Interview: Catching up with MICHAEL & MARDIE's Mardie Millit

Musical theater actress and nightclub entertainer Mardie Millit had a fine career going, with no idea that she would find herself re-branded as a cabaret couple, but when she met Michael Garin the stars aligned and, before she knew it, she was one-half of the MICHAEL AND MARDIE show. The pair of entertainers hitched their wagons at home and at work and have been using the cabaret rooms of New York as their stomping ground, ever since. During the pandemic Millit, an actress who could go comedic or dramatic, and Garin, a pianist who could play anything, used their social media to bring happiness and human contact into the lives of the quarantined, and when the stay-at-home order was lifted, the twosome immediately sprung into action, performing for passers-by on the sidewalk outside of the West Bank Cafe. Now back on their regular routines, Mardie had a few minutes to chat with Broadway World (a busy Garin demurred, preferring to have his wife be the family spokesperson) about being a working couple, artistic transitions, and teaching someone to love Sondheim.

This interview was conducted digitally and is reproduced with minor edits.

Mardie Millit, welcome to Broadway World!

Thank you, Stephen, I'm delighted to chat with you!

During the lockdown, you and your husband Michael Garin were indefatigable online entertainers. Put me in the picture of your work as virtual entertainers.

Well, during the first month of lockdown, entertaining was the last thing on my mind. My beloved eldest sister died suddenly (not of Covid) on March 13, 2020, and I was in shock and then grieving for the rest of March and the better part of April. Michael was doing his job - playing piano for the Roxy Hotel - remotely, livestreaming on the Roxy's Instagram page three nights a week, and I was his, uh, technical director, I guess, figuring out all the details on the fly. After watching him interact with people on those broadcasts, as I slowly emerged from mourning, I began to think about how I could use this medium for my own kind of performing. I also watched some of my friends - most notably Gretchen Reinhagen - experimenting with "going live" from home and turning it into a musical comedy/variety show kind of experience. Watching a performer like Gretchen take big comedy risks in the intimate interface of Facebook Live really gave me a kick in the pants, and toward the end of April I said to Michael, "I need to sing again." Singing is as essential to me as breathing; that's not really even hyperbole. If I don't have a regular outlet for it, I literally become physically ill. And I knew my sister, who was my biggest champion and fan, was cheering me on from wherever she is now. So, I put together a set list and sketched out some patter, and hit "Go Live." And from the first moments of the first show, I felt like it was what I was meant to do. Stupid camera tricks just came to my mind on the fly and I did them; Michael and I always have a good banter going, so we did that; and the audience was commenting live, which gave me something to improvise to. We had over 3,000 viewers on my first LIVE FROM LOCKDOWN stream. I grew up watching and idolizing Carol Burnett, and after that first show, I felt like I'd gotten a microscopic taste of what doing my own TV show would be like. And Michael, with whom I've lived and performed for 17 years, absolutely stood aside and let me make all the artistic choices. I picked all the songs, and he learned a ton of new pieces - most of them Sondheim, who's not his favorite, to put it mildly - because he knew I needed to do this to heal, and he saw how it was bringing me back to life. So there was a point, once I got in the groove, where I was doing my show once a week, and Michael was doing his show twice a week, and we were making online tips like a couple of strippers, because everyone outside NYC thought Covid was gonna wipe us all out! Honestly, it's such a surreal time to think about even now, only two years later. But we made friends online - including frontline workers who'd come home from their long shifts at hospitals and watch our show with a stiff drink - that we still consider chosen family. So many people commented and messaged us and even sent us gifts, saying that we helped get them through lockdown; that we kept them sane. And of course, we were keeping ourselves sane, and they were helping us by watching. It's a real testament to the intersection of art and community and healing, and it's one of the unexpected gifts of this strange and terrible time.

