Patina Reveals 9-Year-Old Child’s New Passion for Musical Theatre
Patina Miller is probably going to discover her future child star in theatre! Miller, a Broadway veteran with both Tony and Grammy Awards in her name, tells PEOPLE in a private conversation that her 9-year-old daughter Emerson Harper has lately become fond of musical theatre. Although Miller feels that she cannot be any more proud, she also realises that the girl’s performances can be much improved. Besides the usual lessons in dancing, singing, and even drama that Broadway-bound talent needs for being a successful performer, there’s something Emerson still has to grasp about performing on stage. “It all started with this summer that she wanted, ‘I’ll be in a musical’,” 41-year-old Miller said. “They were doing Aladdin, and she was saying, ‘I have to do Aladdin; I have to be in the show.'” “That marked the point when Emerson got really serious about acting on stage.” It’s a major shift from the old-time interest of the little girl, which was being a viewer and not a performer at musicals. Even though her mother has won several major awards, Patina has been involved in the world of stage shows since she was a child, and it didn’t matter to the little one.
Patina Miller Shares Funny Lesson Her Daughter Learned During Aladdin’s Performance
“She likes music very much, so that was the one she was the most interested in. She likes certain scenes, for example, Into the Woods. “She has been listening to these songs for a long, long time, and as a result, they are completely ingrained in her memory,” says one of the Sondheim musicals. This summer she was like, “Wow, I have to figure out my lines and how to look in my costumes.”
When Emerson was on stage for Aladdin, Miller couldn’t help but share some of her own wisdom. It happened right during the performance, and Emerson became so excited that from the stage, she started giving her mom directions on where to photograph her in the middle of “Friend Like Me”.
She was in my seat giving directions to me all the while; I guess she was still performing, she explained, still laughing. “Mom is a professional here, and it’s just me telling you that you’ve got to be there. You can’t be giving me instructions about where I point the camera in the dark from a stage!”
Patina Miller Introduces Daughter to Broadway World
In addition, she knew that her mother would be willing to share them with the Broadway actor. That was another reason why her daughter really wanted those pictures. After all, that actor was one of the cast of Aladdin and, apart from that, was a close friend of Miller’s.
He [Emerson] said, “You have to photograph, you have to display these things, and finally you have to bring these things to your Genie friend.
If anything else, the theatre fever remains. Currently, Miller, who is starring on the Broadway stage of the premiere of Jocelyn Bioh’s Schoolgirls, is very excited to say that her coming back on Broadway was a perfect opportunity to acquaint her daughter with the world which she loves. That she has been able to take her daughter and allow her to be part of all those things is for her a real pleasure and one of the greatest rewards, she says.
Around the time they were shifting to Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, a stage rehearsal was shown to the daughter, and that made everything quite clear for the parents.
Patina Reveals Daughter’s Sweet Reaction to Her Broadway Performance
She thought her little girl would amuse herself by playing games all along while the team was busy. “She wanted to play on an iPad when I had to bring her to rehearsal, and I was like, ‘Let me put her to one side. She’ll cope,'” she said.
However, when the ladies started rehearsing one emotionally intense act after another, there was a twist to the whole story. “We started acting, and we moved into the very big part of part three, and I figured she was going to be quite bored,” Miller said. “Suddenly, as we were acting and moving through the action on stage, I noticed her from the sidelines staying really close and almost where we were performing.”
Audibly amazed, her daughter was just what you wanted in an audience. “It was this first experience of me at the same time as a mother and a performer of my daughter loving what I do and loving and valuing,” Miller recounts.
She Says Daughter Is Obsessed With Broadway After Visiting Rehearsal
The experience was so strong that Emerson was asking to come back almost at once. “She was like, ‘What about me?’ and kept saying, ‘Can I come to rehearsal?’ “Can I come to rehearsal?” Miller recalls her. “She is totally into these girls. She just can’t wait to be here.”
For Patina Miller, a Broadway veteran going on a 15-year run, having her daughter find theatre to be just as magical is the best of both worlds, providing the perfect addition to her own work.
There is no telling, however, if her daughter will take her mom’s path as one who appears onstage. At this point, it is only one-sided: Miller enjoys her daughter’s company and the shared interests.
“It is amazing for me to have someone else go through one of my favourite things that is so dear to my heart and get the whole sense of what a person can get from it,” says Miller. “It’s the best thing that could happen at all. I really don’t want to wish the day for much more than that,” as a mother, she says.
