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[0:00] Sam Gravitte: And glitz and glamour of it all.

[0:02] Robert Bannon: Yeah.

[0:02] Sam Gravitte: I'm sort of genetically doomed, I like to say.

[0:08] Robert Bannon: Is there a moment where you said, like, I'm going in the family business? You remember the moment that happened?

[0:14] Sam Gravitte: I do. I well, there's sort of two chapters to that. Let's dive right in. Why don't you but my parents were super deliberate about sort of no child acting, so they didn't want me doing any professional work as a kid, but that's because I was so busy doing other stuff. I was playing all the sports. I was a good student, so I was really sort of into my books. But in fifth grade, you know, the first opportunity arose and we did the school musical and it was Oklahoma, and I got to play Curly, and it was really remarkable. The man who ran that program was a man named Glenn Le Becken, and like every fourth and fifth grader in the entire school got involved. There were like a hundred kids on stage, so many kids backstage and building sets and doing and it was really just like beautiful collective effort.

Um, but I got to lead that company, and in fifth grade, my precocious little 11-year-old self was like, Mother, it's over, I'm gonna be an actor. And she said, Oh no. But really, it was sort of like after that I knew what I wanted to do. And I also grew up in this town where a lot of kids' parents were commuting to the city to do finance or other sort of corporate stuff, and my mom was like flying to London to sing with a symphony orchestra. And I was like, Well, that version of life seems to just tug at me a little bit more. Um, and then in seventh grade, this is actually a story that I'm gonna tell. I have a show, a solo show that I do. Um, and I'm going up to P Town on July 6th to do this show, which is really exciting with the amazing John McDaniel as music director. But um, and I've never been to P Town, so I'm very excited about that.

[2:07] Robert Bannon: Yeah, really? What are you doing?

[2:11] Sam Gravitte: What am I doing? I'm such a bad gay on this pride. Like, I don't, I've never been to Fire Island, I've never been to P Town. I failed.

[2:19] Robert Bannon: Well, now you have two excuses. You can come see Beautiful at the Cape Playhouse, and you can come up to P Town on July 6th.

[2:26] Sam Gravitte: Um, I love it.

[2:27] Robert Bannon: Yes, you have a solo show done it.

[2:31] Sam Gravitte: I do, I do. And I so I did this at Birdland, but I tell the story about how there was this big white armoire in our living room growing up, and it housed all of the music. And we one day we were sort of, it was around Christmas time, and we went to sort of pull out all the Christmas music, and for some reason we started rifling through all the old records and music that our parents had, and like you know, just running into memories everywhere left and right. And my parents pulled out this two-disc set, and they said, Oh my god, we used to play this for you guys when you were kids, like in the crib, and they went to this very specific track, and this key change happened, and it went uh exploring things you'd never dare because you don't care when suddenly there's a big tall terrible giant, and my like time froze.

My body like had this somatic memory of hearing that as a kid, and though, like sort of my mind hadn't remembered it, my body did, and I became obsessed with this idea that music could have this power and this sort of it like leave this residue in me. And the next week I knew every word to Into the Woods, and it was the beginning of the end. I like I my iTunes library just became 70 show tune CDs, and that was that was where the doom really started.

[4:02] Robert Bannon: That's fascinating. It lives in you, it's like a muscle memory. You just you're about instinctively new.

[4:08] Sam Gravitte: Well, yeah, you are as charismatic and your voice is as gorgeous as ever. It is uh and true. Sings down and up and down, and shout out to your mom because your mom does the Steven Eti show with with Steve Lawrence and Edie's son.

[4:23] Robert Bannon: That is so fan freaking tastic. And I have such memories of like thinking about as a kid, my little Italian grandmother playing Steven Eti records. So when I see your your mom's show, and that it's those memories like of being five years old singing, yeah. It just lives. So shout out to your mom, she's a superstar.

[4:41] Sam Gravitte: That was a my mom recently did that show with David Lawrence at Carnegie Hall, and that was just a couple months ago, and it was really it was one of those moments where as now, like as an adult, to be able to appreciate what both my parents do and what my mom does through a different lens, having you know done it or to a certain extent, and and and having a new relationship to the work. That was such a magical night to see her shine up there and to really have that perspective like that's my mom. That's so insane. It's it's so insane. It's it's never lost on me how um how lucky I am and how grateful I am to have them.

