Thoroughly Modern Millie - 2017 UK Tour

At the interval, and there is nothing wrong with the show but I'm finding it a struggle. Not sure why, it's just not connecting with me.

Thoroughly Modern Millie - Playhouse Edinburgh

The first half just didn’t engage with me at all, Not sure why I wasn’t enjoying it as the cast were good and the songs were nice but come the interval I was thinking that this was a dud. The show has within the first 20 minutes or so a bizarre scene of Michelle Collins doing yellowface which is paid off at the end of the scene (where it turns out she is a white American actress who is on the run and is hiding out by pretending to be Japanese) but for 5 minutes or so it came across as a horribly racist attempt to shoehorn in a famous name. I'm not sure if that was why I was having issues with the show for the first 80 minutes or so.

Things were thankfully amped up in the second half as they introduced comedy and the songs started to shine. The minor characters came to the fore as they rescued both the show and the characters who had been kidnapped for the slavery racket and thankfully this made the last hour very entertaining. Although the ending is a massive cop out with a lot of characters interacting in ways that make you think about the happenstance of it all but I'll let it slide because that second half was terrific.

Strictly winner Joanne Clifton is playing Millie, I'm not familiar with her work but here she showed she is certainly more than a dancer.

6/10 - there is potential here but its squandered in a torpid first half.

One star review from the Mail on Sunday. Describes the show as "a thoroughly past-it Millie" which hits rock bottom with "Michelle Collins's squawking". Ouch.

Perhaps it's Craig Revel Horwood - then he could have the entire cast sing, dance and play musical instruments all at the same time!! Wonderful!

I saw this on Thursday. I was impressed with Joanne Clifton as Millie although she tends to over gesture during her ballads. Sam Barrett sings the role of Jimmy beautifully. One of the biggest applauses of the night was for Jenny Fitzpartick's rendition of 'Only In New York.'

The audience also loved Graham MacDuff as Trevor but for me I felt at times he was milking it a bit too much.

Michelle Collins is definitely the weak link. Her performance comes across as a celeb who has been thrown into a panto with just a day's rehearsal.

For just an 8 piece band the music still sounded quite full. I do suspect there was some click tracking going on.

Fair enough. York is notorious for limited space, I believe. I haven't booked but I'm wondering if they will now offer the more generous Members' first night discount on the Tuesday instead!

Saw the show on Saturday evening. Generally impressed with the cast and some really lovely stuff going on in the numbers and the scenes. Joanne was great and Katherine Glover (as Dorothy) and Graham MacDuff (Graydon) were standouts.

Two main issues: Michelle Collins was well below par as Meers. Part of the blame lies with her (for example, knowing her lines /lyrics and singing in tune would be a start) but surely the director should have intervened before allowing such a performance to hit the stage.

Secondly I was underwhelmed by the band. It should have rocked along nicely despite the small number of players, but virtually every number had a click track (not for vocals but for additional recorded instruments). As such the live band were essentially "playing along" - they all had headsets in - and the MD wasn't even conducting from Keys 1. The whole thing was very bland and uninvolving from a musical perspective to be honest, and such a sharp contrast to the last UK tour which had a fabulous 10 piece fully live band which brought so much more energy to the show.

There was a tech issue on Saturday night - think it was with the MD's keyboard - which caused a show stop within the first minute during the opening number.

Enjoyable show but could have been so much better.

Still no word on the replacement. Moreover one of the towns which is hosting this in a few weeks has posters up on buses, telephone boxes etc which have Michelle Collins on them, with top billing!

I think in the case of Funny Girl, Darius is a sort-of known name to boost ticket sales at Natasha's venues. Sheridan is enough of a draw at her venues (and, allegedly, didn't hit-it-off with Darius - maybe that's the reason for different leading men).

She is appearing in a new play at Park Theatre in March

And is unable to be in 2 shows at the same time

do you know who it is?

As much as I love Lucas and love watching him perform, I don't think he would ever do a production that's so cheap. He said himself he's being very picky about jobs.