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[0:01] Samantha Massell: While you were skipping stones, building forts and flying kites, I was missing school and all my Saturday nights. Other kids were climbing trees and rolling down hills; I was singing songs to pay my family's bills. Little me, growing up Broadway. Little me.

[0:21] Marc Tumminelli: Hello, friends, it's Marc Tumminelli. Welcome back to another episode of LITTLE ME: Growing Up Broadway. My guest today is an actress and a singer who has appeared on Broadway, on television, in movies, in the cabaret scene, and in a variety of commercials. She was last seen on Broadway as Hodel in the acclaimed revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She's originated roles in many musicals, including Stephen Schwartz and Charles Strouse's Rags at the Goodspeed Opera House, which we will be talking about, The Flamingo Kid at Hartford Stage, and Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame at La Jolla and also Paper Mill Playhouse. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 12 in Baz Luhrmann's's production of Puccini's La Bohème.

On the small screen, Samantha has been seen on Mr. Mercedes, Chicago Fire, NCIS New Orleans, The Good Fight, and Elementary, and at New York City Encores. She's appeared in LITTLE ME, and It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman. She's a graduate of the University of Michigan, which is a super fancy school. Um, so you know she's talented. Please welcome Samantha Massell.

[1:19] Samantha Massell: How are you?

[1:20] Marc Tumminelli: Woo!

[1:21] Samantha Massell: I'm good. How are you?

[1:22] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you for being here. I'm so excited to like unpack your Broadway childhood story, which I did not know. So this is like nobody knows this about me, so I'm like, I'm very eager to chat about it.

[1:33] Samantha Massell: You're a surprise child star, and you're very sweet and not crazy, so it worked out. You did okay. Honestly, more on that later, but like yeah, like yes.

[1:44] Marc Tumminelli: Great. So, but you made your Broadway debut in La Bohème on Broadway, um, which was this big sort of remount of normally you would see it at the opera, but it was like the Broadway version of La Bohème. But I want to hear what was happening. You were 12 then?

[1:56] Samantha Massell: Yeah.

[1:59] Marc Tumminelli: What was happening before 12?

[2:01] Samantha Massell: Great. What was happening before 12? Well, I was definitely like that kid who I mean, like all I did was watch Annie and Fiddler on the Roof, like those movies on repeat. My mom would have people over for dinner, and I would be like, Okay, everyone, like pause at the appetizers. I'm gonna do all of Fiddler on the Roof for you now. And everyone—All of it.

[2:16] Samantha Massell: Yeah, just like all of it. I'd be like, I'm Yenta, I'm Golda, I'm Tevye, I'm the daughters, like I'm everyone.

[2:21] Marc Tumminelli: You were prepared.

[2:22] Samantha Massell: Um, yeah. And I like when I was little, you know, a teacher, I think someone in like nursery school pulled my mom aside and was like, your daughter has an ear for this. You should get her into lessons. So I was in singing lessons and like all sorts of different things.

[2:34] Marc Tumminelli: Where'd you grow up?

[2:36] Samantha Massell: So I grew up in New York City, which is kind of like the, yeah, that's like the important little tidbit that I neglected to mention. Thank you.

[2:43] Samantha Massell: Um lol. Yeah. So um I was. I think always a very, a very fascinating child. You know, people always say stuff like that, or they'll ask me questions and they're like, what was it like growing up in New York City? And I'm like, honestly, I don't really know because I didn't grow up anywhere else.

[3:01] Samantha Massell: Exactly. Um, but I loved it. And there was obviously a lot of access to the arts, which was as I was developing my interest and passion for music and theater and all of those things was amazing to have.

[3:14] Marc Tumminelli: Um, were they taking you to a lot of Broadway shows? Like, what do you remember seeing that had a big influence on you as a kid?

[3:21] Samantha Massell: Yeah, my first Broadway show was The Lion King, and I like remember reaching out to like touch the elephant in the aisle. And then like three weeks later, my mom took me to go see Ragtime, and I truly remember being like, What the bleep is happening in this? Like, I was like, I don't know, I'm asleep.

[3:36] Marc Tumminelli: Like, how little were you?

[3:39] Samantha Massell: Oh, I'm gonna age myself. Well, you're gonna age yourself. I was I think I was six. Like, I saw both of those in a row. Ragtime certainly sailed right over my head.

[3:47] Samantha Massell: Yes, I imagine at six years old. Uh, but Lion King, who could forget it?

[3:52] Marc Tumminelli: I probably I probably sat you and your family in your seat because I ushered you.

[3:56] Samantha Massell: Oh my god, that's so funny.

[3:57] Marc Tumminelli: This is my first job in New York City.

[3:58] Samantha Massell: Yeah.

[3:59] Marc Tumminelli: That's wild. I'm very old.

[4:01] Samantha Massell: So if you were six, I was ushering there, which means I was old enough to work for the Disney company.

[4:07] Samantha Massell: Well, honey, you look great.

[4:08] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you.

[4:11] Samantha Massell: Okay, so you're seeing shows, you're in, like, you know, you're a kid in New York City. You're in the mix of it. I had some, I think there was like an Annie revival at the time, and I saw that, and there were kids in that. And I also remember seeing Donna Murphy in The King and I. And I remember like looking over to my mom being like, There are children up here. Like, why am I not here? And I was starting to ask these like insane questions for a child, where I'd be like, We'd just be at dinner, I'd be like, Can I have an agent? And she'd be like, Where did you learn this word? Like, or I'd ask, like, I wanted to perform on a stage not just for parents.

[4:44] Samantha Massell: Okay. So my mom um heard about the New York City Opera children's chorus, and she put me in that. So I got I auditioned for that and I got in. I made a solo debut when I was a kid. Like, I was in The Ballad of Baby Doe with Elizabeth Futral, I played her daughter, and then I was also just like in Carmen and La Bohème and L'Enfant et les Sortilèges. Like I was in all of these operas, and Monday night I'd be in this, and Tuesday night I'd be in this, and Wednesday I was off, and like I was busy in that world.

[5:11] Samantha Massell: Um, and my mom had heard about this child agent, um, Nancy Carson. Legend, Nancy Carson. If you have not listened to Nancy's episode of the LITTLE ME podcast, give a pause here. Go check out Nancy Carson and then join us again. I was like, Let me hang up on you, Marc, and I'll play back for 40. It's a great episode, and she spills some like big old tea. So I love it. Okay, keep going.

[5:33] Marc Tumminelli: So if your mom heard about Nancy Carson.

[5:35] Samantha Massell: I'm skipping a part of the story. I'm so sorry. Okay. So I was like doing some of this like New York City opera stuff, and like I liked it, but like I really wanted to do musicals. Um and I used to take this like some sort of like musical theater acting class at the Ripley Greer on 72nd Street, which is like this yeah, creepy old school thing. And there was one day where I um I was like going, I must have been like eight. Maybe I was nine. And I was like supposed to go up to my class, and I got up to like the main floor and I heard all of these songs from Annie, and like like a moth to a flame. I just like was like, what is happening? And I walked in and there were all of these kids auditioning for the ABC Annie remake.

[6:15] Samantha Massell: And I saw that they had written their names down on a sheet. So I just sat down, picked up the sheet, wrote my name on it, and deposited it. Like the audacity, like I must have been so fearless. My mom literally was like, Samantha, you have a class, like you need to go upstairs. And I was like, I'm auditioning for Annie, like you're out of your mind.