As soon as the lockdown was lifted, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, Michael and Mardie were hard at work, entertaining audiences at the West Bank Cafe, first on the sidewalk, and then inside the restaurant with the wall of windows open behind you. What is the instinct that leads you and Michael to work so industriously for the community of club-goers?

Well, again, it's our need we're fulfilling first and foremost! But it happily coincided with the public's need to hear live music again, which just made it a double blessing for us (and I don't use words like "blessing" often, but these last two years have honestly been full of them). As soon as outdoor dining opened, Steve Olsen put the piano and a microphone in the window of the West Bank Cafe, hoping some entertainer(s) who lived in the neighborhood would notice it and agree to play from inside (through the open French doors) to the outside audience. And once again, one of my female friends was the catalyst for the gig. Vanessa Paradis, who lives near the West Bank, marched in and said to Steve, "My friends Mardie and Michael should be playing here!" Steve already knew Michael, so they got in touch, and because we were quarantining together, we actually got to be THE first (as far as I know) cabaret act to come back after the big Covid lockdown. I can't even describe to you the joy we felt watching people hear live music for the first time in - I think it was 4 or 5 months at that point. Strangers were coming up to us with tears of gratitude in their eyes, and we were all verklempt too. New York is a live performance town; it's what so many of us came here for! And we were able to help out Steve and the staff of the West Bank by bringing in a few more customers and playing for free (well, for food and adult beverages!) to help them stay open during an incredibly difficult time. Of course, several other performers started playing there shortly thereafter (solo acts and married couples at first, because quarantine), and we were all fanatically careful about distancing and masking, and they provided us with an endless supply of sanitary wipes for the equipment. We all got so close "in the trenches" that after the second mini-shutdown in the winter of 2020, Michael and I both got mild cases of Covid, and Steve Olsen drove up to Central Harlem with dinners for us from the restaurant (which he left with our doorman). Another of our regular online viewers drove up from Hell's Kitchen with homemade chicken soup. And once indoor dining came back, we became friendly with many of the Manhattan Plaza residents who are regulars at the West Bank, most of whom you'd recognize from a million theatre, TV and movie roles. None of them could work as actors yet, but we had lots of great conversations and took lots of requests for showtunes. If we didn't already know this, we know it now - everything that matters in life is about relationships with other people.

When you and Michael met, was the Michael and Mardie brand an immediate idea? Or did it come after love had blossomed and the couple-hood was formed?

"Michael and Mardie" happened almost instantly; and though the chemistry was there, the love part came later. Michael and I met in 2005 at Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland. I was a regular from the beginning, having been friends with the musical director, Billy Stritch, since the late '90s. Michael, who won a Drama Desk Award in the 1992 for co-writing and co-starring in Song of Singapore, had already been a nightlife fixture for *cough* years, and he was a regular too - but we'd never met. I sang a song that night and it went really well; then he did one of his hilariously offensive original songs. I was separated from my first husband, and really not looking for another relationship, but I turned to the tourist from Saskatchewan next to me at the bar and said, "That guys' a horse's ass...I think I love him a little bit." We struck up a conversation after his song, and ended up telling stupid musician jokes to each other long into the night at the tavern across the street. He was still married to his first wife, so we were friends for a few years, but we always had musical and comedy chemistry, and I started doing guest spots at his solo gigs at the Monkey Bar and a few other places, and pretty soon we were performing as a duo at Elaine's, the legendary Upper East Side celebrity and literary hangout, every Sunday night. Around that time, in 2008, we moved in together (I'd have preferred we wait, but it's Manhattan! Two newly divorced people can't afford a couple of studios!). Luckily, we've loved every minute of living together and we got married in 2012. Our 10th anniversary is in October. And there's a LOT of spillover between our home conversations and our onstage banter - we even have a running series of Facebook posts called SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE, with 100% verbatim conversations. The secret behind it is that we love making each other laugh. There's no better feeling for me than when I make a wisecrack that makes him giggle hysterically. And he's easily the funniest guy I've ever known. Plus he plays piano in any key with no sheet music. I'm honestly the luckiest chick singer that ever lived.

