Thoroughly Modern Millie

[Mr. Wormwood]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 12:53am

I know the content of Thoroughly Modern Millie has been discussed on here before but I was perusing MTI's site and noticed that the show is "Totally Restricted Through 2023" (here's the link: https://www.mtishows.com/thoroughly-modern-millie)

 

I assume its problematic elements are being re-written for licensing but is there any official confirmation of that or an article related to that officially happening?

[Kad]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 11:01am

I had heard that the rewrites that were planned for the now-canceled Encores production were being implemented for the licensed version. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 11:04am

Didn’t Encores say they were still committed to doing that show?

[Kad]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 11:19am

Jordan Catalano said: "Didn’t Encores say they were still committed to doing that show?"

Last I heard from people closely involved with Encores, it is not on the table at the moment.

 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 11:33am

Maybe I’m confusing it with something else but I do remember getting an email about a show I had tix for that they said was definitely going forward at some point. 

[Ke3]

Posted: 12/5/21 at 12:05pm

Three years with no productions of Millie? High school girls with strong tap skills are weeping.

[TheatreTeacher88]

Posted: 1/16/23 at 8:30pm

I think about this show all the time. What’s the status update on this production or the rights being released? 

[BETTY22]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 1:25pm

I don't think this show can be performed anymore.

Grateful how far we have come. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 1:49pm

BETTY22 said: "I don't think this show can be performed anymore.
 


Nonsense.

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 2:07pm

JSquared2 said: "BETTY22 said: "I don't think this show can be performed anymore.

Nonsense."


- The existing show depicts a white woman running a sex-trafficking business, posing as an Asian-American woman, and everyone believes that she's indeed Asian. The trafficking business is not treated with the weight or seriousness that such things should be given.

- The portrayals of Ching Ho and Bun Foo are deeply uncomfortable and problematic.

- Millie joins Sincere Trust with the goal of marrying its boss for wealth. Most of the young women in the show are depicted as man-hungry, money-hungry, and flighty with not a ton of agency.

- beyond that, there are simply clunky and overly corny elements to the book and lyrics.

The show has been an embarrassment since it first premiered. Beyond Sutton's performance, it still boggles the mind that it won Best Musical. It needs to be revised before anyone performs it again –– whether that revision premieres at Encores or elsewhere. Simply casting an Asian-American actress as Mrs. Meers won't cut it, I don't think. I think anyone who can find fault in TOOTSIE or SOME LIKE IT HOT or MORMON should be able to find triple the problems in MILLIE.

But if a coalition of Asian-American female critics & theatre artists feel the show is defensible as-is, I'd be glad to read that argument.

Updated On: 1/17/23 at 02:07 PM

[Bill Snibson]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 2:15pm

While I realize that this show is beloved by many you have to be able to see all the flaws and how inappropriate it is now for a 2023 audience. It was teetering on cringe back when it premiered. I'm curious about how the writers have updated it in hopes of trying to make it still work. Casting Ashley park as Millie is confusing alone considering that a major plot-point is "white slavery" and Mrs. Meers needs a complete overhaul. 

[pethian]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 2:40pm

JSquared2 said: "Nonsense."

 

Nonsense? Hardly. And for all the reasons already cited by others in the above two well-articulated responses. This show would need a top-to-bottom overhaul, if that's even possible.

 

[Ke3]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 3:06pm

I first saw Millie in middle school and even at 12 I was flabbergasted by the depiction of Asian characters. It felt like something out of the 1950s. It's almost laughable that it premiered the same season as a revisal of  Flower Drum Song that was trying to remove the orientalism out of that piece. 44 years between the original Flower Drum Song and Millie but the latter manages to be somehow worse at depicting race.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 3:18pm

I don't intend to defend the property, but I don't care for the implication that the show or writers are racist because of their adaptation of material that was already problematic in the first place. Francis Jue had some complimentary opinions of the material in 2018.

https://playbill.com/article/why-this-original-thoroughly-modern-millie-actor-says-mrs-meers-and-henchmen-were-revolutionary

[emilyfaye48]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 3:19pm

"It felt like something out of the 1950s."

well it is based on a British musical from 1956

[Ke3]

Posted: 1/17/23 at 3:40pm

I'm aware that Millie was based on prexisting material but we all do realize that makes it *worse* not better, right? They all saw that racist material built-in to the structure and thought "good old fashioned fun!"