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Patti Murin stars in the Hallmark holiday movie In Merry Measure, which incorporates her musical prowess. The film follows Darcy, played by Patti, a pop star who returns to her hometown to spend Christmas with her family and eventually begins coaching the high school choir with her one-time rival. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Patti about combining her two loves: acting and singing.
“The music element, first and foremost, was so exciting. I know Hallmark hasn’t yet done a proper movie musical full-on, but they have done a lot of movies that have music involved with songwriters, singers, and performers. It was really exciting to get to do that because it’s kind of a whole other element and also just the idea of someone who had success and is sort of struggling to find it again. That’s a feeling that never goes away in this industry, no matter how successful you look from the outside to other people.”
She continued, “I connected very, very easily to those feelings of feeling like you’re constantly struggling and trying to get people to pay attention and trying to sort of reach the next level of your goals and what you’ve always pictured your life looking like, so that was really exciting, too.”
In coaching the high school choir, Patti got the opportunity to work alongside a talented set of young performers. “It’s great to see that level of enthusiasm and energy. I feel like it re-energizes the older people in the cast and reminds you of how fun this is and how exciting it is,” Patti said. “They were all just so game for anything and just so thrilled to be on set and learning. They were all just really, really great humans, not to mention their voices were all out of this world. It is really always exciting to see that next generation of performers and you’re like, okay, we’re in good hands. Musical theater is in good hands.”
Patti does perform in the Hallmark movie and wants to see the network do a movie musical in the future. “I know that Hallmark is really opening up everything about their movies and their characters and their diversity and inclusivity and stuff,” Patti told HollywoodLife. “I feel like they have so much more license now to be more creative, and I hope that a full-blown movie musical is in the works, but this will have to do for the moment.”
Patti stars alongside Schitt’s Creek alum Jennifer Robertson, who plays Patti’s onscreen sister. “Literally, the first moment we met we were like best friends,” Patti gushed. The actress admitted that she actually drew inspiration from Jennifer’s Schitt’s Creek character while playing Paulette in a production of Legally Blonde.
The Broadway actress revealed in an Instagram post that she found out that she was expecting her second child a week into shooting In Merry Measure. “This actually wasn’t the first Hallmark movie that I was pregnant during because when we did Love On Iceland in late 2019, I found out the week before we flew to Iceland that I was pregnant,” Patti admitted.
In addition to In Merry Measure, Patti also released a joint album, Something Stupid, with husband Colin Donnell. Patti explained that she and Colin were approached about doing an album in 2020 when “everyone was still kind of locked down and theater would be shut down for almost another year.”
Patti and Colin spent months deciding what songs they would sing. “We actually have a sound booth in our house because we bought one since I do audiobooks, and he was recording an album with a friend,” Patti added. “The setup was already there, so it would have been silly to not do it. We got a little bit delayed because we all had to go to Australia so Colin could shoot a TV show that’s coming out later this month. Everything got a little bit pushed back, but Broadway Records was so great. They worked with us and really were so kind to let us put that off for a minute.”
The couple has appeared in the same projects, but Patti noted that they “very rarely play opposite each other.” Patti revealed that she would “love to do a long-running stage musical with him [Colin]. That kind of messes up our childcare, but that’s what grandmas are for. Working with him is very easy. I feel like we complement each other, and we also know each other so well in terms of how we both work because we have seen each other work so much it’s always fun. It’s never something that we bring home, you know what I mean? We don’t bring it home. It’s work. We do work and we come home and we do home.”