[5:24] Robert Bannon: Yeah. Well, and we're grateful to have you and the work that you do. Many of you have seen you uh over uh in Wicked and have done seen you do your other performances, your shows, your solo show. How does a show like Beautiful come to you? What was your journey to be a part of this season at the Cape?

[5:41] Sam Gravitte: Totally. Beautiful was sort of the old fashioned story of it. It was an audition that landed in my inbox. And I I didn't, you know, it's funny because Beautiful is a show that's been done 400 times over the last couple of years across the country. And everyone loves the show. And on the inside now, you you I understand why, but I have never been part of any incarnation of it. I saw it once, I think it was 2018. I saw Abby Mueller do it on Broadway, and she was unbelievable. Um, but beyond that, I don't I didn't really have a relationship to the show. So I went in and I did the scene work and I did the songs and it felt good, and I got a call that I was uh gonna be able to do it. And it's been it's been so wonderful.

And this company, it's funny because of that phenomenon that I named, where so many people have done it before. I am one of their, I think there are 18 members of the cast. I am one of three of us who have never done the show. Everyone else has done one, two, three, four iterations of it. So it's sort of fun. I'm the only principal who's never done it. So you're sort of it's sort of a frying pan fire situation, which I love because I get to be the sort of disruptor in the room. I get to to have the questions and the ideas, and our director David Rutura and choreographer Joyce have have been super receptive to all of that and have let me sort of play within the bounds of the play and I have to say that I just feel wildly grateful to be in this with with the incredible Julia Nitel who's who's playing Carol.

She is just everything you want to see in partner she sounds unbelievable and I I really think it's it's a special show and and I hope that folks can come enjoy it up at the Cape Playhouse what what a beautiful place to come see theater.

[7:38] Robert Bannon: What a beautiful place to come see their 98th season. Crazy crazy tickets at CapePlayhouse.com right now we're talking July 10th to August 3rd is your chance so if you have a summer vacation you have a free weekend you can chance Beautiful over up at the at the Cape.

[7:43] Sam Gravitte: Yes I hope you guys are watching this because we have graphics right now there are graphics graphics.

[8:02] Robert Bannon: We tried look you can follow Sam on IG at Sam Gravitte go right now and follow wait I gotta there it is there you go see it's it follow it takes a it's just taking a lot of shows to know which thing which hands and which way to point all of that stuff.

[8:17] Sam Gravitte: Your co-star you were talking about Julia, she's iconically been Carol King on Broadway and and all of that stuff. So what is it like when you all get in a room and sing these songs that are all a part of the American, they're the great American songbook of the time.

[8:32] Sam Gravitte: Totally. I think and I think what's fun about the show the sort of gift of the show to the audience I think what would most folks have walked away from the show with and will walk away from the show is like oh my god they wrote that. So it's sort of out of this era of these like song factories where where artists weren't writing as much of their own tunes, but this this team of of Carol King and Jerry Goffin, who's the character that I play, wrote these iconic songs. The natural woman that Aretha Franklin made famous, they wrote Up on the Roof that by the Drifters and and uh Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and and You've Got a Friend, and all of these songs that have such staying power in the culture, but in so many different voices, and the it was it was a really fertile collaboration, and then you know the personal life gets a little tricky, which is where the drama lives inside the show.

So come for the drama, stay for the songs, but it's it's it's been it is truly remarkable to discover this uh this this period of time in American music, sort of at the beginning of rock, uh, how it uh it interacts with with Dylan and the and the Beatles and the Supremes and those sorts of groups, and and then um you know, out of a building in Times Square, you have Jerry Goffin and Carol King and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil writing some of the most famous songs of all time.

[10:06] Sam Gravitte: All time. I mean, and he that I think Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is maybe the most beautiful pop song ever written, ever.

[10:13] Robert Bannon: And the arrangement in the show is so gorgeous.

[10:16] Sam Gravitte: It is and Robert, you know, you played Jerry, and like you alluded to spoiler alert, folks, not super nice husband.

[10:25] Robert Bannon: Jerry had some stuff going on.

[10:29] Sam Gravitte: Jerry had some stuff going on for sure. Not this, but their relationship and the way that she speaks of him for the rest of her life to this day, is about their partnership and about the magic that they were able to create.

