Post-'Modern Millie'?
February 19, 2002
NEW YORK -- "Thoroughly Modern Millie" has been getting a thoroughly modern makeover. Those who saw the new tuner at La Jolla Playhouse in fall 2000 will probably not recognize the show when it opens on Broadway April 18. "Seven of the 11 original songs are new since La Jolla," says composer Jeanine Tesori. (Three other tunes, including the title number, are from the 1967 movie.) The post-Sept. 11 climate may actually have inspired one addition, "Only in New York." "It brought up feelings of pride and so we wanted to write a New York love song," says lyricist Dick Scanlan. As co-book writer with Richard Morris, Scanlan has been working double overtime. Although Tesori says, "What we learned from La Jolla is that the story works," book rewrites have been nearly as plentiful as song substitutes and additions. "Sixty-five percent of the script is new," says Hal Luftig, one of the show's many producers. "Almost all of the first act has been changed." According to director Michael Mayer, the set design also involved major revisions. "You could perform 'Metropolis' on the La Jolla sets," he recalls, "Now it is more Emerald City, with Dorothy coming to Oz from Kansas."Is "Millie" now so modern it needs another regional tryout? "With a gun to my head, I'd be out of town in a second," says Luftig. "But those (tryouts) are $1.5 million a pop." The producers have "Millie" budgeted at $9.5 million. The figure could rise during tech rehearsals and previews, when cash often burns. "But we're doing everything to keep it at that number," Luftig says of those high 7-figures.