Interview: At Home With Michael And Mardie

Michael and Mardie. It's the perfect name for a team, isn't it? It scans. It has a ring to it, and a humor - it represents, perfectly, the brand that this married couple present in their club act. That is probably because it represents, perfectly, the couple that they are. There is something so jovial and fun about Michael and Mardie, and about their act - and that joy just seems to carry out into the simple utterance of their name. Try it. You could say Mr. and Mrs. Garin or Ms. Millit and Mr. Garin but it's just not as fun as saying Michael and Mardie. It's like naming your favorite vaudeville team or your favorite Saturday morning cartoon characters, or the funniest comedy duo you know. There's no real explaining it, it's just the way it is.

But Michael and Mardie aren't just fun songs and jokes. They are big characters with big laughs, but they are also serious people who take to their work and the world with focus and care. Their dedication to their craft and to world politics leads much of their daily lives, especially these days, and that is probably part of what makes them successful as performers and as a couple.

I reached out to Mr. Garin and Ms. Millet to ask about the music, the social crusading, and the pink hair, and they had plenty to say.

This interview was conducted digitally and is reproduced in its entirety.

Name: Michael Garin & Mardie Millit (aka Michael & Mardie)

First Cabaret Show (Title, Year, Club):

Michael: My first show was at Tramps in the late '70s. The show didn't have a name, but I think I opened for Stormin' Norman and Suzy.

Mardie: "It's Love!* (*or a damn fine facsimile)", 2001, Don't Tell Mama (Ken Lundie, Musical Director)

Most Recent Cabaret Show: In person, together: Double Header at Birdland Theatre, 1/29/20 - The Habibi Kings (our Middle Eastern band, featuring two cast members from Broadway's The Band's Visit) plus "Michael & Mardie...and Other Delights." Virtually: Currently streaming live from The West Bank Café every Sunday from 6:00-7:00 on Mardie's Facebook page.

Website or Social Media Handles:

facebook.com/mardie.millit

facebook.com/michael.garin.18343 (the "fan" page doesn't generate as many views as individual pages, FYI)

Instagram: @mardienyc; @michaelgarin (though we mostly stick to Facebook)

Michael and Mardie, how are you guys these days? Thanks for taking time out to chat with us at Broadway World!

Thank you so much for asking us! We are remarkably well, and mindful of our good fortune. Michael is back to work in person as house pianist at the Roxy Hotel Wed.-Sat. 6:00-8:00pm, and Mardie has a day job with a law firm that she's been able to do from home seamlessly. We have the same anxiety about the future as everyone else, but not having to worry about employment puts us in a position of privilege that we are very aware of.

What have you fine folks been up to during these bizarro last few months?

We both agree that we were lucky to be locked up with our best friend. Also, we share a basic need to perform and entertain as a means of communication and emotional outlet, so we've been making it up as we go along. Michael was live streaming his piano playing from home two nights a week on the Roxy Hotel's Instagram feed from March to May, and then took that show to his own Facebook page. Mardie's beloved sister died in March, and with no funeral or gathering to mourn her, getting back to performing was a slow process. At the end of April, she finally felt the need to sing again and began a living room series called LIVE FROM LOCKDOWN!, where she was able to perform a lot of songs that were meaningful to her but not deemed "marketable" in conventional cabaret settings. We both grew and learned a lot as performers during those stay-at-home days; they changed us forever for the better. We also both grew our audiences around the world and have sustained those followers to this day. A strange positive result of this crazy time. In July, we were asked by Steve Olsen to be the first entertainers to perform at the reimagined West Bank Café - performing on Sundays inside behind the open French doors for outdoor dining customers safely distanced from us - and we've been doing that every Sunday since then, transitioning to 25% capacity indoor dining now that it's getting colder. We've also continued live streaming from the West Bank gig, broadcasting the first hour of the show (Sundays 6:00-7:00 pm EDT) on Mardie's Facebook page for our out-of-town fans. Shortly after the West Bank gig started, Michael got the call to come back to the Roxy, playing an electronic keyboard outside on the plaza, then moving back indoors to the grand piano when that became permissible. He livestreams those shows on Wednesdays and Fridays from 6:00-7:00 pm EDT. We've done a ton of Zoom concerts, including Harold Sanditen's wonderful open mic based in London, and Scott Barbarino's Piano Bar Live, which we'll actually be co-hosting on election night! Plus a bunch of fundraisers and private events. Where we go from here, who knows? We're staying flexible and keeping our eyes and ears open.

You are a married couple who works together, but before that you both had flourishing careers as solo artists, right? After the creation of the Michael and Mardie brand, did you find that solo opportunities for each of you were still available, or did the couples vibe affect that for you?

