Everything will be Thoroughly Modern Millie in Houston over the Christmas 2003 holiday, according to Theatre Under the Stars founder and CEO Frank M. Young.
The national tour of the 2002 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical is part of the TUTS season at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts next year, Dec. 16, 2003-Jan. 4, 2004. It is the only show of the 2003-04 season Young has announced to his loyal audiences.
The Millie tour schedule and details are still being put together, but a source close to the plan previously told Playbill On-Line the tour will kick off in Kansas City in July 2003. Meanwhile, Millie continues going strong at the Marquis Theatre on Broadway, with Tony winning Sutton Foster still wowing audiences in the title role.
Next month, TUTS will offer the world premiere of the musical, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, beginning Oct. 9, and Young said the plan is to send the show to Broadway if interest from producers and audiences is high.
* The Equity road staging of the 2002 Best Musical Tony Award winner, Millie, is expected to have a long life, well into the 2004-05 season, bringing regional audiences the spoofy and family-friendly musical comedy inspired by the film of the same name. The original creative team, including director Michael Mayer, choreographer Rob Ashford, librettist-lyricist Dick Scanlan and composer Jeanine Tesori (all Tony Award nominees, with Ashford winning for his musical staging) will all return to the show. Scanlan previously told Playbill On Line it would be exciting to revisit some of the material with fresh eyes.
"I wrote a novel, and I can't imagine going back into that and rewriting it, but Millie, I'm almost certain when we prepare the road company next spring, I bet there will be changes," Scanlan told Playbill On-Line in May 2002. "First of all, the set will be slightly modified, which in a musical really does change the writing because of transitional things. But substantively there's one or two things I look at that I could rethink a bit. There are moments where I think I can make it a little snappier, a little better. It's close to a finished piece of literature, but I can imagine little tweaks here and there."
Designers David Gallo (scenic), Tony-winner Martin Pakledinaz (costumes), Donald Holder (lighting) and Jon Weston (sound) are expected to recreate their work for the road.
Rehearsals will be held in Manhattan, followed by a technical run at the Weidner Center in Green Bay, WI. The first public performance is slated for July 15, 2003 in Kansas City, a production source said.
It had been reported in the past several months that the Weidner would be the site of the public launch, but that's not the case (although Millie will play the Green Bay house in 2003).
The Kansas City run has not been officially announced, nor have any additional dates. No casting has been announced. The current national tour of 42nd Street launched at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City.
On Broadway Thoroughly Modern Millie is produced by Michael Leavitt, Fox Theatricals, Hal Luftig, Stewart F. Lane, James L. Nederlander, Independent Presenters Network, L. Mages/M. Glick, Berinstein/Manocherian/Dramatic Forces, John York Noble and Whoopi Goldberg.
