NORMALLY an opening night stage full of flappers would be regarded as a disaster, but with Thoroughly Modern Millie it’s what everyone is aiming to achieve.

The now classical musical is a colourful pastiche of the flapper era and everything that made the Roaring Twenties roar.

Millie is being brought to the Palace stage by Vanda Morgan, known for many years for her Southend-based stage academy, the Morgan Academy of Performing Arts, now in its 35th year.

Vanda will be directing the musical under the banner of her stage company Mapa, formed in 2005 as, in Vanda’s words, “a platform for talent”.

The bulk of the cast will be young members of the academy. The leading roles will be played by older performers, some experienced, some cutting their teeth in principal roles.

Explaining how Mapa works, Vanda says: “There are no auditions or committees for the leading roles. These performers are all well known and established in Essex, and they are offered the roles accordingly. It is always exciting to give newcomers an opportunity and there will be a couple of first time performers on stage.

“The mix of trained students and adult performers is a good recipe all round, and excellent for the students’ development.”

Thoroughly Modern Millie began life as a 1967 film, starring Julie Andrews and Carol Channing.

The score mixed original songs, including the title number with classic standards from the jazz era such as Baby Face and Do it Again.

The plot springs from the adventures of Millie Dillmount, a naive farm girl who arrives in 1922 New York from the country determined to become a thoroughly modern, fully-fledged flapper. She joins the vast tribe of lady stenographers in New York City, sets her hat at marriage to her boss, and becomes enmeshed in the seedier side of Manhattan, when she stumbles on a white slavery operation run by boarding house owner Mrs Meers.

The mood is captured by the lyrics of the title number: “Good-bye, good goody girl I’m changing and how. So beat the drums ’cause here comes Thoroughly Modern Millie now.”