Thoroughly Manual Millie

I am stealing that title from a friend of mine, Mark Ledbetter, who had designed the accompanying mock-up of the poster to commemorate the extraction of all things automated on the National Tour of MILLIE. This was about the time that I joined the cast, so part of my put-in rehearsal as Jimmy also required learning how to ride Muzzy’s balcony as it was slowly being pushed downstage by a burly technician crawling on his belly, all while performing a scene with Darcie Roberts. Hey – it worked and the audience didn’t know the difference! It was like the time that the lift mechanism broke for the tour of TITANIC while we were in Baltimore, and all we could do was raise the stage-right side of the deck about one foot to create the tilting effect, and, wouldn’t you know: the audience gave us a standing O!

Anyway…

I recall “Manual” Millie only because it wasn’t possible to obtain a projector for the English supertitles that are required for the show, so I proposed a system of writing out each card and having them appear in flip-book style throughout the show. This is being evaluated and priced out, and I think it’s going to work. First of all, it will serve the purpose of translating all the Chinese dialogue, and secondly, it will be very funny. Trouble is, what’s less expensive: getting Kinko’s to print out large letters on posterboard (around $4 a sheet multiplied by about 50 sheets required for the show…$200.00. Really? It’s just paper and ink, Kinko), or stenciling out all the dialogue and hand printing/coloring the whole thing? I think the latter will work, and I am so ready to help fill in the lines with my black magic marker! At any rate, rolling with it is the way that I choose to go with things, and I find that that attitude makes directing sooo much easier, and therefore, that much more rewarding!

We’re coming along here, and coming along rather well, I believe. Even though the kids in the company are battling exhaustion from EVITA, GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING, overheating, illness and intern duties, they continue to deliver. And I would also just like to mention the tech staff here at the New London Barn Playhouse. Not only do these people have their work cut out for them, but they, too, deliver above and beyond the call of duty. And they’re nice.

And another shout-out to Kathryn Markey, who came up from New York to join the cast as Mrs. Meers Sunday and was thrown into the Millie Cuisinart and came out glowing! She’s really funny, and I like working with her very much. She’s actually going to direct the Barn’s production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF in a few weeks, so she’s here for the long haul!

Tomorrow is our stumble-through of Act Two, and if the way the company rose to the occasion on Monday for the Act One stumble-through (which was stellar), all should go swimmingly. I’m very proud of this production and all people involved. If all goes well, we’ll run the whole show Friday, twice on Saturday and once more on Sunday before we go into tech on Sunday!

So - to get back the MANUAL thing - after having experienced the show from the Broadway stage, where everything was automated, to the National Tour, where it was much less so, to the regional stage, where there was hardly any, to here where there is none, I have realized (and I think I always knew this) that MILLIE works no matter what the budget or the venue. The music, the story and the characters are enough to satisfy the theatregoer. The set can be anything. Or nothing. There is nothing like watching the dancers come to life around Millie in the opening number, and that's when you realize that they all become the set. A simple sign and desk let us know we're in a hotel lobby; a sheet hung up to dry let us know we're in a laundry room; a couple of low-hung billiard lights indicate a speakeasy...you get the picture.

Now if I could just get an air conditioner in my apartment and block out all this humidity and actually sleep…