BWW Exclusive: Meet The Mills- The Show Family Taking Over Broadway!

It runs in the family! BroadwayWorld sits down with the Mills family to get the low down on what it is like to be a family of three working on Broadway. Meet the Mills; Greg Mills is a swing at Phantom of the Opera, covering 13 tracks, Bridget Mills is a child guardian at Cursed Child, and their son Connor Mills has spent the last year playing Young Charlie in Kinky Boots.

Read about all about their day-to-day life and most memorable Broadway moments below!

Where did you guys meet:

Greg: We met on a non-eq tour of Big when we first moved to the city in 1997. We got that during the summer. We were right out of college, and both had been here a few months when we booked it and we met then. It was a seven month tour, and we've stuck together ever since.

When did Connor first become interested in perform?

Connor: I have no idea! I always wanted to stay up late when my baby sitters were there, so that's probably a quarter why. Another is that I could go downtown with my parents. Another is that I just like acting, I guess!

Connor, what was the first Broadway show you saw?

Connor: School of Rock!

Bridget: We took him to Cinderella when he was very little, but he wouldn't remember that.

Were you at all hesitant at bringing Connor into the business?

Greg: Oh, for sure. For one, just to see if we could fit it with our schedules or if it would be chaos. But we never wanted to force him to do it or if it was something he didn't want to do, we were cool with that.

Bridget: Even with Kinky Boots we were like, 'We'll see if this works out, we'll give it some time. And you can tell us, Hey maybe you want a summer vacation... and it came to summer, and he wasn't stopping. He loved it.

Greg: We're just keeping it low pressure, and seeing what happens. We want him to still be a kid who does normal stuff, too. We try not to over work him.

What does your average day look like?

Connor: I know mine! Wake up at 7 - 7:30am and then I go to school at 8:30am at public school until 2:50pm. Then I come home, and have a snack, and do my homework. And then later on I go to my show, I act, I go upstairs, I finish the show, and then I go home, go to bed, and then it's the next day!

Greg: Pretty much from 7 - 7:30am, we're getting him up and ready for school and then if we have to run errands, we'll get it all done while he's at school. Or it's a matinee day, or I'll have rehearsal, or Bridget will have rehearsal. We'll get him home from school, get dinner ready, get everybody ready with showers and all that stuff, and then we'll all head down on the train - we live about 30 minutes uptown. Usually Bridget goes to her show [Cursed Child], and I'll take Connor to his [Kinky Boots] since it's on the same street as mine [Phantom]. We're usually home by 11 or so for an 8pm show.

Bridget: None of us have the same day off, so it's a little weird. Phantom has Sunday's off, I have Monday and Tuesday's off, and Kinky Boots has Wednesday's off - though that will be switching back to it's regular schedule this week.

Greg: In fifteen months we have not had the same day off. We do see each other a lot more than we used to with babysitters, especially on two show days.

What would you say has been the most challenging and most rewarding factors about having all three of you in the industry?

Connor: The funnest part is probably hanging out with my friends onstage. And the most challenging part is probably actually learning how to do it, cause I'm Young Charlie in the show so I'm only on in the beginning and the end. It was challenging learning everything, but when you know how to do it it's fun because you just get to act and act and act and dance at the end.

Bridget: Just juggling the schedules has been challenging because even though the show schedules are set, the rehearsal schedules change each week. So just having to figure out if maybe this week we'll have to get a babysitter to bring Connor down because we'll both already be downtown already for rehearsal, and he'll have to come down later for the show. But it is great to be spending extra time together.

Greg: And when we get the chance to see the show and to see him [Connor] having a great time up there. Just to have an experience like this that not many kids get to. Even if he doesn't do it again, he did it and it's been great and he loved it! Scheduling has definitely been the most challenging, but somehow we've made it this far!

What has been your most memorable moment as a family?

Connor: I love my Mom and Dad, so probably one of the most memorable moments is that all of us get to hang out between shows and sometimes before the show starts until it's half hour. On Broadway, I like the finale of the show because I like improvising with all my friends in the show. I get to floss and high five everybody and dance.

Bridget: He's really lucky. The cast is amazing. They're just so warm and lovely, and they get to play around and take just such great care of him. We're really lucky to have the creatives patiently putting in a 7-year-old into the show last year!

Greg: Bridget was the child guardian at Kinky Boots five-or-something years ago, and we used to always joke that that Connor would be Young Charlie in 2020 and we used to always bring him up on stage after that show when he was 2 or 3 and we have these videos of him up on that stage singing. He'd sing songs from my show, or from The Beatles. He was the baby, and now he's actually up there and closing the show out.

Bridget: His first show was actually the last day that Stark and Billy came back last year, who were the original Charlie and Lola, and it was so overwhelming. They do this little tradition before the show where everybody gathers up backstage, and they all say 'Oi oi oi, shoes!'. So they did it, as luck, over Connor.

Would you ever consider doing a show as a family?

Connor: Maybe.

Bridget: What're your terms? Under what circumstances? Would you have to be the star and we'd back you up?

Greg: Only if they can get a bigger name to play me? Dang you, Hugh Jackman.

You can catch the boys of the Mills family onstage down 45th street, with Connor in Kinky Boots at select performances through April 7th, and Greg in Phantom of the Opera, now in its 32nd year at the Majestic Theatre. Cursed Child, which just celebrated its first year on Broadway, plays at the Lyric Theatre on 43rd.