Take a young woman from Salina, drop her into New York City during the height of Prohibition, add a couple of love triangles, a sinister hotel manager and lots of singing and dancing, and you'd have Lawrence Community Theatre's recipe for magic, "Thoroughly Modern Millie." The 2002 Tony Award-winning musical based on the 1967 film runs weekends through June 24 to cap the theater's 30th anniversary season, and it's a high-spirited romp sure to please audiences of all ages.

Young Millie Dillmount (Kristen Van Engelen) leaves quiet Salina for the bustle of the Big Apple with a plan: marry her wealthy boss and retire to a life of luxury. Everything seems to be going well when she lands a job as a stenographer for eligible bachelor Trevor Graydon III (Michael Hagen), but her plans are thrown off course when Millie falls for poor but charming Jimmy (Daniel Lassley) and Mr. Graydon is smitten with Millie's best friend, Miss Dorothy (Maggie Gremminger). As though that weren't enough trouble, the evil Mrs. Meers (Jane Henry), manager of the hotel where Millie and Dorothy live, is running a white slavery ring, abducting any of her tenants with no family to miss them. It'll take torch-song singer Muzzy Van Hossmere (Annette Cook) to sort it all out, but not before the entire cast has sung and danced its way into audience's hearts.

Van Engelen is bubbly and energetic as Millie, perfectly capturing the drive of a young woman determined to make it big. Henry is hilarious as the scheming Mrs. Meers, and Lassley is charming as the erstwhile Jimmy. Hagen is ideally cast as the stiff banker Graydon, and he and Gremminger provide one of the show's funniest moments with their duet, "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life/I'm Falling in Love with Someone."

But it's Charles Goolsby and Bob Newton who steal the show as Ching Ho and Bun Foo, the sweet and somewhat unwilling accomplices of Mrs. Meers, who is forcing them to help her in exchange for bringing their mother to America from Hong Kong. When Ching Ho falls for Miss Dorothy, though, it's just a matter of time before he turns to the side of the angels. Both characters speak almost entirely in Chinese, but the theater thoughtfully provides subtitles so none of the jokes are missed.

Barb Wasson's choreography is marvelous, particularly during "The Speed Test," where stenographers are furiously tap dancing at their typing stations, and music director Judy Heller gets the best from her singers.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the production is its staging. With 21 scenes ranging from a hotel lobby to a busy office to a ledge on the 20th story of a Manhattan skyscraper, putting a show of this size on a stage as small as the one at Lawrence Community Theatre is a difficult undertaking. Thanks to Mary Doveton's direction and Jack Riegle's set design, though, it's accomplished flawlessly. Cook is not only terrific as Muzzy, but her costume design elegantly captures New York in the Roaring '20s.

"Thoroughly Modern Millie" is pure magic. With memorable characters, terrific performances, and lots of singing and dancing, it's a perfect recipe for summer fun.