[6:34] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god. Do they like call you in? Did you go in the room?

[6:36] Samantha Massell: Did all have like all of these people, hours pass by. Every girl in New York City who has an appointment has gone. And finally, the casting director walks out of the room like with her briefcase. Like for a day is over. And there's this little kid with red glasses being like, It's my turn. And she looks at my mother with like and she's just like so annoyed. And she was like, Oh god, do you have a headshot? And my mom's like, No. She's like, Do you have a resume? And I'm like, I don't know what that is. And my mom just goes, I'm so sorry. She doesn't even have an appointment. And she was like, I couldn't have kept her from this room. Like, if you know, anyway.

[7:10] Samantha Massell: So the woman just goes, Well, does she know the songs from Annie? My mom went, Yes. That we know. That we know. So this woman brings me in and she kept me in for 45 minutes, and I sang through like the whole score of Annie. Nothing ever happened with us, by the way. And then she comes out and she looks at my mother like my mom is a criminal. And she went, You have to get this kid an agent.

[7:29] Marc Tumminelli: And she walks away. You remember who that casting director was?

[7:32] Samantha Massell: No, I actually should totally look that up and be like, I'm going to be a child. I don't remember who cast that. Well, I'll ask Alicia Morton. Um, I feel like it was the Telsey office, but maybe I'm wrong.

[7:43] Samantha Massell: I don't think it was Telsey. I mean, like this is like a classic childhood story for me. And then basically, my mom, I was like doing some opera stuff at the time, and my mom had heard about Nancy Carson, and my mother called Nancy and was like, Look, all these kids end up on drugs. I don't want my kid to do this. And Nancy was like, Okay. Um, clearly actually Nancy probably loved that.

[8:02] Samantha Massell: Well, yeah. Like, yeah, because it was so coming from me. Like, my mom called her and was like, give me a hundred reasons not to do this. And Nancy was like, Come have a meeting.

[8:12] Marc Tumminelli: Love it.

[8:12] Samantha Massell: And then I went and had a meeting and I started working with her. And that's sort of how I started.

[8:17] Marc Tumminelli: And then what kind of things were you auditioning for once you were with Nancy?

[8:20] Samantha Massell: Yeah, all of those things. It's so funny, like so many years later. I have I have like very vivid memories of some of those like big things. Like, I was in the I like, I think I was like gonna get the offer for the Sound of Music tour for Brigida, and then like the girl resigned, and I was devastated, and I wore a green velvet dress with a lace trim, and like I did for Annie, Get Your Gun, and I auditioned for like all sorts of stuff.

[8:44] Samantha Massell: And I did say how are you not a Cosette? How are you not a little baby Cosette?

[8:48] Marc Tumminelli: I think uh one thing that was by the time I started, and I I like remember like I had such like I was like, mommy, you kept me away from this too long, I'm too big. Like, I was just a little too tall. Like I started a little too late to, and I wasn't one of those kids, which was like such a thing with all these child actors who like was 12 but looked like they were six. Like I was 12 and I looked like I was 12.

[9:09] Samantha Massell: Talk to me about how La Bohème came to you because I must have felt like I'm an opera kid, and now there's gonna be this opera on Broadway, which is the dream. Pretty much.

[9:17] Samantha Massell: Yeah. So I had done this off-Broadway show, and that was, I guess, a year before La Bohème. There's also like there was this one day in that off-Broadway show where I was like playing a twin of this other girl, and like she couldn't get across the bridge, and I played both parts. Like all of these like bizarre, crazy stories that are just like a little notch in your belt. Just weird things only theater kids do.

[9:35] Samantha Massell: Only theater kids do, yeah. Um, so the La Bohème audition came around, and I think you should have to like sing a song. And I had obviously at that point been in La Bohème maybe like three or four times. Like I was very familiar with this. And I think I got a callback, and at the second or third callback, they had they needed the kids to prove that they could sing the Italian. And I was like, Italian? No problem. I mean, let me uh read, yeah. I just knew it by heart. So I was a very easy um and easy sell.

[10:06] Samantha Massell: And then um, this is also like a great story. They the final callback for the kids in La Bohème, they took all 16 kids who they ended up casting to a roller rink in I think the Bronx, because four kids, two in each performance were gonna have to roller skate. And I guess they wanted to determine who those kids would be, but we didn't all know that we were already cast. But they were literally like, who will be the roller skaters? And are the parents normal? So they threw us like a roller skating pizza party for 16 children, Telsey and company threw this party. They determined who the roller skaters were, including Joe Jonas of the Jonas Brothers.

[10:45] Samantha Massell: And um, then we all got the job.

[10:48] Marc Tumminelli: Do they tell you that day? When did you find how did you find out that you got it?

[10:52] Samantha Massell: We got a call, I think like that was over the weekend. That was also the weekend I got a dog when I was a kid. So we named the dog Puccini and like big weekend when you're 12.

[11:01] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, that's a big weekend now.

[11:03] Samantha Massell: Yeah, big older Broadway show, get a puppy.

[11:06] Marc Tumminelli: Yes. Okay. So let's talk about the rehearsal process for La Bohème. This was a huge Broadway show. Didn't have three sets of casts or three lead casts if I remember correctly.

[11:15] Samantha Massell: We had three sets of um lead leads, two sets of secondary leads, and then two sets of children.

[11:22] Marc Tumminelli: Great. So were there eight kids in each show? Is that like per cast?

[11:25] Samantha Massell: Yeah. And then one girl ended up dropping out who's since become one of my she booked two Broadway shows as a child. Um, Sarah Kapner is one of my best friends. Um, and like we've become we became friends at that callback. Like she is it's amazing. Um, ironically, and our parents stayed in touch, and she was another child actor who like turned out very normal.

[11:42] Samantha Massell: And um, yeah, we and there was one girl who was the daughter of who her she's now a manager, actually. Kathy Olson is the mom and the daughter Shaniff Rolls, and she did both shows. She breaking the AGMA rules or whatever.

[11:58] Samantha Massell: I mean, obviously, it seems like a kind of scary guy to work for as a child. I mean, we were so we were so well taken care of, and it was like because we were only doing four a week. I I never really had to miss school because I was only doing two Wednesday matinees a month. I went to Hunter, which high school and elementary school, which is a very academically focused, like rigorous education.

[12:21] Samantha Massell: Um, and they happened to have a thing where we had like Wednesday afternoons off once a month. So I literally missed like one class a month. Like it just like worked out in this like incredible way. Um, and it I don't know, I mean, like Boss was wonderful. Like, I just remember the whole experience being so seamless and easy. Like, I feel like you hear all these horror stories of things that directors said to children or like something, something like I have, I really didn't have that experience. Like I was treated so well by everyone from from Boz to I mean, and no one in that building did anything but treat us like real kids who they were lucky to have with them. We were it was really a really wonderful experience.

[13:01] Marc Tumminelli: Well, speaking of school, did you feel kind of fancy at school that you were like in a Broadway show at night? And like I always love that story of whatever that feels like to be a working actor kid who, you know, everybody kind of like whispers about in the hallway. They're like, that girl is on Broadway. We had like a pre-Olympic ice skater in my high school. And it was like she used to, she used to be able to Diana Marrow, that's her name. Um, she used to come to school late and I was so jealous. I was like, I want to be a star like her, I'll take up ice skating. Yeah, and not go to school. What did that feel like to be like a working actor kid in school?

