Thoroughly Modern Millie opens at DHS Thursday

April 9, 2014 Jeremy D. Smith Alabama, Demopolis, demopolis high school, DHS, Education, Thoroughly Modern Millie

Demopolis High School’s spring production takes to the stage Thursday night as the Tiger Arts Guild presents Thoroughly Modern Millie.

DHS drama teacher Jody Tartt noted the production is largely a change of pace for the group as it features unique technical challenges in addition to offering a different feel.

“I guess with this one, there are a lot of really fast scene changes. That makes it challenging. It deals with more of a historical period. A lot of the musicals we’ve done, maybe they’ve got a fantasy theme or they don’t have as much of a plot to the,” Tartt said. “The plot is really involved in Thoroughly Modern Millie. There is a love triangle going on. She’s trying to be a businesswoman. There’s this white slavery trade going on in the hotel. There are just a lot of twists and turns. There’s a lot of scripting to this as well as the music.”

The period piece is set in the 1920s, a fact that had almost everything to do with the Tiger Arts Guild’s selection of the play.

“They love the time period. They study The Great Gatsby in high school and that movie has been so popular, they just really wanted to the 20s. Madelyn Couch, who is a senior who has helped me with costumes and has always just done a fabulous job really wanted to do a 20s show. We kind of looked this over,” Tartt said. “This was a shortened version, which was kind of nice. We weren’t having to do a musical that was too, too long. Spring sports and all those things really compete. Spring is just a busy time. It is about an hour and 20 minutes instead of a two-hour musical. The original version is pretty long.”

The play is spawned from the 1967 cinematic classic featuring Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore.

“It was originally a film with Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore. Then it became a Broadway musical and Sutton Foster, who is from Alabama, actually won a Tony for Millie when they revived it on Broadway. It is kind of neat. It’s got an Alabama connection there,” Tartt said. “It is a romantic comedy. It’s light and fun. It’s about a young girl trying to make it in the big city in the 1920s. She is from Kansas and she wants to come to New York and become a modern woman and have a career and all that stuff. She finds out her idea of love is really different than what she thought. She decides to marry for love and not for money.”

The Tigers Arts Guild began working on the play shortly after the beginning of the semester but has seen its share of hiccups with inclement weather and school closings. The original open date had been set for March 13.

“We’ve had a lot of bumps in the road with the weather and all that kind of stuff, so that’s why we decided to reschedule. We started working on it about mid-January. We came back and cast it after we got back from break,” Tartt said.

Showings are set for 7 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday with a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday. Tickets are $6 each. The cast is as follows:

Millie – Kayla Cochran

Jimmy – Casy Roberts

Mrs. Meers – Kaitlyn Waldrop

Miss Dorothy – Sydney Pettus

Miss Flannery – Reid-Claire Stein

Ching Ho – Alex Boxmeyer

Bun Foo – Chase Compton

Trevor Graydon III – Jaylon Beck

Hotel Priscilla Girls:

Gloria – Taylor Cooper

Rita – Catherine Akins