Mardie: I'm going to answer this one from my perspective. I worked in musical theatre, but with a late start (I began in opera and realized it was a mistake) and without the proper connections, I wasn't able to get as far as I wanted. When I met Michael, I was aging out of the ingenue roles I'd been singing in regional theatres all over the country, and I found I really loved being able to sing whatever I wanted - in whatever key I wanted! - without regard to age, gender or "type." When Michael and I started working together, he already had a decades-long reputation as a solo artist, so allowing me to share the spotlight with him was an adjustment. We have both continued to work outside our partnership all along, though - Michael has always done some solo gigs (like the one he does now at the Roxy), and a few years ago I became one of the founding members of a little rep company called Dream Productions, run by my friend Vanessa Paradis, which does concert versions of musicals at the Laurie Beechman Theatre every Fall, with beautiful miniaturized orchestrations and minimal staging. It's become a tight-knit group of friends doing musicals we've always wanted to perform, and I've been able to play Joanne in Company and the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods. This year I was supposed to be Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd! It was heartbreaking not to be able to do it, but hopefully we can mount that one next year. Musical theatre will always be my first love.

Not to get too political or feminist, but why did you folks opt for Michael and Mardie rather than Mardie and Michael? I can't ask Steve and Eydie or George and Gracie, so you guys are my only hope of hearing from a married performing couple how billing works.

Michael: Primarily it was a linguistic decision. Vowels and consonants flowed better that way. Also age before beauty.

Mardie: And Michael was far better known when we started out - among other things, he won a Drama Desk Award for co-writing and co-starring in Song of Singapore in the '90s. So it made sense to lead with him, since more people would recognize his name than mine.

Let us in on the romance - how did you folks meet and how did it turn into a professional partnership?

Mardie: We met at Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland in 2005. Both of us were regulars there but had never met 'til that night. Michael sang an original song of his with some darkly disgusting humor in it. I turned to the Canadian tourist next to me at the bar and said, "That guys a horse's ass.....I think I love him a little bit." I introduced myself and we almost got thrown out of the joint because we kept telling each other musician jokes. I started going to the Monkey Bar to hear him play and occasionally sing, and sometimes I'd heckle him from my bar stool. That eventually became our act. We didn't get romantically involved for another couple of years (both ending first marriages), but personality-wise, we clicked instantly. So it was both personal and professional from the beginning. I mean....did I mention he can play ANYTHING in ANY KEY if he hears it a couple of times? I haven't had to carry sheet music in 15 years.

Michael, Mardie is a strong personality - put a picture in my head of what it was like when you first met her.

Michael: My first impression was she was a terrific singer and gorgeous. When I realized that she was brilliant and highly opinionated, I was hooked. I have always thought there is nothing hotter than a woman with brains.

Mardie, not every singer has the luxury of standing at a microphone and knowing the person backing them up has their back in every way. What was it like for you, transitioning from working with musical directors to working with a musical director that is also your husband?

Mardie: First, let me disabuse you of the notion that he has my back in every way! LOL Like any couple, we have our clashes, and many of them have played out in musical power struggles over the years. But I have always looked for collaborators with whom I felt a real artistic partnership, not an "accompanist" or even "musical director" relationship. Before I met Michael, I worked a lot with the wonderful Ken Lundie, who, like Michael, was an all-around entertainer, not just an accompanist. I've also been able to work quite a bit over the years with Billy Stritch, whom I've known since I performed in a workshop of a musical he wrote with Mark Waldrop in the '90s. Billy accompanied me on a couple of the tracks on our album ("Hey, Look! It's Michael & Mardie!" available on Amazon!), which came out in 2015. (We brought Billy in to play an arrangement of "Little Girl Blue" he wrote for me, and then asked him to stay and play "Douchebag at the Bar" as well. All the tracks are also on YouTube, btw.) I have a Bachelor of Music from Ohio State, and Michael has been a singer/dancer/actor as well as a pianist all of his life, so we're able to discuss every musical and dramatic/comedic aspect of a song as equals. I will say that I care a lot more about lyrics than Michael does, and he cares a lot more about "the groove" than I do - and I think that's what keeps our shows interesting. Also, we've expanded each other's musical horizons a lot. He introduced me to Middle Eastern music, and I actually got him to like Sondheim. But it is 100% a collaboration of equals.

Now, about your work at the Westbank... The President says New York is a Ghost Town - tell us about the atmosphere for your performance in our fair city during the time of Coronavirus.

We do a show at the West Bank every week! We're there Sundays from 6:00-8:00, and have been since July. Steve Olsen reopened then with a skeleton crew, and we are thrilled to be helping his business stay afloat while keeping ourselves sane by doing what we love. Performing in an outdoor dining atmosphere has been chaotic and wonderful - traffic noises, unruly pedestrians, sirens, car stereos, you name it! As everyone who lives here knows, New York is definitely NOT a ghost town! But we're proud to say that almost every person who walks by on 42nd Street is wearing a mask. New Yorkers are some of the best people in the world when it comes to having a sense of community and care for our fellow citizens. We both experienced that after 9/11, and that same spirit is palpable now. It's a very rough time, and we don't know what the future will look like, but New York is NOT going anywhere. We close every show at the West Bank with a song Mardie started doing in her living room concerts: "Tuscaloosa's Calling Me - But I'm Not Going." It's a love song to the city, written for an Off-Broadway show in the mid-'70s, but it feels very timely right now. And as the last line of the song says, "[We] intend to stay right here in this town."

