Naperville resident Emerson Mae Chan is living her Broadway dream. And she’s only in the third grade.
Emmy Chan, age 8, stars as youngest daughter Natalie in the national Broadway tour of “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the musical. It is showing at the James M. Nederlander Theatre in Chicago through Sunday.
Due to child labor laws, young actors must alternate performances. Her last performance in Chicago was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. March 9.
Emmy auditioned and got the role last year and started rehearsals in New York City last August.
“My mom actually made me watch the movie before I even taped (the audition),” she said.
She loves her role of Natalie and identifies with the character.
“I definitely like how she’s fun and quirky and very excited all the time,” she said.
She started the tour in September and recently extended her contract through Aug. 4, ending in Las Vegas. Taking a role in a touring Broadway show, which meant leaving home for six months to a year, was not a decision the Chans made lightly.
“We talked about it altogether as a family and then my mom and dad had some private conversations,” she said.
Her parents, Brandon and Lindsay Chan, take turns traveling with Emmy. He’s an engineer and she owns Lindsay Chan Photography. Sometimes her little brother Eli, 6, is able to visit her as well.
“I miss them a lot, but they switch off often,” she said.
Lindsay Chan said that she and her husband were both shocked and excited when she got the role and yet also not at all surprised, as Emmy was always singing and dancing and started acting at a young age with Road Show, Inc. in Naperville. She played the role of Molly in “Annie Kids” in July 2022.
Emmy Chan played the understudy for Gretl in the Paramount Theatre’s production of “The Sound of Music” in 2022. She signed with an agent shortly after that. “I fell in love with it,” Emmy said of acting.
“No one in the family has ever performed at this level or worked at this level professionally,” Lindsay Chan said. “We couldn’t stop the train from rolling. She fell in love with it.”
Traveling and teaching
A tutor travels with the cast, teaching the four school-age children in the cast.
“The other three kids have online programs but I have actual binders of stuff,” Emmy Chan said.
Touring for six straight months might seem like a grind, but she’s loving it.
“It’s exciting because almost ever few weeks you wake up to a new city and there are a lot of new things to do,” Emmy Chan said. “It keeps me pretty motivated.”
She’s gotten to do a lot of exploring, including taking field trips as part of her schoolwork. She’s been to cities like Washington, D.C., Nashville, Detroit, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
“One of the fun things was in D.C., we went to the Smithsonian. In Hartford, Connecticut, we went to the Connecticut Science Center,” Emmy Chan said.
“It’s been so much fun traveling the country and seeing it through her eyes,” Lindsay Chan said.
The Chans aren’t quite sure what will happen in August.
“We don’t necessarily know what the future holds for her. That’s just how the industry works. She would be perfectly happy being at home and in school and finding creative places to sing and dance and enjoy doing the things she does in our community,” Lindsay Chan said.
“We have the best options in the Naperville area for her to do that. If something else happened, we would be open to it. It’s kind of a wait-and-see game. To see if there is anything next and if so, what. There’s always TV and film options, but sometimes that requires families to uproot themselves, which I don’t know if we have that in us yet. It’s trusting the process and trusting what’s meant to be.”
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
