Naomi Miller appears at the Secaucus Library on Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. in a free, one-woman comedy and cabaret show, “Love, Marriage, Children and Liposuction.” The event is hosted by the Friends of the Library, a non-profit organization that promotes awareness about the library’s cultural and educational offerings.

Miller has performed for close to 50 years and is known for her ability to sing in different languages including Yiddish, Greek, Spanish, and African dialects. She takes her inspiration from the likes of performer Bette Midler, actress and singer Tovah Feldshuh, and South African singer Miriam Makeba.

“Love, Marriage, and Liposuction,” debuted at the Don’t Tell Mama theater in New York City.

“The show is autobiographical,” Miller said last week. “However, even though it talks about me, my family, my trials and tribulations, including those of my ongoing weight problem…most of [the songs] are from Broadway shows, and the songs are universal.”

Miller talks about her life as a teenager growing up in Paterson in one part of the show.

“Because I was overweight I was upset that I wasn’t going to have a date for the prom,” said Miller. “I had a friend in high school that said he would take me if I would lose weight.”

Miller sees the comical side to this experience and sings about it in a high falsetto voice, to music from a Jersey Boys medley.

Makes a lasting impression

“Her performance…inspires audience members to reminisce about their own lives, loves, challenges, adventures and goals,” said Friends President Zinnia Miller. “She’s singing; she’s telling stories; she’s speaking of family life, and you’re thinking she’s talking about you.”

Library Director Jenifer May said that Naomi Miller was a big hit during her previous library performances and that she was invited back by popular demand.

“We just thought she was really, really funny. She has got a great sense of humor,” said May.

“She has got a beautiful voice. She connected really well with the audience.”

“When I am on stage and I connect with the audience through the emotions that I put through the songs then I feel rewarded,” said Miller about her passion and inspiration for singing.

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The show was recently nominated for an award by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets.

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From the halls of the mikveh to the concert stage

“Theater has always been my love,” said Miller. “Music has always been my love.”

Miller, 65, has been connecting with audiences from the time she rehearsed her school songs as a teenager in the tiled bath and sauna rooms of her parents’ mikveh, a place where Jewish women would go once a month to cleanse themselves.

She said that one day a woman in the waiting room was so moved by her singing that she hired her on the spot and officially launched her career.

“This woman was with my mother, she overheard me singing, and she hired me to sing for the mother’s day program,” said Miller.

Miller joined up with a young female guitarist to sing duets and went on to perform in the Greenwich Village and college venues as part of an international duo called The Demoiselles.

While she pursued her passion for singing, she studied speech therapy at William Paterson College in New Jersey. Miller eventually performed in concerts throughout the United States, the Czech Republic, Canada, Puerto Rico, Greece, and Israel. She has also appeared on cable television and on radio.

“I came from a family that was poor and I knew that I needed to have a steady income and have a good job,” said Miller, who also continues her work as speech therapist.

Miller was born in Landsburg, Germany, in a displaced persons camp for survivors of World War II. Her parents were Holocaust survivors.

Miller took her life experiences and transformed them into inspirational and comical songs for her one woman comedy show.

Sharing life lessons

In one song she describes how she met her husband “counting toilet seats” when they were both taking inventory at a department store.

While Miller approaches her experiences with lightness of heart, she turns to a more serious note when she sings about her son, who is deaf.

She sings a song she wrote for him, “As We Listen with Our Eyes.”

Her husband, Harvey Miller, will use sign language to communicate each song when there are deaf people in the audience.

Miller also sings about her parents and their experience as survivors of the Holocaust and how they never really found the joy that others did in coming to America and how she wished she could make their lives better.

Husband and wife team

The show was recently nominated for an award by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets.

Miller works closely with her husband Harvey to write and put shows together. He serves as the director.

Miller will perform the show with accompanist Janet Sosinsky, with a cameo appearance by Sosinsky’s husband on violin.

Miller lives in Wayne with her husband. She has two sons, Philip and Joshua, and two grandchildren.

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