Get Ready For An Evening With Modern Millie

After last year's success with The Witches of Eastwick, York Light Opera Company make a welcome return to the main stage at York Theatre Royal with the much-loved musical Throughly Modern Millie running in the main house from 13-24 February.

Fresh off the bus from Kansas, a thoroughly un-modern Millie comes to New York in search of a new life. She has a plan - get a good job as a secretary to a very rich man and then marry him. She checks into the Hotel Priscilla where she encounters the eccentric proprietor, Mrs Meers and her riotous adventures in the razzmatazz of Jazz Age Manhattan begin. As she flaps, taps and Charlestons her way through the Roaring '20s, Millie learns there's more to being modern than the latest fashions, bobbed hair and a boss who is a rich, eligible bachelor. There's a little thing called love that never seems to go out of style.

Millie began life as a movie; the 1967 musical comedy starring Julie Andrews, James Fox, and Mary Tyler Moore, The screenplay was by Richard Morris, who was inspired by a 1956 British musical called Chrysanthemum. His effort won him a Writers Guild of America award for Best American Musical. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and five Golden Globes. In the early 2000s, the movie was adapted for the stage at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego with a book by Richard Morris (from his original screenplay) and Dick Scanlan and additional songs by Scanlan (lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music). The stage version maintained the basic storyline of the original but, in an effort to be politically correct, toned down many of the stereotypical traits associated with the Asian characters in the film. The production went on to win 10 Tony awards on Broadway. In 2003, the original creative team reunited to stage the show in London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre with Amanda Holden and Maureen Lipman.

Tony Reeves from York Light Opera Company said, "The Light Opera is once again delighted to be performing a new release to the amateur stage, a show never seen before in York. We are never happier than when we are facing a challenge, we just hope the audiences will give us the same support they would for an established 'old favourite', the cost of bringing a musical of this standard to the stage increases yearly and our only source of income is ticket sales".

The casting of Thoroughly Modern Millie includes real life off-stage partners Alexa Chaplin and Richard Blackburn who will be playing opposite each other for the first time. Last year they both took lead roles in the company's production of The Witches of Eastwick, Alexa as the stammering witch, Sukie Rougemount, and Richard as the young innocent Michael. The pair will be joined by many of the company's regular lead actors who have all featured in York Light's many successful productions over the years and who are currently working extremely hard to polish the many dance routines under the direction of Martyn Knight and Sue Hawksworth.

Over many years York Light Opera Company have enjoyed many shows at York Theatre Royal including; Jesus Christ Superstar and Anything Goes, as well as last year's The Witches of Eastwick. Tickets for this eagerly awaited production are priced between £5.00 - £18.00. -- www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk