Celebrating Black History Month: Christiani Pitts Honors Patina Miller

In honor of Black History Month, Broadway.com is celebrating some of the theater industry’s most influential Black artists. We invited actors who are currently on Broadway to tell us about the individuals who most inspire them. Each week in February will feature a new entry in the series, with Broadway stars honoring their colleagues, mentors and the historic figures they admire.

Christiani Pitts has been blazing through the Big Apple as Robin in the romantic comedy Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) on Broadway. The rising star made her Broadway debut in A Bronx Tale before breaking out as the heroine of King Kong. Pitts chose to honor Tony winner Patina Miller. “She was the first person I saw in theater in college that was doing exactly what I wanted to do. It was so affirming that the second I saw this prompt, I was like, 'Oh, easy,'" she says.

Pitts first became aware of the powerhouse performer when she saw a clip of Miller rehearsing for Sister Act. “She was doing 'Fabulous, Baby!' and it was so stripped down. She's in rehearsal clothes and it was one of the most fabulous things I've ever seen. It was so effortless and casual at the same time. She made it look so easy.” Pitts' admiration of Miller evolved as she underwent her own professional journey in the theater industry. “When I was looking at her in college, it was really from a place of pure fandom. Then when I got into the business and I realized just how difficult it actually was, it went from being a fan and an admirer of her work to having a deep respect for, 'Oh, she's doing all this as a mom,'" says Pitts, who has a three-year-old daughter.

Miller won a Tony for her high-flying performance as the Leading Player in the 2013 revival of Pippin, which marked the first time a female performer won for a role that had previously been awarded to a man. (Ben Vereen won a Tony 40 years before Miller for originating the part in the show’s 1973 staging.) Speaking to this accomplishment, Pitts says, “She was the first woman to do it in that capacity. She's not just doing the work, she's evolving the work in a way that must have been a lot of weight on her shoulders.”

In the years since, Pitts has gotten the opportunity to work with Miller. “One of my first big animation jobs was a show on Nickelodeon [Made by Maddie] and we ended up doing the show together. She very quickly went from being someone who I had so much respect for to someone who I was working alongside and that changed everything. It was so affirming for me. It felt like, okay, you're really doing this,” says Pitts. “Manifestation is real and is powerful. Because while you were looking to this person's artistry as a guiding light, you were putting in the sphere the type of work that you wanted to do and then it happened like that."

Pitts stresses the importance of giving peers in the industry their flowers. "I think when the world lost Chadwick Boseman it shocked everyone into being like, 'It's so important to validate and to affirm our greats while they're here.' We gotta do it. Don't be ashamed or scared to pour into somebody, because you don't know the amount of time you'll have. You don't know if they've ever heard it. They might not know. They might not feel it. I'm going to give you your flowers every time."

As she advances in her blossoming career, Pitts shared that the cabaret performer Marti Cummings told her that she herself may be someone’s Patina Miller. Reflecting upon this, Pitts expresses, “It makes me feel like I want to live more authentically. I want to be bolder in what I'm doing so that people are aware that it's not as easy as it looks, that it does take a lot of work and time and there are going to be a lot of mistakes. It's exciting and I feel the responsibility to live authentically and really show up because it's not just about you. Someone's going to see that and feel very affirmed, and then I'll probably end up working with those people. I hope that they tell me so that we can have this moment.”

Watch the full interview below:

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