[13:34] Samantha Massell: I don't know. I think I knew it was special, and like fortunately, I was surrounded by other kids who had grown up in New York who had a sense that it was special and not lame, which was really good. I mean, I'd also been working professionally, like I did that off-Broadway show when I was in fifth grade. I did like other little things here and there, like I was in the opera at night. Like, so it wasn't an unknown quantity. When I did this, when I did Lab One, I was in seventh grade, which is where at Hunter actually we start high school because it's accelerated two years. So a bunch of new kids came in, and I was like, I'm Sam, and I'm going off to my matinee. And I do remember feeling a little like people would think it was weird, but nobody did that. Nor did I also feel like a hot shot. Like I was not a popular kid. Like I didn't have any of that cool stuff going for me. I just had this thing.

[14:20] Marc Tumminelli: Well, it's it's a very exciting thing. Now, La Bohème on Broadway, I remember it being one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Oh wow. And that that must have felt pretty magical as a kid. Like, what do you remember about actually doing the show and being in the middle of what looked like a movie, but it just was live on stage?

[14:35] Samantha Massell: It was pretty incredible. Um good. I I really remember the sense of family. Like I remember, like, I can tell you like who I what adults I stood with at certain times. And like I remember that. I remember I remember at my age, being, despite my age, being aware of the sense of artistry of what we were doing. Like we all came on at the top of act two when we like milled around, and then like we like the music started and we all froze. Like there was like a thing, like it felt like we were like, and now we did the theater, which was sort of um like a heightened cool thing that felt I was aware of as a child. Um, one thing I always say is um I had to throw a basketball in this show. That's like how like the act two opened was like the movement started again, and I threw a basketball to one principal and he threw it to another principal, and they threw it back to me. And over eight months, this complete sports failure did not drop the ball once.

[15:34] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, congratulations. That's something I definitely remember is I was like, look, I do sports too. I'm so amazed. I'm such a sporty girl. Um, now when there are two casts of kids, you guys, they made a cast recording, and there also was like opening night. How do they decide who was doing? Did you get to do opening? Do you get to I got to do opening and closing?

[15:54] Samantha Massell: So my god. We called ourselves we had the law cast and the boat cast. So I was in the law cast and the law cast um did opening and closing. And for now, did the bow cast were they annoyed about that?

[16:05] Marc Tumminelli: No, I you know this. I really think there was something about this group of kids and parents, is that for most people in this room, it was their first Broadway show. Joe, it was like Joe Jonas's first Broadway show. And while Nick had been in like 85, Nick had a longer resume than I gotta get him on this. Let me write that down. Yeah, honestly. Nick Jonas. We should get Joe too. I mean, like, yeah, there was like Joe Jonas. They really was a very normal group of kids. And I had like grown up going to dance classes with all the little kids who were in Annie Get Your Gun and Annie and all of these things. And I was like, I was so painfully jealous of them. And I also knew the moms were nuts. Like the kids were were tuned up and the moms were crazy.

And like my mom was never like that. And in that group of kids I was in, like, we didn't have that. So there wasn't that heightened sense of like competition. Like, I remember I came back for closing. I missed the last like four or five shows because I wanted to go to camp. Like, that's how normal I was. Like, oh, that's very sweet. I'm gonna go to camp, I'll come back for closing. And the girl who had my track in the other show, like, did it, and then I do closing. Like, there wasn't a lot of like the drama that normally accompanies being a Broadway kid. And it was so easy to be like, I'm not doing this one, like, or like Alison, like if she needed to go to a school dance or something, like I would do her show, and she like we would swap in and out.

Like, it really was like I've I said this before, like, we we hear all these horror stories of what these kids endure with the mothers. Like, I can tell you stories of close friends of mine who really like endured some crap. I think the mom stuff, if if anyone is interested in my opinion, happens because parents don't have anywhere to go. 90% of the uh moms that are doing this job of being stage one, um, are coming in from Westchester, New Jersey, Long Island, Philly, whatever, and they're driving in, they're waiting for their kid to finish the show, and then they're driving back or whatever it is. And so they have like five hours sometimes to just sit and do nothing, but and that I think sometimes causes some of the drama that is happening backstage at Broadway shows. So I say they should put the moms in the shows too. Like just they'll have something to do.

[18:09] Marc Tumminelli: So were there other big Broadway auditions that were happening, like after La Bohème during La Bohème? Now you're Broadway kid, it kind of puts you in a different echelon of child actor.

[18:18] Samantha Massell: I don't, to be honest, no. I mean, I I really I and I like hold this like it's like such a chip, but like I just wasn't one of those kids who looked like a kid anymore. Like when the show ended, like I was like, I was 13 and there wasn't a lot of stuff for that. Um I I was like, I remember one time I was like up for a show on the CW. That was like in a film in Africa, like that like randomly happened, or like, and then like when Spring Awakening happened, that was a really big deal. Like, I was like in the final mix for that, like over a hundred times, and I didn't never got it. Um stuff like that. And I remember being like, because that was like one opportunity for teenagers who didn't look like they were four.

And then something happened, like when I was 16. This was like probably right around the time Spring Awakening was like starting to kick around. Nancy started sending me out for adult jobs, and I started doing really well. Like I was in final callbacks for Éponine when Lea Michele dropped out of that Les Mis revival. We talked about it a couple weeks ago on this podcast. I was in final callbacks for Sophie in Mamma Mia a bunch, and then it just kept coming down to this thing where they'd be like, wait, she's 16. She's in high school. That's right. We're like, we're not gonna she's not gonna emancipate herself. We don't want to pay for this. Like, we're not gonna put a 17-year-old show. But I was starting to like I was doing well, like for being a kid.

[19:38] Marc Tumminelli: Um so then you must have been like, well, then the next logical thing is that I'm gonna go to college and do this. This is the thing I'm doing. Was there a moment during those teen years where you were like, I want to do something else, or I'm interested in journalism?

[19:52] Samantha Massell: No, that's so funny. You said my mom was a journalist, it's so funny you say that. No, there really wasn't. I think I always knew that this was going to be my thing. I didn't know what my path was going to be for college. I I like really didn't apply to a lot of musical theater programs. I applied to like a lot of Ivy League schools, which was like really the path that my high school was sending everybody on. Um, and I like threw three musical theater programs into the mix. And I honestly thought I would stay in New York City, I would like continue studying with my voice teacher, John later. I would just take acting classes, I would take dance classes, and I would just like get a normal college degree because I was always told and taught that that was, you know, I didn't believe in education.

Like I just I can talk about that forever. But like, um, I got into Columbia and I was like, I'll just do that. And I got into Michigan, and it was really down to those two schools for me. And Michigan affords is probably the only musical theater program, I think the only musical theater program of its standing that enables students to double major at like a world class university. So um, when it came down to it, I said no to Columbia and I I went to Michigan. I felt crazy.

[20:50] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, what is your other major? What other thing did you major in?

[20:54] Samantha Massell: I double majored in English. Um, I was like a very high achieving, you know, like I was one of those kids all straight A's and like was the 99% out on the SAT. Like, I was okay, all right. And like all of that sort of stuff. I was the kid who missed 140 days of school. Like, I we were very different teenagers.

