A stage adaptation of the film musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, with a largely new score by Jeanine Tesori and Dick Scanlan, opened on Broadway April 18, 2002. It won six Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress in a Musical for its star, Sutton Foster.
"I love the Wizard of Oz element to it," director MIchael Mayer said during rehearsals for the show in February 2002. "It's Dorothy coming from Kansas. That's how [the film] was originally written, but they changed it because Julie Andrews is British. She comes from Kansas to the Emerald City, she goes over the rainbow to Oz, to find her heart's desire—or what she thinks is her heart's desire. There's a good witch, and a bad witch. She meets all these colorful characters along the way. The journey she thinks is external is actually internal, and she doesn't have to go back to Kansas at the end. That's the great part, she can stay in Oz!"
Among the "colorful characters" Millie met along the way were love interest Jimmy (Gavin Creel), fellow hotel resident Miss Dorothy (Angela Christian), serious bachelor businessman Trevor Graydon (Marc Kudisch), corrupt hotelier Mrs. Meers (Harriet Harris); Chinese immigrants Bun Foo (Francis Jue) and Ching Ho (Ken Leung); Josephine Baker-style diva Muzzy Van Hossmere (Sheryl Lee Ralph); and Miss Flannery (Anne L. Nathan), the steno-pool matron who got a show-stopping tap break.
Gavin Creel and Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie
Gavin Creel and Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie
The ensemble included Kate Baldwin, Roxanne Barlow, Melissa Bell Chait, Catherine Brunell, Joyce Chittick, J.P. Christiensen, Julie Connors, David Eggers, Gregg Goodbrod, Aldrin Gonzales, Jessica Grove, Susan Haefner, Amy Heggins, Joanne Hunter, Alisa Klein, Matt Lashey, Darren Lee, Dan LoBuono, Casey Nicholaw, Noah Racey, Aaron Ramey, T. Oliver Reid, Sharon Scruggs, Megan Sikora and Brandon Wardell.
Michael Rafter was musical director. Designers were David Gallo (who created the set, complete with a working hotel elevator in which performers tap dance), Martin Pakledinaz (costume), Donald Holder (lighting), and Jon Weston (sound).
The show had a 15th anniversary reunion concert, featuring most of the original cast, February 12, 2018, at the Minskoff Theatre.
