But this Dorothy ain’t interested in clicking her heels to go back home, and not just because someone stole one of her shoes (and all of her money) just minutes after she arrived. She’s burning the bridge and determined to stay in New York till she achieves her dreams, which means getting a job and marrying her rich boss. And this Millie’s got the spunk to achieve whatever she dreams. Diana Kaarina (Eponine on Broadway and in the national tour that swung through San Diego a few years back) starred as Millie’s friend Miss Dorothy in the first national tour. Now she’s in the lead role, and she’s dynamite – charisma, stage presence, optimism, stubbornness, smarts, uninhibited youthfulness, a dash of dorkiness, and a girl-next-door cuteness that is immediately endearing. Special skills include being able to take dictation while checking out her potential boss’s butt. And she can sing. Not just belting it out, which she can apparently do without limits, but also doing it with meaning, singing of love in Jimmy and Gimme Gimme with such genuineness and surprise that it’s as if love completely blindsided her, and she’s so moved and thrilled that she’s scarcely aware she’s singing.

The cast is filled with great vocal, comic, and dancing talents. Matt Lutz is Jimmy Smith, the street-wise New Yorker who gets tangled up with newbie Millie, and before he knows it he’s literally out on a ledge for her in a well-done scene as a nervous but determined skyscraper stalker, the two of them reacting and dancing on the ledge so well that I almost felt nervous for them. Quinn Vanantwerp is a riot as Millie’s manly but melodramatic boss Trevor Graydon, especially when he runs smack into love with Millie’s best friend, the slumming debutante Miss Dorothy (Sarah Bermudez) who is so excited about living among normal people that she can barely stand it. Quinn and Sarah’s Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life meeting and dancing is hilarious.

But all could be lost if the evil landlady, cleverly disguised as an old, sweet (well, not so sweet) Chinese lady Mrs. Meers, is able to sell Dorothy off into “white slavery.” San Diego favorite Melinda Gilb is great as usual, a huge personality that is as ruthless and confident as it is amusing. Emir Yonzon as Bun Foo and Kavin Panmeechao as Ching Ho do a nice job as her two young Chinese assistants who aid the devious Mrs. Meers in the hopes of being reunited with their Muqin/Mammy – until Ching Ho falls for Miss Dorothy. Karole Foreman is stately yet warm and down-to-earth as the lovely jazz singer Muzzy Van Hossmere with a gorgeous voice. Kami Seymour is the not-so-stately Miss Flannery, Graydon’s executive assistant, who marches around the office with the grace of a bull and a demeanor and stance to match.

Millie Dillmount: