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[0:00] Jeff Malone: Welcome to Half Hour with Jeff and Richie. I'm Jeff. And I'm Richie. And today on our show, we are welcoming a very special guest, Sam Tutty. Sam, welcome to the show.

[0:08] Sam Tutty: Thank you for having me. Hello. Hello. Yay. Sam is an Olivier Award-winning actor and singer. Following his graduation from drama school, he originated the role of Evan in the Tony Award-winning musical Dear Evan Hansen in the West End. His performance garnered widespread acclaim from critics, eventually going on to receive numerous awards, including Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical at the What's On Stage Awards, Most Promising Newcomer at the Critics Circle Theatre Awards, and a Lawrence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical in 2020. Being age 22 at the time, he is one of the youngest winners of this prestigious theatrical award in history. Following its sellout run at the Kiln Theatre, Sam transferred the role of Dougal in the new two-hander musical Two Strangers, Carry A Cake Across New York, to the Criterion Theatre in the West End, directed and choreographed by Tim Jackson. And he's now starring in that show on Broadway. So welcome, welcome, Sam.

[0:58] Sam Tutty: Thank you, gosh. That was very, I was going down memory lane, all that. There we go. Love to hear it. All right, so Sam, to start things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started in the theatre industry and what were some of your earliest experiences that drew you to the stage?

[1:08] Sam Tutty: Yeah, I, you know, I got into the industry, like, quite late. I knew, as in, in the sense of that I knew that I wanted to commit to this as a career, as something that could pay the bills, quite late. Definitely from when I was a little kid, I was like, oh, that was fun. You know, when we were doing school productions or something like that. Back in the UK, well, you have it in the US as well. The Scouts and the, you have the Scouts, the Boy Scouts. Yeah. So we have the same thing over there, but I, but just very, a bit different. And every year they would do a theatrical production. So you can join the Scouts from a very, very young age. They call them beavers.

[1:58] Sam Tutty: Okay. Beavers, then Cubs, then Scouts, then Explorers. And then after that, you could be a young leader or, you know, eventually like a natural leader yourself. And I did the whole thing, near enough. And that, I was probably about four when I dressed up as this little policeman on stage in my hometown, in a massive theatre. I mean, it's huge, this theatre, this massive community theatre, absolutely amazing space. And I remember being on stage and just being very excited and just being really, really, having a lot of fun. And then it wasn't until years later that I, you know, I would do my exams and we would, over in the UK, we have GCSEs, which is, that's a boring story about what they are.

But yeah, and I did, I did my, I did my drama GCSE. I did my drama A-levels, and then the A-levels are what you need to do in order to go to university or drama school or whatever college you go to. And then I ended up going to a drama school. I got that by the end, by the skin of my teeth. I was so bad at auditioning. I really just did like, I truly, and I probably still am quite bad at auditioning. I think it's a really tough skill to hone in on. But yeah, I've, you know, my earliest memory would probably be my policeman performance. There you go.

[3:21] Sam Tutty: As a four-year-old, yeah, yeah. And so, and kind of going from Dear Evan Hansen to Two Strangers, essentially you kind of been with Two Strangers for a while now. So I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about Dougal and the role and how you got involved in the show and what kept you from London to New York and a little bit about that process.

[3:38] Sam Tutty: Yeah, it was really, it's really odd. I think this is a very, it's a very strange experience for me, all of this, because I've, I never auditioned for Broadway, you know, I never auditioned for this experience. And, and if I had, I would have a bit more mental, emotional, physical preparation for it maybe. But I think I really have felt like I've stumbled into this. But my, yeah, my time with Two Strangers, this was meant to be six weeks in a beautiful theatre off West End in North London, you know, for the local people there. I was really interested in the challenge of a two-hander.

[4:15] Sam Tutty: I was really interested in a short run. I'm saying that now three years later, nearly. Yeah, I, and I was really fascinated by, by the challenge and by the exposure in terms of on stage, there's no one else, you know, that's coming. And I had that experience, I suppose, in Evan Hansen, but I never, there was always, there was probably about eight people behind me, you know, like hoisting me back up if I ever fell, literally or emotionally. So yeah, it was really, really, and it was an amazing experience. And it received a lot of love. And we were really, really, the, you know, the reviews and the audience members were so generous with, with their, with their overwhelming love. And yeah, then we got pushed to West End and then Boston and then Broadway.