[21:12] Marc Tumminelli: Different kids.

[21:13] Samantha Massell: Different kids. My graduation uh cake was a bear that said barely made it. Um, school is not for every theater kid, but I'm glad it was for you. It was funny, yeah.

[21:24] Marc Tumminelli: All right. So when is it true that you interned for Lin-Manuel Miranda?

[21:28] Samantha Massell: Yes, I did.

[21:29] Marc Tumminelli: Okay. So yeah, I did. Oh my god. What is that story? When did that happen?

[21:33] Samantha Massell: Um, so my senior year of high school, Hunter, as I said, is accelerated, like basically two years.

[21:39] Marc Tumminelli: We know Sam Hunter is an accelerated education program. Did you guys do musicals there before you got to Lin?

[21:45] Samantha Massell: What were your seats? Like, what were your musicals you did in high school? I always ask that question. We did um Edwin Drood. So random. We did Damn Yankees, we did Into the Woods, we did Grease. I did Grease when I was in eighth grade, and I was in the ensemble, and all the seniors were really mean to me. And then Sandy got sick, and I replaced her for two shows, and all the seniors were really nice to me. And then Sandy came back and they were mean to me again.

[22:07] Marc Tumminelli: Mean to me again. That's how never forget.

[22:11] Samantha Massell: Well, I think I'm missing some. Oh, we did Little Shop Before. So those were our musicals.

[22:15] Marc Tumminelli: All right, those are good shows. Okay, back to Lin. So, how did you wind up interning for Lin-Manuel Miranda?

[22:20] Samantha Massell: Well, to replace classes, they had an internship program, and kids would like go all over the city working for all sorts of different things. I had the woman who ran, I know like wasn't planning on doing it. And the woman who ran the program came up to me one day at the end of my junior year, and she was like, Lin-Manuel Miranda wants an intern. Like, do you know anyone who would do it? And I was like, what? Like, obviously, me. Um, so that was like in the heights was on Broadway at that point, I'm imagining.

[22:42] Samantha Massell: As in the heights was going from off Broadway to Broadway. So that was that to me. Um, so I helped out with all sorts of like little things. Like at one point I recorded some demos, and he was he told me the story once. He was like playing demos for Jeffrey Seller, and Jeffrey was like, Who's that singer? And he was like, You cast her when she was 12 and La Bohème. Oh my god, that's so weirdly full circle.

[22:56] Marc Tumminelli: So weirdly full circle. It's also has it been weird to watch that meteoric rise from the guy you knew who was like trying to get a show to Broadway to the most famous musical theater maker in the history of our lives?

[23:10] Samantha Massell: Um honestly no, because it makes such sense. And also anybody who knows him, like he's really he really is as fun and nice as he seems. Like it's not some sort of facade. Like he really is like, I sometimes would come over and be like, You want to order pizza and play guitar hero? And I was like, sure. Like sounds very creepy, but go ahead.

[23:28] Marc Tumminelli: No, oh my god, I know that I know people doing things, but like I don't know.

[23:31] Samantha Massell: Yeah, no, I get it. He it was like please take that out.

[23:35] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god. No, you have to keep it in so good.

[23:37] Samantha Massell: Yeah, I mean, it was just like it was just like he's so he's like a real person and like person, like he'll text me on my birthday, or like he's never he really is like a wonderful, he is he seems like one of those wonderful unicorns, and he is a wonderful unicorn.

[23:55] Marc Tumminelli: So you graduate from college, it's obviously you're gonna hit the ground running being like, you know, I'm sure did you get a new agent by the time you graduated high school or did you I mean college, or did you stay with Nancy?

[24:05] Samantha Massell: I switched it showcase. I mean, I also I very much wanted to like shed that sense of self. I love Nancy, like Nancy's family. Um, but it was important. Like, I I think I like I mentioned this to you over email, but like when I got to Michigan, like I remember there was like a Facebook group and it was like this is our class. Like, I didn't tell anybody I was on Broadway. Like I didn't want anyone to think I was special or I'd gotten in on any other, you know, like I just wanted to be like everyone else.

[24:33] Samantha Massell: And I was like, oh um, so I you know, I had like a few little connections, but I really wanted to start fresh and be seen as an adult.

[24:42] Samantha Massell: Um, and I think Michigan afforded me the opportunity to do that because I went away and I came back.

[24:46] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah, I don't think that would have happened if you had gone to Columbia and just stayed.

[24:49] Marc Tumminelli: It would have just been uh there's like a reset that happens for Broadway kids when they go away to school for four years.

[24:54] Samantha Massell: Yeah, and they get to kind of cook in a different way, um, where they're kind of not special.

[25:01] Samantha Massell: Um or they're only special within that group.

[25:04] Marc Tumminelli: So obviously you're starting again.

[25:06] Marc Tumminelli: How long was it between graduation and making your Broadway return in Fiddler on the Roof?

[25:10] Samantha Massell: You still call it my Broadway review.

[25:13] Samantha Massell: Um I booked it like two years after I graduated.

[25:19] Marc Tumminelli: All right.

[25:19] Marc Tumminelli: So what were those first two years like?

[25:21] Samantha Massell: Um I did like two Encore shows, which was really wonderful.

[25:24] Samantha Massell: Like that felt like a huge win for me.

[25:26] Samantha Massell: I'm a huge musical theater nerd.

[25:27] Samantha Massell: I'd grown up seeing Encores.

[25:28] Samantha Massell: Like I wrote I see your records behind you, which my audience can't see.

[25:33] Samantha Massell: But you know, it's like you got you got your fiddler, your funny girl, your baby, your follies, your sound of music albums, like all framed.

[25:39] Samantha Massell: I love it.

[25:40] Samantha Massell: You should see the full collection.

[25:41] Samantha Massell: Like, I'm a loser.

[25:42] Samantha Massell: I I like I loved like I wrote Jack Vertel a letter, and I was like, I just can't tell you how much it means to me to be a part of Encores.

[25:48] Samantha Massell: Like, I think that's like stuff like that.

[25:50] Samantha Massell: That sort of sense of institution meant a lot to me.

[25:52] Samantha Massell: Um, and then I um I booked Hunchback.

[25:55] Samantha Massell: So I went out to La Jolla Playhouse and I did that.

[25:57] Samantha Massell: We had like a week or three weeks, four weeks, I don't know.

[26:00] Samantha Massell: We some time off, and then we did it at Paper Mill, and then we didn't go to Broadway, and then like a month later, I booked Fiddler.

[26:04] Marc Tumminelli: All right.

[26:05] Marc Tumminelli: Well, I'm sure doing you know, Hunchback must have felt like a really big deal working with Steven Schwartz on sort of the creation of this new musical version, and you had a really nice role on that show.

[26:15] Samantha Massell: Um tell me a little bit about sort of creating uh that show.

[26:19] Samantha Massell: Hunchback was Hunchback was so cool.

[26:22] Samantha Massell: Um we had I feel like I sound like such a cheese ball, but it was really a great family in that we were in the Jolla Playhouse.

[26:29] Samantha Massell: Like, I think like right before I left, I had gone through like a really horrible breakup, and I remember like landing in San Diego, and I was like, oh like it just felt great.

[26:37] Samantha Massell: Um yeah, I loved the show.

