Bway Millie-Go-Round: Creel Exits and Borle Enters; Uggams and Kudisch Due; So Long, Leung

By Kenneth Jones
28 Mar 2003

Millie spins through a revolving door upon arriving in NYC.
Millie spins through a revolving door upon arriving in NYC.
Photo by Joan Marcus

The revolving door that Millie Dillmount spins through at the top of Broadway's hit musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, couldn't be more apt this spring.

A production spokesman confirmed that after Tony Award-nommed Gavin Creel exits the role of Jimmy April 27, he'll be replaced by Christian Borle (Prodigal, Elegies) on April 29. Borle and Sutton Foster (the 2002 Tony Award-winning Best Actress for Millie) are romantically linked off-stage. A spokesman also confirmed Foster has extended her contract to November.

Sheryl Lee Ralph's last performance as Muzzy Van Hossmere is April 12. Leslie Uggams (a Tony-winner for Hallelujah, Baby!) begins April 22. Terry Burrell will assume the role of Muzzy in the interim.

Tony Award-nommed Marc Kudisch returns to the role of stuffed-shirt Trevor Graydon May 13 (rather than the previously-reported April 29). He'll appear in the Encores! No Strings concert in early May. Christopher Sieber is currently playing Trevor (he jumped in when Kudisch took a leave for New York City Opera's A Little Night Music).

Ken Leung leaves the role of Ching Ho March 30, to be replaced by Dave Rhee April 1. He's the first of the original cast principals to leave to company permanently.

Harriet Harris (a Tony Award-winner as Mrs. Meers) Francis Jue (as Bun Foo), Anne L. Nathan (as Miss Flannery) and Angela Christian (as Miss Dorothy) continue in their principal roles at the Marquis Theatre.