And it's just a mental story. And the show in itself has changed so much as well. There's so much about it that I am, I'm so proud of what it's become. And I could never have imagined that I would be doing the work that I'm doing on stage now with this show. I've changed so much as a performer, as an actor, as you know, you know, for the lack of a better word, like an athlete on stage, I've really become, I've really come to realise what I am capable of doing and what I'm not capable of doing. It's a real, it's been an amazing, very exposing, like teaching, learning lessons for me. It's been amazing to really find out who I, who I am.

[5:47] Sam Tutty: Yeah, it's, it's fascinating. And seeing that you've played Dougal for so long now in all of these productions, what's it like seeing the story evolve in each new home? And what feels most alive about it now on Broadway?

[5:59] Sam Tutty: It's interesting, everything, I've done this for a while, I've been involved in four different iterations of the show. And each one has never felt like the previous iteration. So I feel very blessed with that. I've never felt, you know, I remember flying to Boston and thinking, what am I doing? Like, you know, I've done this show, I took this job because I wanted to do a short run. And here I am just committing to more and more work. I've, you know, and I landed and I, the first day of rehearsals as a Christiani, I just like completely all of those anxieties, or, you know, I don't know, self-deprecating words get into my head, they just left, they just fully, they just disappeared. And so yeah, he's changed, Dougal has changed so much, I don't recognize him.

If I compared him to, you know, 2020, whatever, three or four, late, late 24. Yeah, late 23. I have no idea. Yeah. It's just, it's completely, completely different. So I feel very blessed. Obviously, it's the same show, the same story. But the way that we get from A to B is just changed completely. It's so exciting. And so and such a relief as well, because I was I was worried, you know, and Christiani, you know, my co-star, she is just such a dynamic actor. She's so intelligent. She has such a deep emotional intellect and incapable of such nuanced performance that it just keeps me so engaged.

[7:38] Sam Tutty: It is it's a real it's a it's a very exciting challenge to like, keep up with her. It's amazing. Yeah. So you know, in I find that this show has so many cinematic moments, it's almost like a rom com on stage of sorts. At times, there's some wonderful moments, I'd be curious to know from your perspective, for two strangers, it's still set in New York, and one audience being in London and one being in New York, did you feel that the audiences were different, depending on a different joke that was told or a different moment? How did the audiences react differently?

[8:01] Sam Tutty: Just hugely just night and day, you know, yeah, you know, and I can imagine that the same would be said if the show started on Broadway, and it was written about London and migrated to the UK, I think we would have a similar sort of like the sort of I don't know, there's been a sort of a clear graph, you know, with with the closer we get to America and its culture and New York and her culture is there's been such a clear sort of like increase in in not only just the laughs, but just the sort of sentiment as well, you know, I don't know what the percentage of New Yorkers who come to see the show, whether they're whether they're natives or tourists, but I think there's a sense of for the lack of a better word, maybe ownership, or just there's a revelry to New York, especially with, you know, her natives. So they just love, they love this city, and the people who come to visit on holiday revere this city, as do I, as just literally the entire world.

[9:03] Sam Tutty: So, so I think there was clearly there was, as soon as we did our first dress run, on Broadway, there was a clear, definitive sort of evolution in the audience. It wasn't something that I had experienced before. There were, you know, I had to physically stop myself from talking over the audience laughing in places where I was purely fueled by muscle memory, happy to just keep on going, because there wasn't a response previously. But there were lines that Kit Buckingham, our amazing writer, who had written, just this stealth comedian, like, honestly, just an absolute, you just don't even know what you've just I mean, I mean, it's just like you, you don't even remember there being a joke and you're laughing. It's like, it's incredible. It's just an amazing, it's an amazing subtlety in his comedy while also being so with Dougal being so in your face.

[10:39] Sam Tutty: You're from New York, so you probably go up the Statue of Liberty all the time. It's like, you know, clearly now looking back at it, not true and funny. And, you know, and like, you know, if someone said that about a Londoner, oh, you're from London, so you probably go up the London Eye all the time. It's like the same principle. Right, right. And recognising that laughter on our first dress run, I was like, oh, my gosh, I get it. And the synapses were sort of like finally came together. And it's so funny because each time I've done this show, I feel like, oh, OK, I've got it now. I know what this is. And then I do a random Thursday show or a random exhausting Wednesday matinee or and suddenly something else.