[10:41] Robert Bannon: Um, as well. So you gotta, if you haven't seen the show or you've not seen this version or you haven't seen it in a while, that's why you need to see it. And then Sam's bringing a whole new genuse qua to Jerry Goffin out there at the Cape because he's never so come and look, and you can say qua.

[10:57] Sam Gravitte: And you could it's a bullhead who push out.

[11:01] Robert Bannon: So what is it like when you go, you know, come you're in New York, you do Broadway, you're Bad Birdland, you're doing shows, you put together other shows and other cabarets and other, but when you go somewhere outside of New York, especially like somewhere like the Cape, where there's not as big of a theater community, they're starving for art. So, what is it like to see the people to be in the audience when you're not in this tri-state area that we call New York?

[11:28] Sam Gravitte: Totally. I will I think what you learn is sort of every audience breathes differently, and I think the sort of fun part as an actor in those situations is to sort of learn because that's that's the final relationship of the show is is when you're on stage doing anything. It's it's what that relationship is so active, and it's it's actually the last piece of the puzzle. You don't get to do it until you have an invited dress or or a preview or an opening, and that's the most exciting thing. So it's it's you know, I was down in Houston last year, and I did I did this beautiful production of Sweeney Todd, um, and that's a really specific audience, and then I think going up to the Cape, I'm I'm really excited to sort of learn how they react up there and how they breathe up there, and of course it's it's dependent on the show, and I think Beautiful has this sort of wonderful qualities, this sort of universal valence where everyone has a way in because of their relationship to the music and um you know I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of like you know, you hear two chords and hear the audience go oh there's a lot of that um but yeah I think I think it's fun it's it's it's a nice um I the the amazing Eric Rosen has just taken over as artistic director up at the Cape Playhouse and he's um I think doing a wonderful job sort of shepherding um with the playhouse into their 100th season and and uh he I think has this great gift of understanding New York as as someone who lives here but also um the sort of uh how a regional theater can can live and breathe and and uh fill a need in those communities and uh I'm excited to be a part of that.

[13:22] Robert Bannon: Absolutely so if you're there million dollar quartet waitress 39 steps they have a full big old season this so when when you're up there make sure you support art and theater wherever wherever you're going to be and the vacationing of it all you're gonna be with John McD coming up next week Jul July 6th it's on Saturday.

[13:41] Sam Gravitte: Saturday so what is Sam how do you build a a cabaret show like what what is your set list like what is an evening with Sam Gravitte like so this show is uh it's a riff on the show that I did at Birdland in uh March of 2022 it would have been uh which was a show that I put together called Songs That Raised Me. So it does have these sort of callbacks to what we were talking about in terms of how I was raised and uh my my family history, my my way in to this way of being.

[14:14] Robert Bannon: Um why it's not my fault.

[14:16] Sam Gravitte: Uh but I it's also fun going up to a place like like P Town because you uh what I've been telling my friends is like you sort of get to sing some of those songs that you you would never sing in New York. So like I'm gonna do out there, don't tell anyone. I'm gonna sing being alive, don't tell anyone. But like those sorts of songs that are like, you know, they're in my book, but I would probably like you know, it's it's those everyone's done them. So but you get to collaborate with with a genius like John McDaniel and put an evening like that together. I have a I I play the guitar as well, so I have a couple of um guitar arrangements of songs that I'm proud of. I do a no one is alone, which is an arrangement that I did originally over the pandemic, uh when um an organization asked me to be a part of their sort of pandemic gala.

I do uh a jazzy arrangement of uh I could have danced all night. Um so yeah, that it's it I think it's a fun program. You get to learn a little bit about me, you get to hear some songs that you love, hopefully, and some songs that you didn't know, hopefully. Um, and then yeah, there might be an homage or two to two one Debbie Gravitte.

[15:26] Robert Bannon: We want it, we need it. Most of us in this business are doing an homage to Debbie Gravitte. I mean, she is late whether you know it or not.

[15:36] Sam Gravitte: Right, you know, that's the truth. I I think I think us in New York needs to hear you sing out there. Come on, that is a beast.