[26:40] Samantha Massell: I love the music being in the room with Alan Mencken and Steven Schwartz.

[26:43] Samantha Massell: It's like it that's really an unbeatable duo.

[26:47] Samantha Massell: I was there with one of my best friends from college, Nora Mencken was in the show with me.

[26:51] Samantha Massell: Um, and they like miraculously like placed our apartments next to each other.

[26:54] Samantha Massell: So we were just like, we had a ball.

[26:57] Samantha Massell: All of this was a little bit before that like lab workshop contract where actors got a piece of the pie, but like we probably would have for this.

[27:03] Samantha Massell: Like all of the like gargoyles have specific names that are based on things that we created, and the solos are based on things that we created, and I was there to understudy Esmeralda, and then I had a featured role, and then I, you know, sang a bunch of yeah, I'm very easy to pick out on the album.

[27:17] Samantha Massell: I sound like a cutie little cherub.

[27:20] Marc Tumminelli: Um that created your relationship with Steven Schwartz, which we're gonna get to in a second.

[27:26] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[27:26] Marc Tumminelli: Um, but obviously, you know, it seems like it's working.

[27:30] Marc Tumminelli: Uh, did you have a moment where you're like, okay, I'm I'm here, I'm doing the thing that I set out to do.

[27:35] Marc Tumminelli: I'm a working actor and I'm an adult.

[27:37] Samantha Massell: It does feel different than being a kid, and it feels like to me, and we talk about it a lot on this podcast, is that the someone else checking the box as an adult and saying you're good enough still feels like a huge win to a child actor.

[27:51] Samantha Massell: I completely felt that.

[27:53] Samantha Massell: And I also felt like I was in a room of legends, like of real tastemakers.

[27:56] Samantha Massell: Like in college, I had worked at the Muni a lot, which was like a very coveted summer stock job, and I was like, I like loved being there, but like I always used to joke.

[28:03] Samantha Massell: Like, like I was always like casting the lame shows.

[28:05] Samantha Massell: Like I was in Kiss Me Kid, and like kids were in Beauty and the Beast and like little legally blonde.

[28:09] Samantha Massell: I was like, that's cool!

[28:10] Samantha Massell: Like I want to be in that.

[28:12] Samantha Massell: And I remember when I booked Hunchback, I was like, I got to be in the Disney show.

[28:15] Samantha Massell: Like that meant something to my early 90s childhood self.

[28:19] Samantha Massell: Um, yeah, it hunchback was to have those types of relationships with Alan and Steven and Michael Coseran and and the people at Disney, and like that felt and also the story was so special.

[28:30] Samantha Massell: Like 40 year old grown men were crying in the audience, and we were like, Okay, maybe we're doing something cool here.

[28:34] Marc Tumminelli: Like, did you have a hunchback connection?

[28:36] Marc Tumminelli: Like, where had you been obsessed with the movie, like as a kid, or I mean, like, I was I was of that age where all of those the films of that era were all a very big deal.

[28:46] Samantha Massell: Um, this was just I remember that audition, and I just remember being like, I could really get this.

[28:50] Samantha Massell: Like, this is they were looking for big classical people who could really sing classical, who could understudy Esmeralda.

[28:56] Samantha Massell: I was like, this could be something I could do really easily, and you did it.

[28:59] Samantha Massell: And I do it.

[29:00] Marc Tumminelli: Great, yeah.

[29:01] Marc Tumminelli: All right, let's check in on Fiddler.

[29:03] Marc Tumminelli: So you return back to the same theater that I love that like Samantha only plays the Broadway.

[29:10] Marc Tumminelli: It's very exciting.

[29:11] Marc Tumminelli: So to do Fiddler on the Roof, the last major revival.

[29:14] Marc Tumminelli: Tell me what it felt like to be back in that building, just as like from having been there as a kid.

[29:19] Samantha Massell: It was thrilling, it also hasn't changed at all.

[29:23] Samantha Massell: Um I hear the mold is really out of control over there at the Broadway.

[29:27] Samantha Massell: Um, we were also because of the way like dressing rooms shaped out, I was also on the same floor that I'd been in as a child.

[29:33] Samantha Massell: So like I had signed at the bottom of a dresser, and like that was still there, and like you could find it, and that was kind of cool.

[29:39] Samantha Massell: Um, it was amazing.

[29:41] Samantha Massell: I mean, to be a part of a show that iconic, that's like such a jewel box thing, as a Jewish American woman who grew up with this piece of theater culture, like so ingrained in my blood stream.

[29:58] Samantha Massell: Yeah, it doesn't make sense, but you know what I mean?

[30:00] Samantha Massell: Like this, it really felt like I it just felt it was amazing.

[30:04] Marc Tumminelli: And it was also your child, one of your two's childhood obsession shows.

[30:07] Marc Tumminelli: So yes, it must have felt like a very big moment.

[30:10] Samantha Massell: It was a very big moment.

[30:11] Samantha Massell: Yeah.

[30:12] Samantha Massell: I this is another one of those things.

[30:13] Samantha Massell: Like, I I remember when they announced that this was happening.

[30:16] Samantha Massell: I was like, oh my God, if I'm not in this, I will die.

[30:21] Samantha Massell: Um, and it was like the audition process.

[30:23] Samantha Massell: Like, I went in and like I was told I was probably gonna get a call back, but it took like two months, and apparently at one point they were like exploring using actual teenagers, and I just remember being like, This is not fair, okay?

[30:33] Samantha Massell: I ain't shot this, and now you're doing this backwards thing, and like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[30:38] Samantha Massell: Like um, and then I had a final call back, and they had like 15 women there for all three, and then two days later they brought in four women for the final three, and it was me, Melanie, and Alan, another woman for Seidel, and we didn't.

[30:51] Marc Tumminelli: And did they how did they tell you you got it?

[30:54] Samantha Massell: We did like a quick mix-in match.

[30:55] Samantha Massell: It was like me, Alan, Melanie, and then me, Melanie, and the other woman.

[30:58] Samantha Massell: So, like Melanie and I were like, Did we get it?

[31:03] Samantha Massell: Um Yeah, and then at one point they had the other woman who was up for settle, like sing the hodl songs.

[31:08] Samantha Massell: I think they were gonna make they were gonna offer her a cover.

[31:10] Samantha Massell: Um, who and she turned it down.

[31:12] Samantha Massell: But um, I remember we like finished for Sheldon and Sheldon went, Let's send him on the road.

[31:18] Samantha Massell: And we were like, Oh my god, like it's happening.

[31:18] Samantha Massell: Oh my god.

[31:22] Marc Tumminelli: And then I got a call from my agents that afternoon, and they're like, You're not gonna know.

[31:25] Marc Tumminelli: It was a Friday.

[31:25] Marc Tumminelli: They're like, You're not gonna know until the end of the weekend.

[31:29] Marc Tumminelli: So just like go have a nice night.

[31:30] Samantha Massell: And I was like, ugh.

[31:31] Samantha Massell: I didn't have a nice night until I know.

[31:31] Samantha Massell: Nice night.

[31:34] Samantha Massell: Um, and then at 5 p.m.

[31:35] Samantha Massell: I got a call, and they were like, just kidding, you bugged it.

[31:37] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, that must have felt so magical.

[31:40] Samantha Massell: It was very fun.

[31:41] Marc Tumminelli: Who's the first person you call when something like that happens?