The domino falls into place forever changing. Yeah. Yeah. And how would you describe the show to someone who's never heard of it without giving too much away? Yeah, I sort of like I said, it's a love letter to New York, but also it really represents New York as the antagonist as well. Both protagonist and antagonist really is, you know, you know, for the tourists out there watching, there's a clear, like I mentioned, revelry to the city, but also for those New Yorkers who have been exposed to the harsh realities of this city, whether it's just purely financial or like the weather and they could just get you down or whatever it is, just the noise. There is an immediate recognition of that as well. So I feel like it is for everyone. Everyone will be heard and will be seen.

[12:39] Sam Tutty: Shifting a little bit over to Dear Evan Hansen now, we want to talk a little bit about your experience with that. That's such an emotionally demanding show and role that you played. How did that experience shape you going into Two Strangers and going from that show to this show? Yeah, well, I left Evan Hansen, as I'm sure every actor who has worn the cast previously, I left Evan Hansen knowing in my soul that I can now do anything. I feel like I felt like I could do literally anything. There could not be a role that could be more demanding. And I did Two Strangers at the Kiln and I was right. I felt like, OK, yes, this is a two-hander and yes, I'm now doing eight a week, but this is still not as physically demanding.

And as each iteration has gone by, it has become more emotionally, physically demanding, spiritually demanding. And now we're here with the sort of upper echelon of it, sort of, I suppose, the antithesis, the complete apex of its life cycle so far. I feel that it is rivaling Evan Hansen in terms of the mental engagement, the listening, the verbal tennis match of dialogue that happens every scene, every scene you finish, every final line you say of a scene is actually the line starting the next scene. You know, there's never like, and me done. Thank you very much, everyone. I'm going to have 20 minutes backstage now while the rest of the cast carries the torch. I've never been more aware of that up until now.

And that's amazing. Don't get me wrong. I love, listen, put me on stage the whole time. I need the attention. I've got an attention need for attention like no other. But, you know, when you're in your sort of fifth month after doing eight shows a week, there is a mental exhaustion there. And it's Evan Hansen that has given me the sort of ingredients or maybe the training or the tools to understand and listen to my body and what I need and what I'm capable of in that show, the choices that I might have to sort of turn up or turn down to accommodate. And it's all about forgiveness in your body, that if I'm tired, the last thing you need to do is chastise yourself for being exhausted, because what good is that?

And that's just so mean to yourself. I learned that in Evan Hansen, like the first day, basically, I was like, oh, my God, I'm exhausted. And it's like, and that's okay. You know, that's, I promise you, that's okay. Because I know that I have, I trust in myself that I am going to give a show that night that people will walk away feeling like they have, they didn't waste their money, or they didn't, you know, they didn't get perhaps a performance that they were, that they weren't expecting. Do you know what I mean? I feel like and there's that trust in myself and that sort of professionalism, I suppose. And perhaps I don't know, I can't really think of the word that just, I trust myself, I'm going to do a good job with the tools I have that day.

That's why, for sure. Because each audience member, unless I don't know, they are, if you are, let me know, but they're not there every night. Do you know what I mean? And they can't reference, they go, oh, on Tuesday, he did that better. Yeah, that didn't land as well as it did on Tuesday. Nobody knows that. And if they do, you know, screw you.

[16:18] Sam Tutty: You won the Olivier at such a young age for Evan, which must have been surreal for you. Can you talk a bit more about the Oliviers as a performer in the West End so that our listeners can have a better idea? Because we have the Tonys here, so I wonder if they hold to the same merit. Yeah, I think that the Tonys are a different beast entirely. They're, you know, I feel like there's a different buzz around them. I feel like the Oliviers are very much like the voters come, they see the show, they do a little vote, and then it's whoever wins, wins. And it's just a lovely ceremony. And it like changed, you know, I suppose it didn't particularly change my life. It was just a very, what I was proud of was that maybe a group of people whose opinions in the industry that I'm dedicating my life to have respected that I did good work.

And literally at the end of the day, if I'm also on top of that getting paid fairly well, what else can I ask for? But the Tonys, I feel like is a completely different beast. I am quite intimidated. My friends who have been involved in the award, the nominees season have said that it's a certain level of work that you have to commit to if you're lucky enough to get nominated. Obviously, we aren't in that position yet. Hopefully, fingers crossed for the show and for everyone who's worked so hard on the show. I really hope that, you know, recognize that all the work. But yeah, I'd be interested. It's a different beast and I'm, you know, whatever happens, happens.