Tell me about your appearance next week.

We will be co-hosting Scott Barbarino's Piano Bar Live on Election Night! TUESDAY, November 3rd at 7:15 pm ET at www.facebook.com/PianoBarLive, on BroadwayOnDemand.com or on YouTube @PianoBarLive The show will feature Scott Barbarino himself, Tony Javed, Aaron Lee Battle, and Collin Yates. For this Special Election Edition we will all be holding anchor spots with free-flowing conversation and observations as well as music as the early results come in.

Mardie, as a person who doesn't wear hair, let me live vicariously through you by telling me about the pink hair.

Mardie: I had been fantasizing about pink or purple hair since I was in college in the '80s, and it took me 'til my 50s to actually do it, and I wish I hadn't waited so long! My natural color was kind of a chestnut brown, but just covering the grays made it turn a dull rust color (brown dyes are fickle), so I went blonde. The pink, which I did on a whim, was just supposed to be a tint, but it came out much brighter than I intended, like cotton candy, and I was shocked and really dubious about it. But just on my way home from the salon, I was stopped by half a dozen strangers saying how great it looked! And as any woman who's done professional theatre knows, a pink spotlight is an aging ingenue's best friend, so surrounding your face with pink is like a live Instagram filter. The bright colors are all semi-permanent, so it's really not a huge commitment (though the pre-bleaching is). I feel like it's turned into a fun accessory, another way to express myself. I don't see myself going back to natural-looking color anytime soon; I might try purple next.

Michael, in your life pre-COVID, you had regular piano playing gigs around town. When those shows translated to online entertainment, did your regular patrons at those gigs look you up online and stayed in touch?

Michael: Yes, and via Facebook live streams from the Roxy, a new community of viewers has formed online. A surgeon in Pennsylvania who checks in with reports of treating COVID patients and requests Spanish love songs, people who listen while they grill steaks on their patio, fans in Florida, Mexico, Brazil, Israel, and the UK, are among our regular viewers. And I look forward to a time when we can have an in-person "reunion" of the online community that has formed. Friendships have been made, and it has been a joy to bring music to a group that really needed it, and a bit of a wakeup call to be reminded of the effect that music has on the people when they need it the most.

On your social media you are both very politically outspoken. What's the secret to not getting in social media smackdowns during so high-pitched an election season?

Michael: There is no secret to not getting into smackdowns - I get into them! The bullies have taken over the lunchroom, and the only language a bully understands is a punch in the nose.

Mardie: Michael and I have both always had friends with differing political views, and it's live and let live. But these past few years have been very different. People have begun to attack with real vehemence, and with lies. I don't let that slide. I feel quite strongly that there is a right and wrong side of history here, and I'm not afraid of losing followers, fans or "friends" over that. I realize that, especially as a woman in show business, not being seen as "nice" (a word I despise) can be a detriment. But I have quite a few young women friends who sometimes look to me for guidance, and I want to set an example for them of not backing down when you know you're on the side of right. There comes a point where you have to take a stand, no matter what your profession is. And interestingly, since I made this change to my approach, my fan base has grown a lot, and now includes people from far outside NYC and the cabaret or theatre worlds who appreciate my "voice" as well as my literal voice. I definitely don't go looking for fights, but I don't tolerate bullies, and it's made me happier and more successful.

Michael: I'm from Washington DC, where politics is the only real professional sport. And I very much enjoy getting into spirited debates. Regarding Trump followers, it is not my habit to debate moot points, though I have made exceptions. And like Mardie, I don't hesitate to tell people off or block them on an as-deserved basis. We're human beings first, entertainers second.

Mardie and Michel, thanks for visiting with Broadway World today - and before we say goodbye, I'd love to give you guys the use of the BWW platform to get people to vote, in your own words, in your own way.

Mardie: I want to encourage EVERYONE to vote, no matter what side you're on. It's a sacred duty for citizens of a Democracy. And I'm going to quote a meme I shared last week: "A vote is not a Valentine; you aren't confessing your love for the candidate. It's a chess move for the world you want to live in."

Michael: Democracy, like cabaret, is all about butts in chairs. We have to outnumber them at the polls. I'm a first generation American and son of two Holocaust survivors. I grew up hearing this story, and now it's real again. Vote like your life is on the line. Because it is.

Photos provided by Michael and Mardie

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