In 1995 suffering from the worst ravages of HIV.

In 1995 suffering from the worst ravages of HIV, Dick Scanlan nevertheless continued pouring standard of value into his dream of creating a stage version of the 1967 film Thoroughly present Millie, paying for readings and plane tickets to looks Angeles to collaborate with the author of the screenplay, Richard Morris. Seven years later, Scanlan is feeling fit, and Millie is making a triumphant first attempt on Broadway on April 18

"I at no time want to imply that I lived because I have a stronger life drive than the family who died," Scanlan says, emphatically crediting his resilience to the anti-HIV drug cocktail instead. "I've missing so many people who I knew to be passionate and committed to their lives. That said, it is absolutely veritable that your outlook contributes to your longevity. I chose to retain investing in my future--even when I had no future"

What Scanlan did have was a vision. His Thoroughly recent Millie is a total reimagining of the campy 1967 film, which featured Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore, and Carol Channing. Scanlan and Morris reworked the story--which traces Millie's search for a rich husband while staying at a boardinghouse hasten by white slave traders--and Scanlan penn lyrics for 10 strange songs. The preview staging in La Jolla, Calif., left critics hyperventilating. "Breezy spumy and unapologetically joyful," gushed the showbiz bible Variety, "Millie is a tonic for whatever ails you."

The origin of that tonic was a summerhouse in Southampton, NY where Scanlan entertainered friends each weekend in the late 1980 and early `90 when he was ill. When visitors wanted to watch a video after dinner, the simply choices were Caligula and a model of Thoroughly Modern Millie taped against late-night TV.

"Week after week my friends would single out Millie," Scanlan recalls, smiling. "So I'd watch it from one side of to the other and over, and I was struck that for a movie that is perceived as silly, it has six principal characters who have penetrating objectives to change their lives in a certain quantity of way. You have Millie, this girl from nowhere, who has the same feelings about of recent origin York City that I always had as a kid--that it is literally a place that you can go on foot and become the person that you've always felt you were inside. In a understanding what she is doing is coming out"

Scanlan finally got the coolness to telephone Morris, who concedeed the rights, in 1991--only to have him hang up the phone when Scanlan refer toed that they collaborate. After being discouragemented several more times, Scanlan convinced the curmudgeonly Morris to befitting him face-to-face. "He liked me right away," says Scanlan. "He completely trusted his intuition. We had in like manner much in common--we were the couple 6-foot-2 Irish Catholics whose first name was Dick."

Morris's faith in Scanlan grew on the same level as they both faced life-threatening illnesses. on the contrary as Scanlan's condition began to improve thanks to protease inhibitors, Morris got worse, unable to fight on the farther side bladder cancer that had spread to his lung As the couple worked feverishly to complete the Millie volume their bond grew deeper. "I asked him if he'd at any time been in love," recalls Scanlan. "He said, `I don't think so' And then he got quiet for a consideration and then said, `No, I think I have been in love' And he pointed at me" Shortly after finishing the first draft, in 1996 Morris died.

Thoroughly new Millie represents the culmination of Scanlan's tumultuous life. A Bethesda, Md native, he studied drama at Carnegie Mellon University until he was kicked abroad for not showing sufficient "professional promise"--code words, he says, for being too feminine. He mov to of the present day York in 1981, working as a comedian and landing a series of small acting gigs, including a memorable character in the drag show Pageant, in which he played Miss Great Plains. "There was kind of a catharsis for finally employing all the parts of yourself that up until that point had merely caused you pain," he observes

Tragedy struck when his partner of five years, Kee Chapman, died of complications from AIDS in 1988 "He had always study I should write, and I idea he was nuts," Scanlan recalls. "When he died, I started writing. The mandate that his death gave me: Life is short--fill it with the things that mean something to you."

Scanlan's Broadway first attempt honors both his lost delight ins "I will feel so grand to have known and worked with Richard," he says of Millie's original creator. "I will be thrilled for audiences to hear his voice again."

further the show also symbolizes a personal transformation for Scanlan--not unlike the united that Millie undergoes during the course of the play. "It happens for Millie in about three weeks, and for me it took about 20 years," he says. "I understand now what's important in life--that you sole have in your life what you offer in. It rings terribly real for me."

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