Interview: Broadway's Patti Murin to Celebrate Every Day of 2016 with #PartywithPatti

"I'm hoping to prove that there's always time to celebrate." That wish is behind the audacious experiment that Broadway leading lady Patti Murin (LYSISTRATA JONES, WICKED, HOLIDAY INN) is preparing to launch on January 1st, 2016 with her #PartywithPatti initiative.

Earlier this month, Murin announced via her blog, Literally Patti Murin, that beginning with the New Year, she would be celebrating as many "national holidays" as possible in 2016, from the ridiculous to the poignant.

"I believe the idea hatched in my brain when National Women's Day was on the same day as National Dog Day," Murin said. "I thought to myself, 'How many freaking things are there to celebrate?' So, I went and looked and oh, there's a billion."

And with that, the actress began thinking of ways how she could get in on celebrating as many holidays as possible. After coming up with a basic plan, she finally brought it up to her husband, actor Colin Donnell (ANYTHING GOES, VIOLET, JERSEY BOYS), as they drove to Chicago so that he could start shooting the new NBC drama CHICAGO MED. Despite not yet being sure if her idea was brilliant or insane, her husband loved it and so Murin began to prepare and research, which became more complicated than she anticipated.

"Most days will have multiple (holidays). What I've done is I've gone to three websites that seemed like the most comprehensive, and I cross-referenced," Murin explained. "If a holiday was mentioned on the same calendar day on two out of the three websites, then it's valid; or if I just liked it. Obviously, I'm celebrating Hot Toddy Day," January 11th in case you were wondering.

This idea of daily celebration dovetails seamlessly with one of Murin's previous blog posts. In October, just after turning 35, she posted a list of 35 goals for the year. The final goal was extremely personal for Murin who admitted that over the last five years, she had become an "accidental pessimist," and that her goal was to now "see my wine glass as always being half full."

"I've been through a bunch in the last five years; disappointment, heartbreak, some of the most joyous things that have ever happened to me," she said. "One of my 35 for 35 goals is to get my optimism and positivity back; so what better way than by forcing myself to celebrate all the time?"

While the drive to celebrate is a personal one for Murin, her intention is to pay her celebrations forward as much as possible. So while there will be pictures of her eating chocolate covered cherries on National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day (January 3rd), she also plans to spread the celebrations as much as possible.

"One of my main goals is to incorporate as much personal connection and charity work as possible," she said. "On National Dog Day, I'll go volunteer at a shelter or something. On National Women's Day, my general plan, other than being a woman, is to donate a whole bunch of supplies to a women's shelter."

While the silly, special interest holidays, like National Marzipan Day on January 12th, will be fun, Murin is also looking forward to embracing the traditional holidays that we often take for granted, and to learn about their true purpose and history; in many ways, Murin views this as year-long learning-experience.

"The first one is Martin Luther King Day, and I will be in Chicago, so I'm excited to immerse myself in how they celebrate that holiday," she said. "I am trying to celebrate them as they were meant to be celebrated, however, I reserve the right to turn them around if I want to."

Quite intelligently, Murin has reserved the right to modify or delegate a day's celebration if need be, but her intention is to celebrate every holiday on it's actual day, and to post a picture, blog, etc. that day to commemorate, no matter where life or work might take her.

"My main goal, and general hope, is to celebrate and post about it all on the day," Murin said. "I do have a couple of (shows) coming up for next year, that aren't announced yet, so I know I will be in different cities. It's gonna be really interesting to see how having an actual job and these things will work. I'm going to rely on my friends and family and Twitter buddies to help me (when there are conflicts)."

Recently, Murin posted the line-up of the first four days of holidays that she will be celebrating; including National Bloody Mary Day, National Cream Puff Day, National Fruitcake Toss Day, and National Thank God It's Monday Day.

Both #PartywithPatti and her 35 for 35 were born out of the blog that Murin started last March. In her writings, she has displayed her incisive humor, love of all things wine and television, and has been very open about her personal and professional hardships. While her honesty might have been difficult for her family at first, it has endeared her to a growing number of online readers

"It definitely took my mom a little bit of time to adjust," Murin said laughing. "The thing that I love the most (about writing) is when I get a response from someone who says, 'I really needed that today. Thank you so much.'

"Whether five people read it or 25,000 people read it, it's really rewarding in a way that I have been looking for lately."

Without patting ourselves on the back, Murin's now legendary BACHELOR/BACHELORETTE recaps for BroadwayWorld played a role in showing the actress that she has serious talents in addition to the acting, singing, and dancing that she is known for on-stage.

"I sort of dabbled in writing before, but I don't think I found my voice... honestly, probably until I started writing BACHELOR recaps," she said. "That was when I was like, 'Oh, I actually think I might be ok at this.'"

While Murin has taken to her blog to discuss serious issues of depression, body image, pet adoption, and more, it was her July 24th post about "An Actor's Least Favorite Question" that went viral. In the piece, Murin explained that while actors thrive on the support of friends, family, and fans, the worst question that you can ask an actor, especially right after a performance is, "So what's next for you? Any shows coming up?"

The response from fans and other actors was a bit surprising for Murin.

"That was the one that got 25,000 views and was just shared all over the place," she said. "It was difficult to write and to make sure that I wasn't sounding ungrateful. Most people were like, 'I'm so sorry if I've ever done that to you. This has been very educational.'

"It was really kind of incredible. It's not just actors, but writers, and everyone who is making their own work, it applies to them too."

So, to save you from having to ask Murin that question if you see her at a Chicago bakery on January 6th, National Shortbread Day, she has recently been traveling back and forth between The Windy City and New York to work on a handful of projects.

One is the new musical PRESTO CHANGE-O by Eric Price and Joel Waggoner, for which Murin had to learn to do a new type of performing.

"It's about a family of magicians. We had to do a bit of a magic, exploratory workshop, which was really cool," she said. "I can't tell you anything about (the magic tricks), because they made us sign an NDA, because I'm officially a magician now... ok, I'm not really a magician."

In addition, Murin has been working on a more dramatic musical with The Public Theatre, which allows her to flex her legit muscles as well. Despite having recently appeared in Golden Age musicals like Irving Berlin's HOLIDAY INN and the Gershwin's LADY BE GOOD, for the early part of her career, Murin was known primarily for her belting.

"Honestly, when I did WICKED, I basically had to learn how to sing soprano (laughs)," she admits. "It's really nice the things that people let me do, and will trust me with, and pay me for. At one point in my life, it was all the same thing, and now it's all really different things, and it's awesome."

Between all of her on-stage and online projects, 2016 looks to be shaping up as an exciting year for Patti Murin, and fortunately, she has invited us along to share in the party.

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What holidays are you looking forward to celebrating with Patti? Let me know in the comments below, or on Twitter @BWWMatt. If you want to follow along with my "366 in 366" articles, you can check out #BWW366in366 on Twitter.

Banner Image: Photo and Bitmoji Credit: Literally Patti Murin