MHS Drama Club’s hilarious “Thoroughly Modern Millie”

MEEKER I The Meeker High School Drama Club and International Thespian Society Troupe 1284’s production of the musical comedy “Thoroughly Modern Millie” was presented on Friday and Saturday at Meeker High School auditorium.
The theater production is based on the 1967 film of the same name, starring Julie Andrews as Millie, bringing attention to a kidnapping and white slavery industry between New York and Southeast Asia.
The film is set early in the Roaring ‘20s “flapper” era, circa 1922, when Kansas native Millie Dillmount’s (MacLaine Shults) ambition is to find work as a stenographer for a wealthy businessman and then to marry him.
Millie befriends Miss Dorothy Brown (McKenna Kummer) as the latter checks into the Priscilla Hotel. When house mother Mrs. Meers (Amanda Kendall) learns Miss Dorothy is an orphan, she remarks, “Sad to be all alone in the world.”
Unbeknownst to Millie, the woman is selling her tenants into white slavery, and those without family or close friends are her primary targets.
At a friendship dance in the hall, Millie meets the devil-may-care paper clip salesman Jimmy Smith (Tala Atoafa), to whom she takes an instant liking. However, she carries on with her plan to work for and then marry a rich man.
When she gets a job at Sincere Trust, she sets her sights on the attractive, but self-absorbed, Trevor Graydon (Lathrop Hughes).
Jimmy later takes her and Miss Dorothy on an outing to Long Island, where they meet eccentric widow Muzzy Van Hossmere (Ohana Mataia). Jimmy tells the girls that his father was Muzzy’s former gardener.
Although Millie is falling in love with Jimmy, she is determined to stick to her plan and marry Trevor. One morning, she goes to work dressed as a flapper and attempts to seduce him, but her effort fails. Eventually, Trevor sees Miss Dorothy and falls in love with her and vice versa, leaving Millie heartbroken.
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s attempts to talk to Millie are continually thwarted by no-nonsense head stenographer Miss Flannary ( Aly Ridings). He eventually climbs up the side of the building and, when he finally gets to talk to Millie, she tells him she is quitting her job since Mr. Graydon is no longer available.
Mrs. Meers makes several attempts to kidnap Miss Dorothy and hand her over to her Asian henchmen Bun Foo (Bruno Juarez and Colin Keeler) and Ching Ho (Anthony Watt), but Millie manages to interrupt her every time.
When Mrs. Meers finally succeeds, Millie finds Trevor drowning his sorrows, and he tells her Miss Dorothy stood him up and checked out of the hotel.
Jimmy climbs into Miss Dorothy’s room and lets Millie in, and they find all of Miss Dorothy’s possessions still there. Millie realizes Miss Dorothy is just one of several girls who have vanished without a word to anyone, except to Mrs. Meers. Together with Trevor Graydon, they try to piece the puzzle together.
When Jimmy asks what all the missing girls had in common, Millie mentions that they all were orphans.
Muzzy disguises herself, seeking accommodations at the Priscilla Hotel, and casually mentions she is an orphan in front of Mrs. Meers. Muzzy is subsequently captured by Mrs. Meers and Bun Foo, and Millie follows them, finding the girls tied up and about to be sent off to Beijing.
Millie unties a couple of them, who then free the other girls, and then she bumps into Miss Dorothy. They carry Jimmy out of the building, and head for Long Island and Muzzy. Mrs. Meers, Bun Foo and Ching Ho follow Millie and the gang, but under Muzzy’s leadership everyone manages to subdue the nefarious trio.
Millie then discovers Jimmy and Miss Dorothy are millionaire siblings and Muzzy is their stepmother, who sent them out into the world to find partners who would love them for who they were and not for their money.
Millie marries Jimmy and Miss Dorothy marries Trevor.
Cast members also include: Nicole Hilkey as “Ruth,” Emily Eliasen as “Gloria,” Brittany Smith as “Rita,” and “Daphne,” Brianna Holding as “Alice,” and Jamie McLaughlin as “Cora,” Piper Haney as “Lucille,” Sydney Hughes as “Ethel Peas,” Shelby Burke as “the Pearl Lady” and “Dorothy Parker,” J.C. Henderson as the “Policeman” and “Dexter,” and Lily Munn as “Mathilde,” and “Mama.”
Technical crew members include Michael Beck as sound designer, Colin Keeler on spotlight and Morgan Tegeder on light console. Directors were Kim Kendall and Mary Washburn.
“Thoroughly Modern Millie” was produced by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.