By SHARON EBERSON
Patina Miller came back to the city where she found her voice 20 years ago, and the Tony Award-winning star of Pippin and Sister Act let Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University know just how appreciative she is.
At the finale to the Trust Cabaret season, the 9:30 p.m. audience included two of her CMU voice teachers, Claudia Benack and Gary Kline. With them on hand, she dared herself to go back to 2005, when she played Urinetown’s Pennywise as a senior.
Singing a snippet of It’s a Privilege to Pee, she hit a note that had her accompanist, the fabulous pianist and arranger James Sampliner, shouting a triumphant “High G!”
Speaking of fabulous … when Miller graced the stage with Fabulous, Baby! from Sister Act, there wasn’t a doubter in the Greer Cabaret Theater audience that they were in for a fantabulous night.
Much of the night was filled with jazzy, joyful, playful and soulful covers, with her own twists and turns, many showcasing Sampliner with electrifying piano solos.
The night started with Fever and Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love), followed by a funny, speedy Twisted, and reached a fever pitch with Being Alive, the Stephen Sondheim challenge to every vocalist who has ever attempted that final note. Miller made it her own.
From Broadway, Miller’s set included an Age of Aquarius lead into Easy to be Hard, from Hair. Taking a play out of the Broadway Miscast book, she honored her Tony-winning role as Leading Player in the revival of Stephen Schwartz’s Pippin by forgoing that character’s signature songs. Instead, she belted one of Pippin’s big numbers, Corner of the Sky.
While she didn’t sing Magic To Do, as one might expect, she created musical magic on her own.
Miller’s joy was contagious; her past, a Pittsburgh-to-Broadway success story.
First, there was the recognition of her talent that enabled her to get from South Carolina, where she had studied acting more than voice, to CMU. Right out of college, she was cast to understudy the role of Delores Van Cartier, which traveled from Los Angeles to Atlanta, where she went on in a matinee. From there, it was on to London’s West End and her Tony-nominated Broadway debut, in 2011.
Before that, though, her talents were recognized by another mentor, Billy Porter, who cast her in a revue called Mixed Company, a combo platter of gospel, R&B, Sondheim and Shakespeare monologues.
It was there that she began to connect with Sondheim’s unique musical stylings. As a 21-year-old, the Into the Woods’ character she felt attuned to was Little Red Riding Hood. Today, as a mother, and having played The Witch in all-star revivals at the Hollywood Bowl and Broadway’s Encores!, the song in her heart is Children Will Listen, which she sang as part of her cabaret on Monday.
I cried with MIller as she talked about that amazing cast, Stephanie J. Block, Sara Barielles, Gavin Creel … She told stories about Creel’s generosity of spirit and laughing together in the wings, but his sudden death in September of last year was still raw.
Lately, Miller has been seen on the STARZ crime drama series Power Book III: Raising Kanan, playing “a fearless New York City drug queenpin,” following six seasons on the CBS series Madam Secretary.
What ran through my mind as Miller strode back on stage for an encore was, how lucky are Pittsburghers to have her back in town, telling her story and gifting us with her vocals, in a live performance full of gratitude and gargantuan talent.
Also, someone give Patina Miller another musical theater piece to do, worthy of that talent, ASAP.
2025-2026 TRUST CABARET SEASON
The Trust Cabaret 2025-2026 season kicks off with the return of Eva Noblezada, the Tony-nominated star of Miss Saigon, Hadestown and The Great Gatsby, and ends with the first Pittsburgh in-concert appearance of her Gatsby costar, Jeremy Jordan, who recently earned a Tony nomination for the revival of Floyd Collins.
Other Broadway stars coming to Monday nights at the Greer Cabaret Theater for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust Cabaret Series are Sierra Boggess (Broadway’s original Ariel in The Little Mermaid, The Phantom of the Opera and more); Jessica Vosk (Elphaba in Wicked, most recently, Hell’s Kitchen); and Isaac Mizrahi, who has toured with his cabaret mix of humor, storytelling and song, and who is known for his annual residency at New York’s Cafe Carlyle. For tickets and details, visit https://trustarts.org/pct_home/events/series/trust-cabaret-series.
The schedule of the 2025-2026 Trust Cabaret Series:
- October 6, 2025: Eva Noblezada
- November 6, 2025: Sierra Boggess
- February 16, 2026: Jessica Vosk
- March 9, 2026: Isaac Mizrahi
- May 11, 2026: Jeremy Jordan
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