“‘Millie’ was my first Broadway show,” I told Sutton Foster as she slid my freshly autographed Playbill across the table.
She put her hands on her heart, smiled warmly and said, “Awww.”
I paused to see if she’d ask to exchange phone numbers.
“It kind of changed my life,” I continued, still kind of hoping she’d want to be my friend. To Sutton, my fangirl moment after her 2017 performance with the Tabernacle Choir was probably commonplace. But I wasn’t exaggerating — seeing “Thoroughly Modern Millie” changed me.
A new production of the hit musical opens this week at Hale Center Theater Orem. It’s made me reflect on why it was so impactful for me.
When I went on my first trip back east in 2003, my friends and I spent a few days in New York City. I was a sight for sore eyes, as I had contracted conjunctivitis (a.k.a. pink eye) the week before my vacation. I wasn’t allowed to wear makeup or my contacts — doctor’s orders — and I felt a little freakish. My red, swollen eyes and my decades-old glasses shouldn’t have been allowed in public, let alone in one of the fashion capitals of the world.
My friends and I decided to see a Broadway show, so we stopped at the South Street Seaport TKTS. As we stood in line, we narrowed the options to “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and “Urinetown.” We went with “Millie.” Thankfully.
Growing up, I’d always loved musicals. There are orange-hued pictures of me as little girl asleep on the floor listening to the “Annie” album via enormous headphones. Watching “The Sound of Music” or “My Fair Lady” was always a treat when I stumbled across it on TV. But somewhere between learning to apply mascara and deciding what I wanted to be when I grew up, my interest in musicals had gone dormant.
As I sat in the Marquis Theatre, I couldn’t believe my pink eyes. Sutton took the stage in her breakout — and Tony Award-winning — role as Millie, and I reconnected with that little girl who had the “Annie” album memorized. Sutton and her love interest (in the show and, for awhile, in real life), Christian Borle, were endearing. As Millie, Sutton was an ingénue, getting acquainted with life and with the Big Apple in a way I was also experiencing.
I returned from New York changed. I had conquered a big city, and set out on a quest to collect Playbills like a Little Leaguer collects baseball cards. During the next decade I returned to Manhattan at least a dozen times and would always see a show or two. I would also buy tickets to Broadway productions passing through Utah — nosebleed seats when my budget was tight, single seats when I wanted to introvert.
And wherever “Millie” was playing I would follow. It didn’t matter if it was on a high school stage or if it had equity actors. I was there. When one of my roommates was dumped, I would turn on my “Thoroughly Modern Millie” CD and pretend to tap dance to “Forget About the Boy,” one of the show’s signature songs.
Then there was the time I told my husband I liked the name “Millie” if we ever had a girl — we now have three — but he didn’t love the name the way I did. His sister ended up nabbing it for her daughter. (Full disclosure: my grandma was named “Millie,” but the musical would have been the true impetus. Sorry, Grandma.)
I’ve been equally as loyal to Foster as I have been to the show. I’ve watched her perform in other Broadway roles, including “Anything Goes,” “Shrek” and “The Drowsy Chaperone.” I’ve also attended her concerts at Brigham Young University, at Temple Square with the Tabernacle Choir and, most recently, at Deer Valley with the Utah Symphony.
I’m excited to show my daughters “Millie” someday, even if none of them are her namesake. Millie is part of my life and part of my NYC love story. The musical set the bar for every other production I’ve seen since and turned me into a Sutton Foster fan.
Last fall, I sat in the Eccles Theatre waiting for “Waitress” to begin, eager to write my first review of a touring Broadway production. I couldn’t help but think of how the trajectory of my life was shaped as the curtain rose on “Millie” — and Sutton — 15 years earlier.
Every theatergoer probably has a similar story: the moment when an interest becomes something more. I could have cancelled my trip. I could have bought a ticket to “Urinetown” and gone home with a very different perspective of the Great White Way. I could have skipped Broadway entirely and spent my money on a double-decker bus tour and an “I heart NYC” t-shirt.
But everything fell into place as it should, just like a happy ending to a thoroughly wonderful musical.
Content advisory: “Thoroughly Modern Millie” includes mild innuendo and a trip to a speakeasy.
If you go …
What: “Thoroughly Modern Millie”
When: Sept. 27-Nov. 23 except Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. matinees on select days
Where: Hale Center Theater Orem, 225 W. 400 North, Orem
How much: $19-$27
Web: haletheater.org