The stage lights up. Junior Manini Desai takes a deep breath, gets into the character of Millie Dillmount and begins to sing “Not for the Life of Me,” the opening number of the spring musical.
After months of careful planning and rehearsing, the drama department performed “Thoroughly Modern Millie” to a rousing response for four nights, from Feb. 28 to March 3.
Set in 1922, the show focuses on Millie, a young woman who moves to New York from her small Kansas hometown determined to make it big by marrying a person of wealth. Her plan goes awry, however, when she falls in love with someone entirely unexpected.
“I love this musical; I think it's endearing,” said Desai, who played Millie. “The characters are all so lovable, the plot is whimsical and though some scenes are wonderfully ridiculous, the show itself is very well written.”
Starting in December, Desai and her fellow cast members spent at least three hours every weekday after school rehearsing vocals with choir director Jim Yowell, choreography with principal’s secretary Susan Dini and blocking with drama director Sarah Thermond.
Cast members also put in time outside of rehearsal to memorize lines and songs and develop their characters.
“To be honest, I've been working on ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ since I heard what the musical was going to be in September,” said Desai. “It takes a while to truly understand a show and its characters, so I spent a while immersing myself in [the show] even before auditions [in December].”
Along with hard work from the actors, this production relied on the endless effort of the tech crew, including stage manager Wren Sutterfield.
“During rehearsals, I helped out the director and kept up communications between the actors and techs,” said Sutterfield. “Basically, if something comes up, it's my job to fix it.”
Sutterfield said that the end production turned out
really well because the actors, techs, orchestra and production staff worked hard and put their all into the show.
Senior Kabir Chandrasekhar, a cellist in the 23-member pit orchestra, found “Millie” a new and rewarding experience despite long rehearsal hours.
“I knew going in that it would be a heavy time commitment, [but] I thought it was really fun and exciting,” Chandrasekhar said. “[Playing in pit] has been on my high school bucket list for a long time, so it was nice to cross that off.”
Thermond had concerns about getting cast members ready on time due to the complicated scheduling, but she said all the help was much appreciated.
“[We] put this musical up very quickly [and] it’s a very complicated one, [so] pretty much everyone needs to be at every rehearsal,” Thermond said. “I know the really demanding schedule was rough on everybody, but I’m hoping that they will feel that it paid off and I think it did.”
The show sold more than 1,500 tickets, and many audience members, including Spanish teacher Gina Rodriguez, praised it highly.
“In my 15 years here, Millie is one of my top two favorite musicals,” Rodriguez said.