[31:44] Samantha Massell: Um, I was living at home at the time, but my mom was on a trip.

[31:46] Samantha Massell: I think my mom was in, I don't remember my mom.

[31:48] Samantha Massell: So I FaceTimed my mom and I was like, I got the job, and that was oh, that is so awesome.

[31:52] Marc Tumminelli: So uh what was it like sort of doing this long magical run of you know, Fiddler, this big Broadway theater, starring Danny Burstein, who's the best we got.

[32:00] Samantha Massell: Yes.

[32:01] Samantha Massell: Um, it must have felt like a pretty special experience for you.

[32:05] Samantha Massell: It was an extremely special experience for me.

[32:07] Samantha Massell: I mean, that part feels so close to who I am in so many ways.

[32:11] Samantha Massell: Like, um, so that felt really great.

[32:13] Samantha Massell: It was also like a great learning experience for me of like how to do this and keep it fresh and stay in it.

[32:19] Samantha Massell: I also, I mean, like, I don't something I I look back on that experience and I feel like I learned a lot about post mortem is like how to not put an extraordinary amount of pressure on yourself, which is certainly something I did.

[32:31] Marc Tumminelli: Um so how do you avoid that in your next job?

[32:34] Samantha Massell: Do you know what I mean?

[32:36] Samantha Massell: You know, I think it's like a sense of trust and just knowing that you are enough.

[32:39] Samantha Massell: Like, I remember going from Fiddler, and then like a year later, I was doing Rags and I was like, I'm singing 16 songs in one night, and I just am trusting that I am like we're in Fiddler, you know, I would like I was like, I'm I have to sing the pretty song.

[32:50] Samantha Massell: I must be perfect.

[32:51] Samantha Massell: Like I had a sense of that for sure.

[32:53] Samantha Massell: Um, but I mean, that show doing Fiddler was like I was telling the story of my people.

[33:00] Samantha Massell: Um, Fiddler is set in the year that my family left Europe.

[33:03] Samantha Massell: Like it this it there's so much.

[33:05] Samantha Massell: It feels like it's your DNA.

[33:06] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[33:07] Samantha Massell: It feels like it's my DNA, and it was just like I can't really imagine a better show for me to have had this opportunity with.

[33:13] Samantha Massell: Like, I love the role, I love the piece.

[33:15] Samantha Massell: My favorite lyric of all time has always been playing with matches a girl can get burned.

[33:18] Samantha Massell: And like I there's just so many things of it that were just like, wow, this is the thing.

[33:24] Samantha Massell: It's the thing.

[33:25] Marc Tumminelli: Um, now obviously that show ran for a bit.

[33:28] Marc Tumminelli: You had a really nice run, it was very well received.

[33:32] Marc Tumminelli: Um, what is like the hard thing about trying to you know keep a this like eight show week in a show that people care a lot about?

[33:39] Samantha Massell: I imagine there is some the the dark side of fabulous.

[33:42] Samantha Massell: How hard is it to kind of keep that uh going in a three-hour musical that feels very heavy at times, and yeah, that's a that's a really great question.

[33:50] Samantha Massell: I mean, the dark side of Fabulous also was just like, and I think a lot of probably young women will say this about like the first time they had like a big crack at something is they felt an enormous amount of pressure to like be the best and like not the best in the company, but like be your best and like sound perfect and like have all those things.

[34:06] Samantha Massell: And I like I didn't quite know the the middle ground of like how to live to prepare for the show, but also not live like a nun.

[34:14] Samantha Massell: Like I just felt like I had to like do all the things and take all the vitamins and like be perfect, perfect, perfect.

[34:19] Samantha Massell: And like I don't even know what that means, but like that is like an anxiety I definitely had.

[34:23] Samantha Massell: Um I that's just that's just youth.

[34:26] Marc Tumminelli: That's just like yeah, yeah.

[34:29] Samantha Massell: Yeah, I I definitely started to learn that like my show would sort of like adjust every two weeks, like I would discover something new, which sort of kept things interesting.

[34:37] Samantha Massell: Um the show though, I mean, it never I'd be lying if I mean every actor will say this to you.

[34:43] Samantha Massell: Like, there are certainly nights where you're just like, oh, not denied.

[34:46] Samantha Massell: Like, I'm so tired.

[34:48] Samantha Massell: We've done 10 in a row, and like all I want is to get Matsabalsi with the diner.

[34:53] Samantha Massell: But like, um the show is the show is just so beautiful that like any moment you sort of have like that gets did dissipates.

[35:01] Samantha Massell: You kind of get to wash it away.

[35:03] Marc Tumminelli: Um, I want to jump to sort of this next really big moment for you, which was Rags.

[35:07] Marc Tumminelli: Um, which was a Broadway disaster originally, and um, you were involved in uh kind of recreating the lead role, which might as well be Fiddler part two, if you're unfamiliar with Rags, and um, you know, this this sort of new version of Rags that was workshopped and then presented at Goodspeed, and then everyone thought maybe it'd be coming in right away.

[35:30] Samantha Massell: So I just want to talk a little bit about that process um and what it was like to sort of re-dive into a show that has never historically worked.

[35:39] Samantha Massell: Yeah, honestly, so fascinating.

[35:42] Samantha Massell: I had you know, one thing I'll say as I profess this story is that like if any young actors are listening to this, like two pieces of advice are like help other actors, one and two, the only person who's gonna no one is gonna advocate for you better than you.

[35:59] Samantha Massell: Those are like two pieces of advice.

[36:01] Samantha Massell: I did a concert with Emily Page, and afterwards she was like, This is so random, but give me your contact information.

[36:08] Samantha Massell: And her, I think they were engaged at the time, Josh Young was he's like, I'm he's doing this reading of this thing.

[36:14] Samantha Massell: Um, he was like, they're looking for someone to replace Jesse Mueller, who had done it at roundabout when it was at that time a very different, it was just like a little bit edited, not the type of version of the show we did.

[36:24] Samantha Massell: Um, she's not available, they need someone for this Rags reading.

[36:28] Samantha Massell: And I was like, sure.

[36:29] Samantha Massell: And I gave my info um and she forwarded it on to the producer, and nothing ever happened.

[36:33] Samantha Massell: But that was just like someone just extended me a hand.

[36:36] Samantha Massell: Um, and I never forget that because we I think it's important to that, we do nice things like that.

[36:43] Samantha Massell: Um, anyway, I was like in a lesson with Joan later, and like I for some reason, like she pulled out the song Rags, and she was like, I mentioned that I heard of this reading, and she was like, You should email Steven.

[36:54] Samantha Massell: And I was like, No, I can't. Like, I'm afraid. Even though like Steven had been nothing, like there's a huge solo I sing in Hunchback that like was supposed to be with the choir. And at one point he was like, Give it to Sam. And like, that's like my big thing on the album. Is like I sing this Latin thing. Like, he was like an advocate for me in that room. And I just I emailed him and I was like, Hi Steven, I hear you're doing this. I was like, I think I might be very right for this job for this role. I never do this. Here is my resume and headshot. I'm with these people. And he was like, I think you're very right for this too. Thank you so much for emailing me. He was like, You put this idea in my mind.