[15:43] Robert Bannon: I'm ready for it. I'm sure we can find the information at your Instagram page that you can get your tickets if you're gonna be up uh in P Town. And John McD plays for everybody and his play. I mean, he raised a whole generation of theater people on television himself, and his work is bananas. Um, so that's gonna be super a super fun time.

[16:01] Sam Gravitte: How do you balance all of this, Sam? How do you balance the auditions and the work? And I'm in New York and I'm on the Cape and I'm doing shows and I'm trying to have a life. Like, is there a trick?

[16:12] Sam Gravitte: No, I I have always been a person who uh if you want if you want something done, give it to a busy person, is sort of the way that I have always operated. Uh I was a college athlete, so I went to Princeton and played lacrosse there and was like doing um I was and it truly was the moment of my life where I felt like the most capital P productive because I would wake up, I would go to class, I would do some work, I'd go to lacrosse practice, I'd get a lift in, and then I'd like go to a rehearsal and do some more work. And you could put your pill your head on the pillow at the end of the day and be like, wow, that was a productive day. So I think I'm sort of chasing that um feeling in in my life ever since.

And uh I'm also a writer, I'm a I'm a I'm a playwright, and I just did a workshop of a play of mine a couple weeks ago. I was I was uh lucky enough to have the joy of producing the relaunch of Pride Plays with the incredible Sammy Lopez, the festival that was founded by Michael Yurian, Doug Nevin, and Nick Mayo in 2019. So we just had that event on the 24th. And it's been really fun to have sort of all these balls uh in the air. And and I that's when I feel like everything's sort of buzzing and and starting to like things are catenating, and when I feel the best. So it is for me the the moments of like la la la la la, what's next? Where I feel untethered. But I think the the balancing act is like the more plates I have up there somehow, the the more relaxed I become.

[17:49] Robert Bannon: I get it's a disease. I understand.

[17:50] Sam Gravitte: I get it. I'm like, okay, we're gonna sing, then we'll do eight interviews, and then I'll teach fifth grade. I get Sam, why? Why can't look the I was still stuck on I'm on the lacrosse team doing a lift at Princeton and then being in a performance and then doing having good grades at Princeton. You know, and then you just leave Princeton, you book a Broadway gig, you're a Broadway leading man. You know, Sam, you're the kind of person that other actors are like. He has no body fat, he's on Broadway. What the hell, Sam Gravitte?

[18:23] Sam Gravitte: Well, you get a really great therapist. Shout out to Michael, so important. But no, I've I've been I've been really lucky to be supported by some really uh incredible people along the way, and that's that's uh always been a major part of it, is is is the folks who champion you. So you know, I just hope I can keep building and and I'm so grateful to be a part of this community and in in any capacity.

[18:47] Robert Bannon: Well, I I can't wait to see you do your show either. Uh if it's up at P Town, if it's in New York City, if it's anywhere, wherever you see Sam is gonna be, you better check out the show. I need to, you know, your show was up the pictures, the people, like I why wasn't I there? I I promise I'm pinky swear right now that your next show, Pinky Swear, right? I will be there, ready.

[19:09] Sam Gravitte: I I'm ready, I'm so excited.

[19:11] Robert Bannon: I will hold you to it. I I promise, I promise. And then my my my husband, my fiance, he he says to me, Don't you go on your show and you promise people you're gonna go to their show, and then no, I swear I I'm not Sam, I'm gonna be there.

[19:26] Sam Gravitte: Okay, well, you have an audience who's gonna hold you accountable. So that's why I had to say it.

[19:30] Robert Bannon: No, I really your voice is so beautiful. Your humanity is so he's the nicest person, everybody. He's he's as sweet as can be. And that's why you gotta go check him out wherever he's gonna be. Follow Sam on Instagram. Go to Cape Playhouse.com. The show is running. You open soon next week.

[19:47] Sam Gravitte: Open in five minutes.

[19:49] Robert Bannon: July 10th to August 3rd. So you only have a couple of weeks to see it. So you better make your plans. And if you're going up to the Cape or anywhere in the neighborhood, make sure you head on down and check out the show 98th season over at the Cape Playhouse. I'm so happy to see you. I was so excited to talk to you, friend. I appreciate you so much. You're you're a class act.

[20:06] Sam Gravitte: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

[20:07] Robert Bannon: Anytime you're.