Thoroughly Modern Millie (play)

Thoroughly Modern Millie
Original Broadway Windowcard
Music	Jeanine Tesori
Lyrics	Dick Scanlan
Book	Richard Morris Dick Scanlan
Basis	1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie
Productions	2002 Broadway 2003 US tour 2003 West End 2005 UK tour 2017 UK tour
Awards	Tony Award for Best Musical Drama Desk Outstanding Musical

Thoroughly Modern Millie is a musical with music by Jeanine Tesori, lyrics by Dick Scanlan, and a book by Richard Morris and Scanlan. It is based on the 1967 film of the same name, which itself was based on the British musical Chrysanthemum, which opened in London in 1956. Thoroughly Modern Millie tells the story of a small-town girl, Millie Dillmount, who comes to New York City to marry for money instead of love – a thoroughly modern aim in 1922, when women were just entering the workforce. Millie soon begins to take delight in the flapper lifestyle, but problems arise when she checks into a hotel owned by the leader of a white slavery ring in China. The style of the musical is comic pastiche. Like the film on which it is based, it interpolates new tunes with some previously written songs.

After previews at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California in October 2000, the show opened on Broadway on April 18, 2002. The production subsequently won six 2002 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Due to the success of the original Broadway production, there was both a United States tour and a West End production launched in 2003, followed by a United Kingdom tour in 2005. The musical has since become a popular choice for high school productions.

Act I

It's 1922, and Millie Dillmount has just escaped to New York City from Salina, Kansas. Determined to become a success, she tears up her return ticket ("Not for the Life of Me"). Bobbing her hair, she assumes the modern look of a "flapper" ("Thoroughly Modern Millie"). But she is quickly mugged on the streets of New York, losing her hat, scarf, purse and shoe. In a panic for someone to help her, she trips bypasser Jimmy Smith, a handsome, carefree young man who makes his way through life on whims and wits, who promptly lectures her on why she needs to head back home: she is just another girl full of false hopes who doesn't belong in the big city. Almost taking his advice, she changes her mind and yells after him, "Who needs a hat? Who needs a purse? And who needs YOU, mister whoever-you-are?!" and soon takes a room at the Hotel Priscilla for Single Women ("Not for the Life of Me [tag]").