And he set me up with an appointment, and it was for Rebecca because in their version that they were they call it revisal, um, they had aged down the role like 20 years. Um, or I guess like 10 years, I don't know. But she was supposed to be in her late 20s, and I was like, Rebecca, wow. And Rebecca in the revisal also sings the title song. Um, because it's been very rewritten. Oh, I know. I saw it in London. The um God love to talk about that. I'm happy to. It was maybe one of the worst things I've ever seen in my whole life. But that's aside. I love rags. I was in it as a kid, I was in the Long Island premiere of Rags. Don't ask for my autograph too quickly, but uh it was I it was really a magical experience for me as a kid, and I feel like people who have done rags have that same experience every time that it's just like it feels really special to be in.

And maybe it's because it's this broken piece of art. I don't know. It feels like you're a part of like a cult, like you're part of like a the weird like niche theater history thing. Like I feel like it would feel the same as like being in Carrie. Um, yeah, so I went in and then they kept three of us to sing for Charles and Steven, and then I got the job through the reading, and they made me like do the reading, and then they were like, Do you want to come to this thing at Good Speed? And when I say the show was brand new, I mean like if you were familiar with the Broadway cast recording, you would be very surprised. Like there was a moment like when we were at Goodspeed, like Steven wrote me a new song.

Like we were Steven always said, like, because people had always for years been like, let's try the rags again. And like, and Steven, they would like he calls it rearranging the deck chairs. He'd be like, I'll put this number here and this number here. And when Goodspeed reached out about working on this, I guess he was like, I'm happy to do it, but I do not want to rearrange the deck chairs. I want to redo rebuild the boat. Rebuild the boat. Um, yeah, so we did it at Goodspeed, and that girl who dropped out of Lab OM, they were like looking for someone to play Bella, and I was like, You gotta hire Sarah Kapner, and we taped her and she ended up getting it. So we we did the show together. And actually, Oh my god, that's so cool.

That's a great story. Like crazy. I was like, I emailed the casting director of um Lab OM, who's still a Telsey, and I was like, You don't remember this, but like you cast both of us. She dropped out when we were children, and now we're best friends and we're doing another show together. And I sent her a picture and she was like, Oh my god. Seems like in the last couple of years, you've been doing a lot of film and TV stuff, and it feels like maybe your career is moving in that way. Is that like on purpose? Is that because of you know COVID? Is that because tell me where where we're going, Sam?

[39:55] Samantha Massell: Yeah, honestly, like when I think about what I want to be doing, and this is you know lofty, it's like I really I just really want to be a working actor. Like, I want to work, I love working on television. I've worked very hard to like flex that muscle. Like, I've you know, that was that was like a big thing for me to over. I mean, like after Rags, like I feel like I came back, or maybe before Rags, like I just started like, I was like taking every class and like do-da-da-da-da, and like really getting in, and that's when I just started having the bookings happen. Um, but I just wasn't practicing that because that wasn't something I was taught, and it really is very different. Um I what I mean, I really want to do that, and I I really like the Rags experience taught me this.

Like, I really like having a seat at the table. Um, like doing flamingo kid, like I wanna be out of town crafting roles and and being a part of the development of a show. That to me is what's very exciting.

[40:45] Marc Tumminelli: Yeah.

[40:46] Samantha Massell: It's not to say, like, I obviously like I'm a huge revival freak, like I would love to be in some big thing like that. But like I really do, I love that experience. I love it.

[40:57] Marc Tumminelli: Um, you are such a delight. What is there anything coming up that's next for you that you're excited about? Is there a concert? I've seen you at 54 Below, you're a wonderful concert artist. You have such a gorgeous voice. What are you working on anything like that? Is there anything coming up for you that we can plug here?

[41:12] Samantha Massell: Um sort of. Um, I this so speaking of like wanting to have a seat at the table. Um, I'm gonna plug my friend's show. My friend um, one of my best friends, um, she's the winner of this year's Billy Burke Ziegfeld Award. Um, she's a musical theater composer, and she's written an extraordinary piece of theater called Double Helix, which we just were able to do a reading of, and um, I think it's gonna have some big legs. Um, but double helix tells the story of Rosalind Franklin. Do you know about this?

[41:35] Marc Tumminelli: No.

[41:36] Samantha Massell: This is when you when I tell you, you're literally gonna be like, okay, listen, listen in, pop up the volume, listeners. So at the end of World War II, there was like a big, like, I'm gonna call it like an arms race among scientific institutions around the world to discover the structure of DNA, which is considered the greatest scientific discovery of our time, period, like end of sentence. Um, and this young woman, Rosalind Franklin, was an X-ray crystallographer, which it's gonna take me too long to explain, but she's a big science lady. Um, and she was in a man's world, and she was brought to King's College in London to work on deoxyribose nucleic acid, DNA. Um, and basically she was treated horribly by her male colleagues, and like she was just like a woman who just like wanted to do her work, and she takes a photo called Photograph 51, and it shows the structure to be a helix, and her lab partner takes it and gives it to Watson and Crick, and they go on to win the Nobel Prize and she never finds out.

[42:28] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god.

[42:28] Samantha Massell: So Madeline is writing a musical about the discovery of the structure of DNA and Rosalind Franklin's piece in the story, which has really been left out of the dominant cultural narrative of how we know this came to be.

[42:37] Marc Tumminelli: Do you play that part?

[42:39] Samantha Massell: I do, and I've been doing it since like I we I've been doing it like since she came up with the idea. Like it's a very um anyway. It's really an exceptional. I feel like one thing I really treasure about it is like no one is writing like this anymore. She's writing like in a classical, I was saying Adam Gettles-esque style.

[42:54] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, I'm into that. Is that happening somewhere? Is there gonna be a record? Like when when can we see that?

[43:00] Samantha Massell: Um, when I think the earliest you'll see it on a stage stage, it'll probably be in a year and a half. Um, but the development process kicked off with a real bang. We're very excited about it. It's a it's really it's a piece that's like very of the moment and it's it's sung through. It's just it's something really special. So I just try and plug it everywhere you can.

[43:19] Marc Tumminelli: Yes. We're I've love hearing it first here. Um, we are gonna do the Brahmi Workshop Quick Fire Questions. Are you ready?

[43:25] Samantha Massell: I've first audition song.

[43:29] Marc Tumminelli: Probably tomorrow.

[43:30] Samantha Massell: It's a gem, isn't it?

[43:32] Marc Tumminelli: All right. Do uh people ever confuse you or call you Samantha Miss Sally, Alyssa Milano's character on who's the boss.

[43:40] Samantha Massell: Wait, oh my god, I didn't know that.

[43:43] Marc Tumminelli: What?

[43:44] Samantha Massell: That's all like anytime I see your name, I'm like, oh, Samantha Massell, which is Alyssa Milano's character, and who's the boss.

[43:51] Marc Tumminelli: I did not know that.

[43:52] Samantha Massell: No, just add a why.

[43:55] Marc Tumminelli: But people do always say Samantha Nassel, and I'm like, no.

[43:58] Samantha Massell: I mean, I may have thought that's what it was.

[44:00] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[44:00] Samantha Massell: No, it's fine.

[44:01] Marc Tumminelli: Miss Nelly.

[44:01] Samantha Massell: Yeah.

[44:02] Marc Tumminelli: I got it right.

[44:03] Samantha Massell: Um, artists you'd like to work with that you haven't.

