Falling in love with 'Millie'
Playwright Dick Scanlan reflects on Broadway-bound La Jolla
Playhouse work
by Charlene Baldridge
GAY AND LESBIAN TIMES INTERVIEW
On a rehearsal break, Dick Scanlan sits at a picnic table
overlooking I-5, while behind his left shoulder a green
hummingbird feeds in the hibiscus bush, the apricot-colored
blossom a perfect complement to Scanlan's sandy hair and eyes.
Perhaps best known as Miss Great Plains in the original
off-Broadway hit Pageant, Scanlan, 40, is at the La Jolla
Playhouse in a different capacity, that of co-author and lyricist
of a new, Broadway-bound musical titled Thoroughly Modern Millie,
inspired by the late Richard Morris' 1967 film, which starred
Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Channing and Beatrice
Lilly.
Directed by Michael Mayer, Thoroughly Modern Millie features
Sutton Foster as Millie; Sarah Uriarte Berry as her best friend,
Dorothy; Tonya Pinkins as a flamboyant socialite named Muzzy; Pat
Carroll as the deliciously evil hotel owner, Mrs. Meers; and Jim
Stanek as Millie's admirer, Jimmy.
Although Millie was Morris's greatest success, he wrote episodes
of Private Secretary, a 1950s TV series starring Ann Sothern. In
1955 he became the head writer and director of The Loretta Young
Show, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He also wrote the
book for the musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown.
Convinced that Millie would make a great stage musical, Scanlan
pursued Morris for five years before being granted an interview.
"When I first started to approach him, he was exceedingly
nasty and resistant," said Scanlan. When they finally did
meet, Morris cared much less about Scanlan's credentials, what
other people said or what ideas he had about adapting Millie than
he did about what Scanlan is really like, how he operates and who
he really is.
"At the end of six or seven hours, he felt very strongly
that we were a good team," Scanlan recalled.
Soon after the work commenced, Morris was diagnosed with
metastasized cancer and given just months to live. He survived
for 2 1/2 years, during which the two worked feverishly on the
stage musical, for which they share credit as book writers.
Scanlan flew to Los Angeles six or seven times a year working
with Morris for periods of five days to two or three weeks.
Scanlan began working through pages of the script, sending them
by FedEx to Sherman Oaks. Then the two would confer.
Figuring that Millie was Morris's baby and that it might be
painful for him to see, Scanlan refrained from titling the pages
"Thoroughly Modern Millie by Richard Morris and Dick
Scanlan."
After six weeks or so, a letter came from Morris pondering what a
poster for Millie would look like. "I think, if it's okay
with you," wrote Morris, "that it should read 'Book by
Richard Morris and Dick Scanlan' and that we should split all
royalties 50-50."
"Once that happened," said Scanlan, "there was
never, ever any question about one of us being more entitled to
an opinion on the material. We were co-authors, and certainly in
terms of the people who are handling his estate, he was very
clear with them.
"In later years, Richard would call me often during the day,
because he was virtually homebound. If I wasn't there he would
leave a message, sometimes just a sentence and frequently, 'Thank
God you were persistent!'"
As the reworking progressed, it annoyed Scanlan that a scene he'd
felt successful about was followed by a song with lyrics that had
a different tone. "So I started to tweak, take sections of
the song and rework them, then show it to Morris, who ultimately
said, 'You should be writing lyrics for this show and in the
future.'"
"As he got sicker," said Scanlan, "I would stay
longer in California, because we both knew he was leaving. I
wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. I really became
quite enamored of him. He was an astonishing guy.
"Though Millie is extraordinarily changed from the
film," he continiued, "I hope it maintains the tone of
the movie, because that was essentially Richard Morris, and had
to do with his very specific relationship with language, his kind
of humor and the fact that he was simultaneously exceedingly
cynical and exceedingly
trusting. He's really embodied very thoroughly in the characters
of Mrs. Meers and Muzzy."
After Morris's death, director Mayer and Scanlan did a reading of
the show as it existed at the time. They realized that the most
successful musical passages were those that utilized the new
lyrics. Mayer suggested hiring composer Jeanine Tesori (Violet).
The title song and two others were retained. Others come from the
1920s, and still others are entirely new songs with music by
Tesori and lyrics by Scanlan.
Scanlan, who is openly gay, is the fifth child in a Roman
Catholic family. When just a child he became interested in
musical theater, and if he is one with the protagonist of his
largely autobiographical novel (Does Freddie Dance), he had begun
collecting cast recordings by the time he was 5.
Everyone in his large and loving family indulged his collecting.
It was the gender-neutral '60s, so they also indulged his Barbie
Dolls his request for an Easy-Bake Oven, and his penchant for
dressing GI Joe in Ken Doll's clothes.
By the time Scanlan was a teen, he wanted to perform, so his
mother sent him to the local Jewish Community Center. She was a
physical education teacher and had had good training there early
in her life, so she figured the center might just have a program
for her little boy. Sure enough, it did.
When he was 11 or 12, Scanlan announced to his father, a highly
motivated and successful attorney, that he thought he'd go to
college and become a doctor. That way, if he didn't make it as a
performer, he'd have something to fall back on.
His dad said, "In that case, you'll have to pay for it
yourself, because I refuse to finance a course of education that
you're not really passionate about. You can't plan for the
failure. If you pursue an acting career and it is not successful,
and if you put your heart into it, it will lead you to whatever
it is you are supposed to be doing."
"What he meant," said Scanlan, "is that you have
to follow your heart and follow it fully. He was exactly right.
You might not end up with what you think you want, but you're
going to end up with something true and something real, and
that's ultimately what you're after."
Once Millie opens on Broadway next season, what then? Scanlan
loves to write, he admits. Maybe some more fiction, another book
musical, some lyrics - who knows"
"You have to fall in love with whatever you're
writing," he said, "because you're in it for the long
haul. A musical can take seven years, as this one has. A novel
can take five. If you don't love the themes and the characters,
it's going to be hard to stick with it. I trust that after Millie
I'll just fall in love with something else."
Thoroughly Modern Millie is currently playing in previews at the
La Jolla Playhouse, where its official opening is Oct. 22. Some
performances are already sold out. Phone (858) 550-1010.