Tell me about the experience of being Michael Garin's performing partner.

Michael performed solo for a lot of years. It was not the easiest thing in the world for him to learn to share the spotlight with a singer. We had some rocky times at first, arguing about repertoire and that great enemy of pianists and singers everywhere, tempos. But even when he was mad at me, he was teaching me every day about being not just a singer, or actor, but an entertainer. I came from the world of opera and musical theatre and expected reverent silence when I performed, and by the time we were working at Elaine's, I was singing with the muted Yankee game on the TV literally right above my head. People would cheer in the middle of a song because someone scored and I'd just take a little pause and then keep going with the song. And oddly enough, people were listening, in their own way. Trusting that was a big leap. Michael taught me to be flexible. But I think I've taught him some things too - namely that there really IS a time and a place for a good Sondheim song, even though you can't dance to most of them. I think we keep each other on our respective toes. (Respective toes? You know what I mean.) If one of us makes a joke, the other needs to be ready with a comeback. Finding something new on our feet is always exciting. That never gets old. And when we get home from a gig, or we're in the Uber, one of us will always turn to the other and say, "Wow, I love making music with you."

What do you think it is that makes people love the Michael and Mardie brand so very much?

Oh wow, do they? I hope they do! I know that what we strive for is to convey our love of what we do in all our performances. I'm from a little town in Ohio and Michael's from a little town in Maryland. We don't come from show people, or from money. We each had to forge our own way alone, with no financial support or safety net, because we believed the kind of musical and dramatic storytelling we wanted to do was important. And because the need to perform that kind of storytelling was greater than anything else in our lives. My acting teacher and mentor Hal O'Leary said you don't choose a theatrical life; it chooses you. And Michael always says, "It's a blessing [There's that word again!] to be in the happy business."

Since the clubs reopened, you folks have had plenty of work to do. Is there a new structured nightclub act coming from Michael and Mardie?

There is! We are getting a Hollywood show ready for the Provincetown CabaretFest in June, and you'll probably be seeing that show here sometime after that. I also have a couple of sans-Michael show ideas cooking, but to be honest, it's hard to find the time to do it. I work a full-time office job all week. I actually want to talk about that because lots of people assume we musicians all survive on trust funds and fresh air (and hey, probably some do!), and I think a lot of people are ashamed to admit they have a "survival job." My grandfather was a coal miner who immigrated from Italy at age 12, my dad put himself through college and became a dentist, and I got to get my degree in a "silly subject" like music. There's no shame in hard work. I'm actually proud that, with a degree in classical voice, I came to NYC with $250, lied my way into my first word processing job, and have been paying the rent and medical bills with it for over 25 years, all while continuing to perform on a regular basis. Oh, and here's another thing that keeps me from writing a new cabaret: Michael and are collaborating on a musical called Mary Astor's Purple Diary, based on the book by Edward Sorel. Michael is writing music and lyrics, and I'm writing the book. Turns out I actually know how to do that, apparently; it's coming along well. We hope to have it on its feet for a reading by the end of this year. So...that's a lot!

What about Mardie Millit The Actress? Are you still pursuing character work, or are you having more fun playing the role of Mardie Millit, club singer?

