Valley Native Kayla Boye Plays Stage Legend Ann Miller in New Show

By Guy D'Astolfo, The Business Journal

Actor-writer Kayla Boye is once again spotlighting an entertainment legend with a one-woman stage show that she wrote and stars in.

The Chicago-based actor-writer who hails from the Mahoning Valley will premiere her latest play, “Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story,” this summer. Performances are scheduled in June in Los Angeles, July in New York and Aug. 1-9 at the famed Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Boye has also scheduled two performances at the Moyer Room of the Youngstown Playhouse in late September. The exact dates have not yet been announced.

Ann Miller, who died in 2004, rose to fame during Hollywood’s Golden Age and became a Broadway star in the second half of her career. A dancer, singer and actor, Miller was known for her enthusiasm and indomitable spirit.

“Shake It Away” is the follow-up to “Call Me Elizabeth,” in which Boye played the late Elizabeth Taylor. She presented “Call Me Elizabeth” at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and before that in theaters in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere – including the Youngstown Playhouse in 2021.

While “Elizabeth” mirrored the tumultuous personal life of Taylor and her contempt for the movie studio system that controlled her, “Shake It Away” has a different tone.

Boye said it matches Miller’s irrepressible spirit. The title refers to the song “Shaking the Blues Away,” which Miller sang in the film “Easter Parade,” and also the upbeat way she handled obstacles and hard times.

“She’s kind of the opposite of Elizabeth Taylor,” Boye said in a phone interview. “Elizabeth hated the studio system, viewed it as a prison. Ann was the opposite. She became kind of a torch bearer for MGM by making appearances on TCM and doing all these interviews later in life.”

Miller also appeared in the “That’s Entertainment” films, which compiled segments of movies made by MGM – the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio.

“I think my first time seeing her on screen was actually in the ‘That’s Entertainment’ series,” Boye recalled. “And I was like, ‘Who is this phenomenal entertainer who just loves show business and loves sharing the history of it?’ She loved the studio system because it pulled her and so many other performers out of the Great Depression, and it gave her a steady salary.”

Miller and her deaf mother went through hard times when they moved to Los Angeles. Miller began supporting their household by working as a dancer while still a teen.

“She was discovered by Lucille Ball while performing in a nightclub in San Francisco,” Boye said. “Lucille got her a screen test at RKO when Ann was 13 years old.”

Miller lied about her age for several years and wound up having a lengthy career at RKO.

She made her Broadway debut at age 16 and then returned to Hollywood to resume her film career. “She introduced Lucille Ball to Desi Arnaz when they were shooting [the 1940 film] ‘Too Many Girls,’ and that’s when they fell in love,” Boye said. “She has had her hands in lots of different parts of Hollywood history.”

Miller’s film credits include “Easter Parade” (1948) and “Kiss Me Kate” (1953). Her Broadway roles in the latter half of her career include “Mame” (1966) and “Sugar Babies” (1979).

A NEW ROLE

After spending three years performing as Elizabeth Taylor, Boye now finds herself morphing into a new stage personality.

She had finished writing and rehearsing “Shake It Away” some time ago but only recently announced it.

“I’ve been sitting on it for a while,” she said. “I’ve been so scared to tell the world about it because [Miller] is a person that I admire so much, and I just want to tell her story to new generations.”

Boye feels a personal connection to Miller.

“She frequently performed at Packard Music Hall [in Warren] with the Kenley Players [in the 1970s], and my mom was an usher there during the summer of 1976 when Miller was here for ‘Panama Hattie,’” Boye said.

“I know a lot of people in Youngstown had the opportunity to watch her perform locally,” she continued. “She just was someone who loved touring and performing for live audiences, because for most of her life she performed in front of movie cameras and never got to see people experiencing her performances. Doing the summer stock circuit was a joy for her, and she is someone who I was drawn to.”

The opportunity to throw herself into such an upbeat  persona is a welcome one for Boye, especially after her stint playing the troubled Elizabeth Taylor.

“I was ready for something light and happy,” Boye said. “And I think everybody else is too at this time in the world. You know, it’s really hard to keep going and keep hope. And I feel, and I hope others feel the same way, that there is still a place for good, old-fashioned fun and lighthearted entertainment.

“This show does include some events that [Miller] went through that were very hard, but the majority of it centers on the highlights and the joy and the laughter and the songs that she’s known for.”

But Boye is not moving on from Elizabeth Taylor just yet.

She has written a second one-woman show about Taylor that looks into the second half of her life.

“There’s a whole other chapter to Elizabeth’s life, and [people] want to see that too,” Boye said. “So I expanded [‘Call Me Elizabeth’] into a second act that is set in 1985. I tried it out in Chicago [earlier this year], and people seemed to enjoy it.”

Plans are in the works to mount the second act in theaters at some point down the road.

But for now, Boye is giving “Shake It Away” all of her attention. To try to inhabit the personalities of both Taylor and Miller at the same time would be too much, she said.

“The roles overlapped a little bit this spring,” Boye said. “And I did ‘Elizabeth’ last week and then I’ve been in rehearsals for Ann, and I was like, who am I? I’m having split-personality disorder or something!” she said with a laugh.

Boye, of Howland, Ohio, is a graduate of Youngstown State University and appeared in many shows at YSU and other Valley venues.

Now a professional actor, her credits include productions at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Drury Lane Theatre, Porchlight Music Theatre, Mercury Theater Chicago and many others.

To learn more about “Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story,” go to ShakeItAwayPlay.com.

Pictured at top: Kayla Boye stars in “Shake It Away: The Ann Miller Story.” (Photo by Heather Stumpf)

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