Broadway star Michael Maliakel is calling his Catholic faith inseparable from his career ahead of his performance in a PBS-televised Christmas program.
“It’s been a big part of my life,” the award-winning Indian American actor and singer told Our Sunday Visitor during a virtual media Q&A event on Monday. “For me, those things are just intertwined.”
Maliakel, who is most famous for starring in Disney’s “Aladdin” on Broadway, spoke ahead of the broadcast of “Joy: Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir,” in which he appears as a guest artist. The 21st annual Christmas celebration, which is produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, will air Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. ET and Dec. 19 at 9:30 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS Video app.
The 90-minute special is already available for streaming online through Jan. 1.
The program will also air on BYUtv, a service of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, on Dec. 19 at 9 p.m. ET, with repeats through Christmas day. Viewers can also stream it at BYUtv.org and on the BYUtv app.
A special tradition
The prerecorded concert features Maliakel along with British actress Lesley Nicol (“Downton Abbey”). The production combines timeless Christmas songs, from “Joy to the World” to “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas” with a story about author Victor Hugo, who wrote classics including “Les Misérables.”
Maliakel sings a special arrangement of “God Help the Outcasts” from the musical and film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” based on another of Hugo’s novels. Nicol, with the help of actors and dancers, brings to life the true story of Hugo and his wife, Adèle, inviting local children in need to a Christmas feast.
An all-volunteer cast of more than 500 people, including the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and the Orchestra at Temple Square, performed the program in front of three live audiences last year at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, which is associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
In addition to Maliakel, past concerts have included talent who identify as or were raised Catholic, including Disney star Lea Solanga in 2023 and actor Neal McDonough in 2022.
A Broadway star’s faith
Maliakel, in response to a question from OSV during the Q&A, spoke about how his faith has influenced his musical career.
“I think I owe a lot to the Catholic Church for why I do what I do today,” he said.
As he shared with the South Asian Stories Podcast in 2022, Maliakel comes from a Christian-Catholic background and grew up attending church every Sunday. Maliakel was born and raised in New Jersey, he said, after his parents immigrated from Kerala, India.
“I come from a very historic but small population of South Indian Christians,” he said in 2022.
In his upcoming Christmas performance, he tells the audience that his singing career began at church.
“I grew up singing in the church choir, I fell in love with music through that,” he says. “My mom, when I was 8 years old, signed me up, and ever since then I haven’t looked back.”
To OSV, he added: “I don’t think, at that point, my mom ever figured that putting her son in the church choir would lead down this road. But in many ways, those moments were foundational in why I do this today.”
His first job was as the cantor at his church, where he sang for weddings, baptisms and Christmas services, he says during the concert. Speaking during the virtual Q&A, he shared more of his Christmas memories.
“Christmas growing up was always about going to the midnight Mass and having a nice meal before and then the next day,” he told OSV. “Then, as I got older, I was cantoring, sometimes four, five, six services during that week, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve.”
A Christmas message
Maliakel, who lives in Connecticut with his wife and 2-year-old daughter, said that he watched the PBS broadcasts of “Christmas with the Tabernacle Choir” growing up.
“To finally get to be a part of it was absolutely mindblowing, and it felt like a real full circle moment,” he said. “I’m so grateful to have it recorded so beautifully so that I can show [it] to my kids down the line.”
If viewers take away one message about Christmas after watching the program, he hoped that it was compassion for others.
“I think just having compassion for those that don’t look like you maybe, for those that have less than you, for those that … are struggling,” he responded to OSV. “I think the message of Christmas, and this program specifically, about showing compassion to those folks — and being as generous as you can, especially this time of year but year-round.”
Also at the virtual Q&A, Nicol, who plays Mrs. Patmore in the “Downton Abbey” TV shows and movies, said that she hoped viewers remembered Hugo’s message of “Aimer, c’est agir,” or “to love is to act.”
“Words are OK,” she said, “but take actions, kindness in action, that’s everything.”
