing voice, a wicked way with a Charleston and a charm that is catnip to the male characters and most of the audience. She opens the show with Millie’s “want song” (Not For the Life of Me), during which she trades in her Midwest duds and outdated hairdo for sunny fashions and a bobbed coif.
Her first stop is the Sincere Trust insurance company where she gets a job as stenographer to well-heeled Trevor Graydon (Burke Moses, who has a firm grasp of the ridiculous), thanks to a dictation test set to the cadences of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Millie sets her sights on Trevor, but is soon gobsmacked by a lovable loser named Jimmy (clean-cut, creamy-voiced Jeff Kready).
Then things turn truly nutty when we meet Mrs. Meers (a shameless, anything-for-a-laugh Lenora Nemetz), who runs a white slave market out of her boarding house. There she ships off her tenants — preferably orphans — to Asia, aided by her two Chinese henchmen. Now there’s a subplot you don’t encounter too often in musical comedy.
Try as much as possible to ignore the demeaning depiction of the Chinese lackeys and the landlady’s pidgin accent. Politically incorrect? Absolutely, but remember this is supposed to be 1922, when such humor was, alas, quite common.
Focus instead on the jazzy new songs by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan, which supplement the movie’s more hummable tunes by Sammy Cahn and James Van Heusen.
Mark S. Hoebee, producing artistic director of New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse, stages the show with efficiency, but takes a back seat to choreographer Denis Jones, a Carbonell winner for the Maltz’s take on The Boy Friend few seasons ago. Helen Gregory leads a swinging hot band and Michael Schweikardt contributes a stylish set design dominated by a swank New York skyline.
Thoroughly Modern Millie is awfully entertaining and, if you never really get emotionally invested in these characters, well, you can’t have everything.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter, through Sunday, March 24. Tickets: Starting at $46. Call: (561) 575-2223.
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I’m very conflicted over the production of In the Heights, the 2008 Best Musical Tony Award winner now receiving a terrific, exuberant, emotionally potent production at Actors’ Playhouse.
The problem for me is that it clings uncomfortably close to the original Broadway production, which is not surprising when you learn that nine of its performers — as well as choreographer/musical stager Stephanie Klemons — are veterans of either that original company or the national tour. Add in the usually innovative Sean McClelland’s scenic design for the Washington Heights barrio, too reminiscent of the Broadway set and dictating a lot of the stage movement, and you have a show which is less creative than re-creative.
That is a frequent reaction I have when attending shows at Actors’ Playhouse, and perhaps artistic director David Arisco should simply be congratulated for assembling productions which clone — in look and quality — Broadway. But I suspect many in the Playhouse’s audience would find the experience more interesting and satisfying if he allowed himself the freedom to deliver a show like In the Heights with a fresh approach, unshackled by what was done previously.
That said, and particularly for those who have never seen this involving, character-driven celebration of the far uptown Hispanic community and its hopes and dreams, this is one of the most exciting shows from Actors’ Playhouse in its 25 years of existence. The material itself is strong, introducing as it does the enormous talent of composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (who also originated the central role of bodega owner Usnavi de la Vega). And then it is performed by as agile, athletic and attractive a cast as I can recall at a resident theater in South Florida.
Usnavi (an assured, ingratiating Nick Duckart) narrates the opening number, a hip-hop introduction to the barrio that sets the tone and raises the theater’s ambient temperature. Gradually, we get to know Vanessa (Christie Prades), the hottie that Usnavi would love to find the courage ask out on a date. He’d better act soon, because she is eager to move downtown, if only she had the means and a better credit score.
Also planning to leave are a trio of gossipy beauty parlor women who are Bronx-bound, and even Usnavi and his Abuela (a touching and big-voiced Doreen Montalvo), the woman who raised him like a grandson, yearn to go back to their homeland of the Dominican Republic.
On the other hand, there is Nina (a sorrowful Sarah Amengual, again charismatic after her Playhouse debut last season in Next to Normal), the collective hope of the community, returning from Stanford after dropping out. And that is just a few of the stories in this 20-member cast, characters you will find yourself rooting for and caring about, juggled expertly by book writer Quiara Alegria Hudes.
Miranda spins out sprightly tunes to most of them, from a salsa-beat to pure Broadway. His lyrics have lots of puckish internal rhymes, so lean in and listen closely.
It seems inevitable that this In the Heights will be up for Carbonell Awards a year from now, but those who have seen the show elsewhere should not be surprised if they leave Actors’ Playhouse with a distinct case of déjà vu.
IN THE HEIGHTS, Actors’ Playhouse, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Through Sunday, April 7. Tickets: $42-$50. Call: (305) 441-4181.