I worked regionally and in local showcases of musicals all through my 20s and 30s, and that was all ingenue stuff. I didn't really learn to belt/mix till I was in my 40s. I know it's hard to imagine the me you know now playing Maria in The Sound of Music or Christine in the Yeston Phantom, but that's how I spent the '90s and early Aughts. I luckily met Michael right around the time I was aging out of those roles, and I've really enjoyed being a saloon singer. You can sing songs written for a different gender/age/type/etc., and in whatever key you want! And I really enjoy the immediate connection with the audience when we perform in places like the West Bank or other restaurant/bar setups without a stage. But I do miss acting. A few years ago, my friend Vanessa Paradis started a company called Dream Productions. Like me, she's a woman who came to NYC to perform and ended up having to work a full-time job to survive. She's recruited a bunch of us similar folks to do musicals we love, semi-staged concert style, with a pared-down orchestra. So far we've done Company (I was Joanne), Into the Woods (Baker's Wife), and Pippin (Berthe). Coming up in October, though, is the big one: Sweeney Todd, and I'm playing Mrs. Lovett. Really excited about that! Anyway, doing these shows has reawakened my acting bug, so yeah...I'm thinking about getting "out there" again, which would look a lot different at this age than it did when I started at 25. Maybe putting this idea out into the Universe will send something my way! Let's see.

You both (but especially you, Mardie) are very active in the cabaret community, both in person and via social media. What is it about the community that, so strongly, encourages your instinct to be immersed in it?

I've actually only been immersed in it for about four years! I'm more involved in person than Michael simply because he plays at the Roxy every night and just isn't available. And as to the community, for me it always comes back to the internet somehow. The cabaret community is an incredibly small group of people. It can seem closed-off and insular, especially to an outsider like me, who for many years had neither the time nor the money to take the classes or go to all the open mics and shows with cover charges where people met each other, or even to afford to join MAC. So I spent years doing my own thing, singing in places with Michael like the Rainbow Room and Le Cirque, doing private parties around the country, sort of peering through the window at the "official" cabaret world. And then a few years ago I became Facebook friends with a couple of the folks who are very much "insiders," and I started going to other people's shows, and I got asked to be a guest in some things, and the circle gradually widened. I've been on the internet for a long time, in chat rooms that predate social media by over a decade. So I'm very comfortable online - more so than in person, actually! - and when I go out to a show, I often meet people I've had many Facebook conversations with but have never met in person. But in person or online, it all comes down to what I said earlier: relationships with other humans are the most important thing there is, and what I gain from the cabaret community is the gift of so many people's stories - why they want to sing, how they came to cabaret - there really are as many different stories as there are people. And I find that this is a very rewarding community to belong to if you are curious and eager to listen, not just to be heard.

You are a naturally funny actress and tend to lean right into that in your work. Do you ever dream about bucking the image and instinct and trying out something a little more serious? Maybe an evening of torch songs or eleven o'clock diva ballads?

Well, thank you for that! And actually, this is kind of a surprising question, because I still think of myself as new to being what you'd call "publicly funny." When I met Michael, I ONLY wanted to sing ballads and the most intellectual of Sondheim's songs. Even though I've always been a wiseacre socially, as a performer I was singing "what was right for my voice," which at the time was a very legit soprano. The first character role I ever played was the one you first saw me in, Downtown Dysfunctionals (in the late '90s? Early '00s?) and that was it until Vanessa cast me as Joanne in Company in 2017. I have always had those torch songs and diva ballads in my repertoire with Michael, but when you're playing in a bar they often get nixed on a given evening if the vibe from the audience isn't right or someone keeps requesting Billy Joel. Now you're making me want to put more ballads in the act! I'm going to tell Michael to direct all complaints to you!

Mardie, what is your favorite thing to have your husband, Michael Garin, play for you?

If I'm singing: "Feels Like Home to Me" by Randy Newman. That's one of "our" songs from early in our relationship. "Feels like I'm all the way back where I come from." That lyric gets me every time. If Michael is singing and I'm listening, I always want to hear "The Nearness of You." Nobody sings that like him.

Mardie Millit, thank you so much for this visit with Broadway World today. I look forward to seeing what you have for us next.

Thank you, Stephen! I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of these questions. It was fun!

Read the Broadway World review of the Michael and Mardie West Bank Cafe dinner music show HERE.

Mardie Millit is active on Facebook HERE and Michael Garin can be found HERE - Facebook is their household's preferred social media.

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