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02/25/2020 12:53 PMThoroughly Modern Millie is set in 1922, but it’s a 2002 Tony Award-winning musical based on an eponymous 1967 film, which in turn was based on a West End musical called Chrysanthemum that opened in 1956.
Its story is even more convoluted than its history: A Kansas girl who moves to New York City in the hope of finding a rich husband encounters a human trafficking ring, chooses love over money, and ends up rich, anyway.
Students at Old Saybrook High School (OSHS) will be performing their thoroughly charming version Thursday to Saturday, March 12 through 14. OSHS Drama Advisor and Director Lenore Grunko said she chose the show after a friend urged her to do so.
“And because it’s got great music and it’s got some great dances and we have these great dancers,” she said.
As they did for last year’s On the Town, Maggie Maselli and Mara Kelley, both veteran dancers (now seniors) who also teach dance, have choreographed numbers with Grunko in addition to taking on prominent roles in the show.
“Five years ago, I was taking a summer intensive at my dance studio and they had people come from Broadway and teach us Broadway choreography,” said Maselli. “And the first piece of Broadway choreography that I ever learned was the opening to Thoroughly Modern Millie and it has been my favorite piece of choreography for years.
“I just love the ‘20s style, like the Charleston and the jumps,” she continued. “So I knew when the show was announced that I wanted to stick to that ‘20s style.”
In addition to the Millie choreography she’d learned, along with that for other shows that take place in the 1920s, such as Chicago, she studied YouTube videos of ‘20s-style dancing.
“I wanted to make it as authentic as possible and use the steps that were actually from the time period for my own choreography,” she said. “I just kind of pieced them together in a way that I thought looked good and then I taught it to the cast. And they’ve been so good at picking it up.”
Kelley’s biggest challenge has been choreographing a tap routine for a 5 ½ minute song, “The Speed Test,” with a tempo that changes throughout.
“Some kids have been dancing for as long as I have; some kids have never danced before,” she said. “And they’re learning how to tap and they’re doing it quite proficiently now. It’s really incredible and I’m really proud of them.”
The dance entails “different formations [and] moving desks. It’s quite a complex thing and I’ve never tackled something quite so large before, both in numbers [of dancers] and in time,” she continued.
‘One of the Best’
Kelley is a talented and patient teacher, said Penny Amara, who plays the title character, Millie.
“She’s one of the best teachers,” she said. “Even her choreography is like insane.”
This is the first lead role for Amara, who is also a senior, and she’s devoted herself to learning a slew of dance numbers and singing solos. In “The Speed Test,” the typing test she’s required to take during her interview for a secretarial job becomes a competition, not just in typing, but in tap dancing.
The opening number, “Thoroughly Modern Millie,” has “a dance break there, it’s sort of jazzy, Charleston-y, so it’s got some jazz hands and fun stuff like that,” said Amara. “We also have an amazing number at the beginning of Act II which is called ‘Forget About the Boy,’ which is another tap one that Mara’s doing.
“Everybody loves the song a lot,” she said. “It’s very high energy; there’s a lot of things going on.”
Senior Ian Mason plays her “unexpected love interest,” as he described his character, Jimmy.
“He doesn’t want to fall in love and she wants to get married without love,” he said.
“It’s a hate-to-love love story,” added Amara. “The whole bit is I’m pouring myself all over the boss, but he’s not interested at all.”
Millie meets Jimmy at the start of the play and it’s dislike at first sight, the actors explained. But Jimmy keeps turning up in unexpected places.
“I’m not a fan of her at all,” Mason explained. “I make fun of her a lot. I try to help her and she doesn’t like my help.”
“It’s like pushing two magnets together like on the opposite ends,” Amara said. “We don’t really vibe too well.
Over time, “[w]e get closer and closer and there’s a moment we have together that makes me rethink who I should kind of go for and appreciate,” she continued.
Asked if she found it nerve-racking to perform as the show’s title character, Amara said, “I just wanted it so much. I want to go out with a bang this year. It’s my last year. This has helped me realize what I want to do for the rest of my life. I love theater, I love playwriting.”
But whether she focuses on writing or acting will depend on the college she attends in the fall, she explained. So far, she’s heard from one school: She was accepted to the University of Rhode Island’s BFA program in theater.
“I definitely want to stay in this realm,” she said. “It makes me happy.”
Preparation for Real Life
Maselli’s plan is to double major in physics and music.
“In addition to dance and theater, I also play the French horn,” she said. “So I was thinking to combine all three aspects, I was going to do general music.”
As of press time, she’d received an acceptance from her safety school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts.
Kelley has also been accepted to Wheaton and is waiting to hear from other schools. She has wanted to be a teacher for her entire life, she said, but more recently has found herself considering dance, a future she’s never before allowed herself to regard seriously.
Mason is hoping for an acceptance to the U.S. Naval Academy; his second choice is Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
“I’m going to go for mechanical engineering with a concentration in aerospace,” he said. If he has time, he’ll try to do some performing. On a recent visit to WPI to see his friend John Gabelman, who graduated last year from OSHS, he asked about course loads and heard about Gabelman’s experience in one of the school’s glee clubs.
“I was thinking I might try to audition for something like that,” Mason said. “I really enjoy music; it’s been part of my life since like 5th grade and it would be fun to do that in college.”
“Theater prepares you for so many different real-life experiences you don’t get to do if you don’t participate and make the most of this kind of opportunity,” Grunko told the students.
As for Millie, “It’s got some really lovely love duets,” she said. “It’s the kind of show that you really do go out singing.”
Showtimes for Thoroughly Modern Millie at Old Saybrook High School (OSHS), 1111 Boston Post Road, are Thursday, March 12, Friday, March 13, and Saturday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. with a Saturday matinée at 2 p.m. General admission tickets are $15; students and seniors are $10 and may be purchased online at www.showtix4u.com (search “old saybrook”), at the OSHS main office, or at the door.