[44:06] Samantha Massell: I mean, Stevens on time. Laura Bonante is my literal number one hero. I'm obsessed.

[44:10] Marc Tumminelli: Isn't she the greatest?

[44:12] Samantha Massell: Um, okay. What show would you like to do with Patty Lapone that's not gypsy?

[44:15] Samantha Massell: Damn it. You took I was gonna be like Gypsy and replace Laura Benante.

[44:20] Marc Tumminelli: Um, honestly, just like sign me up to be Patty Lapone's kid in literally anything. I'm a Patty Le Pone and Laura Bonante freak.

[44:25] Samantha Massell: Yes.

[44:26] Marc Tumminelli: Um, what is your go-to album for a car trip?

[44:29] Samantha Massell: Hmm.

[44:33] Samantha Massell: I honestly my mom and I feel like we always used to listen to um The Inch of the Woods with Laura Bonanti, and I would sing all the parts. And now my boyfriend, he's like, listen, listen to NFL radio, and I'm like, please.

[44:46] Marc Tumminelli: Um, can you name two real housewives?

[44:52] Samantha Massell: Ramona and Blue Ann?

[44:59] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, great.

[45:00] Samantha Massell: Okay, so you do not watch real housewives.

[45:02] Marc Tumminelli: Um did you see Linda Edder and Jekyll Hyde?

[45:05] Samantha Massell: No, but I love that voice.

[45:07] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, favorite.

[45:09] Samantha Massell: Um, do you do any impressions?

[45:12] Samantha Massell: You maybe.

[45:14] Marc Tumminelli: What's gonna help you?

[45:15] Samantha Massell: You're gonna like do it.

[45:15] Marc Tumminelli: Do I have to do it?

[45:16] Samantha Massell: You should do it.

[45:17] Marc Tumminelli: Okay, great.

[45:18] Samantha Massell: Okay, or Hama Mulns Fanal Family's normal that's lovely hands or for Datson.

[45:26] Marc Tumminelli: God, that is really good.

[45:27] Samantha Massell: Thank you.

[45:28] Marc Tumminelli: I can also do Audrey McDonald's singinging My Stupid Mouth by John Mayer, but we'll save that for a rainy day.

[45:32] Samantha Massell: Oh no, I'm gonna do that when we hang up.

[45:35] Marc Tumminelli: If you could pick your own name, what would it have been?

[45:38] Samantha Massell: As a child, I literally was like, Why is my name Black Crystal?

[45:42] Marc Tumminelli: Crystal.

[45:43] Samantha Massell: Um, okay.

[45:45] Samantha Massell: Most memorable performance you have ever seen.

[45:48] Samantha Massell: Patty Lamone Laura.

[45:50] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, you're exhausting.

[45:52] Samantha Massell: I was telling you. I was in Gypsy with Patty LePone in Chicago before Broadway. We all got fired.

[45:58] Marc Tumminelli: Um, yeah, it's a it's a wonderful memory.

[46:02] Samantha Massell: Oh god, I'm so sorry.

[46:03] Marc Tumminelli: Not only am I repetitive.

[46:05] Samantha Massell: No, it's okay.

[46:05] Marc Tumminelli: It was great.

[46:06] Samantha Massell: It was a great, it was a great time. I literally had I done that show on Broadway, I wouldn't be doing a single thing I'm doing now.

[46:11] Marc Tumminelli: Um, what is your favorite smell?

[46:15] Samantha Massell: Ooh, I had a candle that was discontinued, and I think about it all the time, and it was charcoal and sage.

[46:20] Marc Tumminelli: Okay.

[46:21] Samantha Massell: Um, are you into true crime? And if so, what crime would you like to have solved?

[46:26] Samantha Massell: Um, God, I don't know if I'm into I like I love those documentaries, but I don't know if I'm like, Oh, wait, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[46:33] Samantha Massell: Oh, God, the girl who was robbed on the beach. Was it in Portugal? There was a huge documentary on Netflix, and I was like, I'm gonna solve this.

[46:41] Marc Tumminelli: All right. What's her name?

[46:43] Samantha Massell: Huge famousness and child case.

[46:44] Samantha Massell: Oh, Madeline McCain.

[46:46] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my god, like what happened to her?

[46:48] Samantha Massell: What happened? I think we are gonna find out very soon. I think things are yeah, we can talk about it later.

[46:54] Samantha Massell: Um, I should really have a true crime podcast.

[46:57] Samantha Massell: Um, have you sung Metal Lark Alone in your room?

[47:00] Samantha Massell: Of course.

[47:01] Marc Tumminelli: Great.

[47:02] Samantha Massell: Last Broadway show you saw?

[47:04] Samantha Massell: Um, I just saw my friend Anna in Chicago.

[47:08] Marc Tumminelli: Awesome.

[47:08] Samantha Massell: What movie can you watch over and over again?

[47:12] Samantha Massell: You've got mail.

[47:13] Marc Tumminelli: And what advice do you have for young actors?

[47:17] Samantha Massell: Stay in your lane, focus on your work. Don't watch the people around you. I know I sound like such a Michigan graduate. That's what everybody says. Um, but also um try as much as you can to learn about the world.

[47:28] Marc Tumminelli: Yes.

[47:29] Samantha Massell: Sam, tell the people where they can follow you and find out what you're up to and when we can see a musical about DNA.

[47:36] Samantha Massell: You can follow me on Instagram at at S M A S S E L L Sings.

[47:42] Marc Tumminelli: Smithell sings.

[47:44] Samantha Massell: I will do that today. And then I'm on Twitter and I guess all the other things. I don't know what TikTok is yet.

[47:47] Marc Tumminelli: I I can't, I can't figure it out. I'm too old.

[47:49] Samantha Massell: You're much younger than me.

[47:53] Marc Tumminelli: You should be able to have no problem with this.

[47:55] Samantha Massell: No, honestly, when we were doing Fiddler, they were like, can you guys do a Snapchat takeover? And Al Silber and I were like, Oh, what?

[47:59] Marc Tumminelli: Oh, what?

[48:00] Samantha Massell: They had to send us a handbook.

[48:02] Marc Tumminelli: Oh my God, that is amazing.

[48:04] Samantha Massell: Um, Samantha, thank you for taking the time today. It was so fun to hear your Broadway story. I hope that you had a good time telling it.

[48:11] Samantha Massell: I had the best time. This was actually such a treat. I never talk about this, and I it was a treat. So thank you.

[48:16] Marc Tumminelli: Well, it's on record now, always here at the Little Me Podcast. Friends, thank you so much for listening. If you're enjoying the LITTLE ME podcast, make sure to subscribe and rate and give me a five-star review. Also, it's fine if you don't, and follow me at Marc Tumminelli on Instagram and follow me podcast at LittleMePodcast. Sam, we'll see you soon.

[48:19] Samantha Massell: Thank you so much.

[48:35] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you.

[48:36] Samantha Massell: Bye.

[48:39] Marc Tumminelli: Thank you, listeners. This podcast is produced by Alan Seals, Dory Berenstein, and the Broadway Podcast Network and edited by Derek Gunther. For more information on the LITTLE ME podcast, go to bpn.fm slash little me. And follow me on Instagram at Marc Tumminelli or on Twitter at that to Minelli. And for more information on workshops, classes, and everything Broadway Workshop, go to BroadwayWorkshop.com. Thank you for listening.