ENTERTAINMENT

I GOING PLACES

The Musical Millers

WEEK OF
JAN.12-18

JEWISH EVENTS

TEMPLE BETH EL

7400 Telegraph Road,
Birmingham, actress
Sheri Nichols and pianist
Richard Berent, Jan. 14,
admission, 851-1100.

STEVE HARTZ

Special to The Jewish News

L

ast month, she was
singing and dancing in
Chanukah for Monica
while he was performing a
root canal.
But this month Dr. Larry
Miller and his 8-year-old
daughter Joanna will be on
stage together in the Bloom-
field Hills Players' first pro-
duction, Music Man, which
opens Jan. 26 at Andover
High School. The show runs
through Feb. 4.
Dr. Miller will replace his
dentist's drill with a conduc-
tor's baton as he stars as
Professor Harold Hill. His
daughter plays a little girl in
the chorus.
"For me, the biggest thrill
is doing something with
Joanna," Dr. Miller said.
"She knows my lines better
than me. She corrects me all
the time. We're having a lot
of fun together."
The young Miller is a third
grader at Pine Lake
Elementary School and has
acted in the movie, The
Semblant, appeared in a TV
commercial for Toledo
Hospital, modeled in adver-
tisements for Cadillac and K
mart and performed on the
high seas, singing and danc-
ing in a cruise ship's talent
show.

"I want to act and go to
Hollywood when I get older
so that I can be a movie
star," Joanna said. That's
not the only thing she wants
to do when she grows up. "I
want to be a singer, dancer,
swimmer, tennis player,
teacher and lawyer."
Right now though, Miller
just wants to act in plays
with her father when she's
not studying her favorite
subject — math.
"It's fun being in a play
with my dad," she said.
This will be the first time
the two Millers appear in a
musical together. In fact, if
it weren't for Joanna and
her mother, Carole, Dr.
Miller would be spending his
nights flossing instead of
rehearsing.
When his wife took Joanna
to audition, the director and
producer mentioned that
they needed male actors in
the show.

JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER

6600 W. Maple Road,
West Bloomfield, Joseph
and the Amazing
Technicolor Dreamcoat,
Jan. 13-27, admission,
661-1000.

This dentist and
daughter duo will
perform in The
Bloomfield Hills
Players' Music
Man.'

HILL STREET
CINEMA

B'nai B'rith Foundation,
1429 Hill Street, Ann
Arbor, Talk Radio, 7 p.m.
and 9:15 p.m. Jan. 13,
admission, 769-0500.

THEATER

ATTIC THEATER

2990 W. Grand
Boulevard, Detroit, What
Fresh Hell is This? 8 p.m.
Jan. 15; Second City
Touring Company, Jan.
12-13; The Meeting, Jan.
18-21, admission,
875-8284.

VILLAGE PLAYERS

. "So, Carole said to them,
`Oh, I have a husband who
can sing and dance." But I
really didn't want to take
the time to be in a play and
told my wife and daughter
that I was not interested,"
Dr. Miller said.
But the women in the
family were persistent. Two
days later, Dr. Miller audi-
tioned.
"They offered me the lead;
I was flattered and said yes.
It's an incredible commit-
ment — a lot more than I
ever thought."
Previously, Dr. Miller per-
formed with the professional
dental fraternity Alpha
Omega in its revues and in
the musical Damn Yankers,
a parody of Damn Yankees
in which a dentist sells his
soul to the devil to get the
leading role in a musical.
"I always had an interest
in theater as I grew up.
When I was really young, I
used to watch my mother
perform in musical revues
for charities in the 1950s. In
junior high, I performed in
my first play, Cheaper by the
Dozen, and at Oak Park
High School I appeared in
the Oak Park Follies."

Birmingham, The Trip to
Bountiful, Jan. 26
through Feb. 4,
admission, 644-2075.

RIDGEDALE
PLAYERS

205 W. Long Lake, Troy,
Greater Tuna, Jan. 12-28,
admission, 644-8328.

DETROIT
REPERTORY

CD

Singing and dancing is all in the family for Larry and Joanna Miller.

When he graduated from
high school in 1966, Miller
put his career in show busi-
ness on hold, choosing to fill
cavities rather than
theaters.
But his first love becomes
obvious when one walks into
his office. Hanging on the
walls in treatment rooms are
posters of Broadway shows
and other theatrical produc-
tions.
For the past two months,
Dr. Miller has rehearsed for
his role as Professor Harold
Hill at the office, singing "76
Trombones" while treating
his patients.
Formerly billed as "The
Three Generations of

Millers," Dr. Miller, his 16-
year-old daughter Nicole
and his mother, Peggy,
danced in Miss Barbara's
dance recitals for several
years.
Barbara Fink, owner of
Miss Barbara's Dance
Center in Farmington Hills,
has a recital every two
years.
"Eleven years ago, she ap-
proached me and my mother
to dance with then-five-year-
old Nicole," Dr. Miller said.
"She wanted a novelty act
for her first recital."
The trio turned into a
quartet when Joanna joined
them four years ago.
Dr. Miller's dancing men-

13103 Woodrow Wilson,
Detroit, Fences, through
March 18, admission,
868-1347.

MUSIC

DETROIT SYMPHONY

Orchestra Hall, Sergiu
Luca, violinist, 8 p.m.
Jan. 12 and 8:30 p.m. Jan.
13, admission, 567-9000.

CONCERTS-IN-THE
GARDEN

Prudential Town Center,
Southfield, Just Friends,
Jan. 14, admission,
354-4717.

PALACE

3777 Lapeer Road,
Auburn Hills, Charlie
Daniels Band, Exile and
Sawyer Brown, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 18, admission,
377-8200.

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