Thoroughly Modern Millie

Strictly Come Dancing winner, Joanne Clifton, wowed a sold-out press night audience at Bromley’s Churchill Theatre yesterday bringing a feisty Millie Dillmount to London’s suburbs as the current tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie sweeps the country.

Directed and choreographed by Racky Plews, Clifton heads up a seventeen-strong cast with a Calamity Jane-esque firecracker of a performance that showcases the talents that won over BBC One’s Saturday night audiences.

Based on the 1967 film starring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore, TMM is about the girl from Kansas who arrives in 1920s New York with her sights set on marrying the richest man she can find – as was the way. However, as in all the best laid plans, love does have a habit of getting in the way. It also doesn’t help when you’re stone broke and have to check into the Priscilla Hotel which is run by ‘Mrs Meers’, head of a Chinese white slavery ring. Unaware of the danger within, Millie befriends her fellow ‘Flapper’ residents, takes a typing job and concentrates on reeling in (and wooing) her boss.

A wonderful first act of pure musical theatre makes way for a second half of hilarious comedy as the cast revel in their roles. There’s plenty to enjoy here; Clifton not only possesses a ridiculous amount of talent in her dance routines but also boasts an impressive voice …as does the delectable Jenny Fitzpatrick who takes on singer, Muzzy van Hossmere, with apparent ease. Katherine Glover and Sam Barrett provide great support as Dorothy Brown and Jimmy Smith, but it is Lucas Rush’s Mrs Meers and Graham MacDuff’s Trevor Graydon who, together, threaten to steal the entire show. Rush gives an outrageously hilarious performance as the faux ‘Chinese’ hotel owner, and MacDuff’s sublime ‘drunk’ scene in act two literally had not only the audience in stitches but also Joanne Clifton – brilliant!

Some fine ensemble work provides that unmistakable 20s style to make for a great evening out, all at a fraction of a West End ticket price – which may well be where this show is heading.

Thoroughly Modern Millie continues in Bromley until Saturday, 10th June. For more information, tour dates and tickets visit: modernmillie.co.uk 

• Type: admin
• Performance Date: 06/06/2017
• Star rating: 12345