[17:56] Sam Tutty: Right, right. No, that's exciting. Yeah. You'd mentioned earlier, you do the show eight times a week, which is a lot. And so sometimes our audience wants to know what actors' pre-show rituals are. Do you have any pre-show rituals in your dressing room or heading to the dressing room or right before you walk on stage? My pre-show rituals, I'm not going to gatekeep anything that I find helps me as a performer. Like I wake up and not immediately, but within half an hour of waking up, I sink one of these for the listeners who can't see me. It's a one liter bottle of water. Literally don't stop drinking it until all of it is gone. Because it just takes so long to hydrate your voice longer than you think you can.

But other than that, it's sort of just it's an impossible task to sort of if there was a list of things that I could do, like clockwork that would make me show ready, I would commit to that. But I go to the gym. I'm exhausted. I go to the gym. I'm feeling ready and energized. I don't do anything. I'm lethargic. I don't do anything. I'm energized. And that comes back to what I was mentioning about this forgiveness, that your body is just changing every day. So any rituals I do, the main one is just checking in with myself and what I'm capable of doing in that show. Quick, you know, when I say quick, there's a level of warm up that I do, the list of check-ins vocally. But other than that, I like to have a shower before the show, just like getting rid of the day, starting on, you know, so I don't look absolutely exhausted.

I sometimes crank it to freezing just to like, just rev me up. Yeah. I was talking to my friend Jack Wolf, who just left Hadestown. He mentioned that his parts of his warm up just include just living your life, which I really resonated with. I think there's this level of expectation where you have to have to be a hermit in order to sustain yourself for eight shows a week. And I think, you know, some people need to do some people need to wake up if they have a matinee, they need to wake up at 730 in the morning and start.

[21:18] Sam Tutty: I never did ensemble work. I never was moving the sets. And I would have. I would have said yes to any job. But when I walked out of drama school, there was never a level of like, principal only. So I feel like just my point is that I said yes to every job I got. It just so happened that the first one I got was like a life-changing job. So I would say say yes to every job that you're comfortable with saying yes to. You know, I feel like I mentioned in the start of this interview, I never said yes to Broadway. I said yes to six weeks. No disrespect. I said yes to the job. I agreed to the money. Would it have helped me at all financially? Absolutely not. You know, I said yes for the substance of the show.

I was financially oh my gosh, what is the word I was fortunate enough to be able to afford to not to say take the job not for the money. So obviously, you have to I have to respect that there might be people who have to say no simply because it's just not sustainable. Obviously, that is completely understandable. But I think if all I can say is on top of that is just maintain your individualism. You know, this is built upon unique artistry. Christiane made it. She said that she said this amazing phrase. She calls herself a shopper when she watches shows and watches standbys do, you know, of her role, do the show. She'll take it. She loves it. She'll take it. And I love that. Great metaphor. Shop around, take things, make your own, you know, refine it, make it what you know, you want to do.

So, yeah, there's so many things. But I do feel like I have to respect that I have definitely stumbled my way into this industry, you know, like by the skin of my teeth every time like I did not. My final, final audition for drama school was the one that I got, like, and they said yes to me because they had no boys. And my audition was so like that I could sing. Yeah. But did I choose? I think I did bring him home from Les Mis. If I look, you know, if I shave, I look 16 now. I actually was 16 when I was like 18. Oh, my gosh. What my what business do I have singing? Bring him home. There's a drama school. I went to Italia Conti for taking me in because sure I was fully taking a gap year. I was going to work in.

I think Top Man was still around and I was just going to, you know, audition and just try. And then with Evan Hansen, I didn't I did a graduate call, which is like anyone in your third year or first year of third year of drama school or first year post-graduation. You get to do those specific sort of, you know, people of the industry get to go into for a closed audition. But it was like an open. I waited for like six hours in that audition for Evan Hansen. I didn't get the job. Months later, I got an agent. He gave me a closed audition. I did 13 of those auditions. Oh, my God. Two of them were in New York. And then I got the roles. And then this job comes along just so it happens to be that like people are enjoying it.

