I like taking care of myself because I like being onstage. You know it kind of sucks sometimes 'cause your friends want you to go out, but they understand that, you know, if I go out right now, I'm jeopardizing what I have to do at night. 'I don't go to parties, I don't really go to bars. So I just wanted to be prepared mentally, physically to be able to take on the role.' It's nonstop physical movement the entire show, and also singing, and this big emotional arc that my character goes through the show. So I had to find a way of building muscle in a different way to be able to hold my body weight on the trapeze. You know, I'm very strong, but I was strong in a different way. The one thing about my character I wanted was for my character to be really strong. But I also started to get into fitness, getting into getting healthy and taking care of my body. 'The good thing is, before I started, I started to take lessons on trapeze. Ghostlight Records The new cast recording of Pippin. I could just make this world my own and there wasn't something that I had to compare myself to.' And I didn't really know Pippin that well, so I could come into it, you know it's like a blank canvas. 'I'm sure there were tons of people who were like, 'No one could ever top Ben Vereen.' So I came into this process with a challenge – a really big challenge – is how do you make Pippin different, but also how do you also take people's minds off the fact that people come in expecting Ben Vereen? And that's why I think that Diane is so smart in that she completely made it so different in making the Leading Player a woman. And that immediately sparked my interest. And she was telling me that she was gonna revive Pippin, and that she had this idea for the Leading Player to be a woman. Then I got a call from her after I left Sister Act in 2011. 'I had worked with the director Diane Paulus before in 2007. She also talked about the intense physical training and personal sacrifices that went into recreating Pippin.īecoming the Leading Player, and stepping into Ben Vereen's shoes Miller spoke with Tell Me More host Michel Martin about her role, which was originated by theater legend Ben Vereen 40 years ago. You can also hear her on the newly released CD of the show's songs. She won this year's Tony Award for best leading actress in a musical. Miller takes on the role of Leading Player, the circus artist who guides a young prince in finding meaning and magic in his life. Now she's center stage again in the Broadway revival of Pippin, the musical first launched in 1972. She earned rave reviews for playing the accidental nun who led a choir to stardom. He stepped into the role of King George in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton last year during regular castmember Jonathan Groff’s absence to film HBO’s Looking movie.Patina Miller first got noticed on the theater scene in 2009 as the star of Sister Act: A Divine Musical Comedy.

He has also appeared on Broadway in Hairspray, Jersey Boys and in the title role of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Rannells, currently seen on HBO’s Girls, was nominated for lead actor in a musical for The Book of Mormon in 2011. She won that award two years later for Pippin. Miller, who is a regular on the CBS drama Madam Secretary, made her Broadway debut in the lead role of Sister Act in 2011, earning a Tony nomination for lead actress in a musical.

Two Broadway babies currently working in television, Patina Miller and Andrew Rannells, will announce the nominations for the 70th Annual Tony Awards.

Patina miller on broadway