Right. And I happen to just stumble again into Broadway. If there is a luck capacity, I have used have used all of it. I thought it was completely wiped out by Evan. And this show comes along and just is just the gift that keeps on giving. So to answer your question, there is I it's it's yeah, there's there's a million things to do to not do. But I think the first one is to maintain individualism. And if you can, fortunate enough, say yes to everything that you can take.

[25:30] Richie Grasso: That's a great way to look at it. And we're getting close to the end here. So we have two final questions that we always like to ask. So I'll go first here with if Two Strangers sends the audience home reflecting on something deeper, what do you hope that that spark is?

[25:44] Sam Tutty: There's this conversation surrounding the show about the well, I mean, it's quite obvious it's the impact on people's lives and the reflection of that. And not every tale has to be a fairy tale. And I love that. I love the sort of the way that the show ends on this sort of in-breath and you don't you don't know. And that's OK. You know, and I think that reflects our lives. So I think take comfort in the unknown, take comfort in the in being surrounded by and embedded in the things that you can't control. This industry being one of them, there is a complete lack of control. I hope I get to experience a million things in my career. I can't make that happen without the help of a million people who take, you know, to trust me. And while that is frustrating, if you can flip it and be like, this will pass, you know, or I take my hands off the wheel and that's all I can do. Yeah. So it's comfort in the unknown.

[27:08] Richie Grasso: Yeah, that's great. That's great. And a light note here. We like all our guests to kind of share a fun or unexpected behind-the-scenes story from a show you've worked on in the industry. Any fun story that you're allowed to share on the mic that our audiences love to hear something funny from behind the scenes?

[27:19] Sam Tutty: Yeah. Yeah. So I was doing Dear Evan Hansen and my gosh. And there was this part. So my mom, my mom, bless her, had seen the show maybe 40 times and she was getting to the point where she was like, I've seen it. We were hanging out that day before the show. She came to visit me in London and I said, well, you know, don't say bye just before the show. Come and hang out backstage, you know, because everyone in the show, we all just hung out like in Bex's room. Bex played Rebecca McInnes. Loads of love to her. She played my mom, Heidi Hansen, in the show. We all just hung out in our room. Obviously, everyone else did. I just stayed on stage the whole time. And so she hung out backstage. And I won't say who, but one of the cast members thought it'd be a funny idea if my mother got dressed up in one of not Heidi Hansen's outfits, but one of Rebecca McInnes's outfits that she had just she had a bunch of clothes hung up just for nights out or whatever.

And my mother got into one of her dresses and then went stage left and started to creep just her head out of the curtain. And only I could see her. And I was I remember I was we were doing only us and I just saw this figure. I thought it was a friend of mine and it wasn't. And then I looked up and it was my mother's face and she was just like swinging this gesture. I honestly it was the most out of body. I thought I was hallucinating. And everyone I could see everyone was crying backstage. Oh, my God.

[29:08] Richie Grasso: You're probably like, Whoa, what is happening here?

[29:12] Sam Tutty: I thought I'd genuinely taken something. I thought that's kind of cool, though. Not everyone can say that their mom was like backstage. They're all right. It was those moments that really made that show sustainable for me, like just like made making it like, Oh, I am safe. I am, you know, protected here and loved. And it was great. It was a great.

[29:29] Richie Grasso: Well, we're just about out of time. I wish we could talk to you for a whole nother half hour. Thank you so much.

[29:33] Sam Tutty: Yeah, of course. Where can people find you on social media, if any of you want? I'm not on TikTok. It's just that's too much for me. Instagram. I'm not very present, but I'm just the name Sam Tutty. OK, I guess give us a follow, I guess.

[29:55] Richie Grasso: Yes. Well, that is all for today's episode of Half Hour. We thank you all so much for listening today.

[29:59] Jeff Malone: Yes, we hope you all enjoyed our conversation with Sam Tutty. And the description will share all the information on where you can learn more about Sam and Two Strangers and how you can get tickets.

[30:08] Richie Grasso: Yes. And to all our listeners, if you have suggestions for any future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. You can connect with us on Instagram at Half Hour Podcast.

[30:17] Jeff Malone: Thanks so much for joining us today, Sam.

[30:21] Sam Tutty: Yes. Thank you.

[30:21] Richie Grasso: Thank you for having me. Signing off for now. I'm Richie.

[30:25] Jeff Malone: And I'm Jeff saying tata for now. Bye.