This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Alan Seales: Welcome to The Theatre Podcast, intimate personal conversations with theatre's biggest names. I am your host, Alan Seales, and you are listening to the Broadway Podcast Network. This episode is with Samuel H. Levine, who is currently starring in The Inheritance. This is a young guy thrust into a play about a serious topic from another generation. He's only 24. And we talk about this in the episode. It's amazing how he adapted so quickly and we get in the conversation. It forced him to grow up a lot, actually, and being in his early 20s and dealing with the topic of the show, which is gay culture and gay history and being a straight man himself, opened him up to a whole bunch of emotions and connections and things with the same-sex individuals in his show that he was saying he might not otherwise have.

And it was a great chat, an amazing interview. He's a very deep guy and this show is just, it's made for him. So, before we get into this, as always, please visit me online at thetheatrepodcast.com. Support the podcast via thetheatrepodcast.com slash Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N. Connect with me on Instagram and Twitter, theater underscore podcast. Leave a rating, leave a review. I love to read those. And now, everybody, please enjoy this episode with Samuel H. Levine.

[1:39] Alan Seales: My guest today is making his Broadway debut, currently starring in the production of The Inheritance. He was last seen performing in the same production of The Inheritance, only on the West End out in London, which won the Olivier Award for Best New Play. He just wrapped shooting a feature film alongside Jennifer Lawrence that currently has no name. We'll just call it The Untitled Lila Neugebauer Movie. Oh gosh, for those listening, I've redone this like four times, because that's a hard name. He can even be seen on TV in the CBS productions of Instinct, Bull, and Elementary. Samuel H. Levine, welcome to The Theatre Podcast.

[2:15] Samuel H. Levine: What's up? Good to be here.

[2:17] Alan Seales: Otherwise known as Sam.

[2:19] Samuel H. Levine: Sam, yes, Sam I am.

[2:20] Alan Seales: Yeah, I guess Sam Levine is probably a more common name.

[2:24] Samuel H. Levine: Okay, so there's a legendary stage actor called Sam Levine, who I believe was in Guys and Dolls, like the original production.

[2:31] Alan Seales: And then there's also Sam Levine, Sam with two M's.

[2:41] Samuel H. Levine: Sam who is on Freaks and Geeks.

[2:44] Alan Seales: Oh, right.

[2:45] Samuel H. Levine: Yes, so when it came time for me to find a name, I could not have my own name. So I went with Samuel H. Levine.

[2:54] Alan Seales: Is H real?

[2:55] Samuel H. Levine: H is super real. It's for Henry.

[2:57] Alan Seales: Henry, yeah.

[2:59] Samuel H. Levine: I one day was playing around with like, what should my stage name, if I was going to be like, Alan Seals, and I was like...

[3:06] Alan Seales: That's a good name.

[3:07] Samuel H. Levine: My middle name is Delos, which is, it's Greek, and it's like the island that Apollo was born on.

[3:14] Alan Seales: That's pretty epic.

[3:14] Samuel H. Levine: You know, it's pretty cool. But I was like, some people say in Greek mythology, actually in the Iliad, it's pronounced Delos.

[3:20] Alan Seales: Delos.

[3:21] Samuel H. Levine: But I didn't want to, I wanted something easier. So I was like, oh, Alan Scott Smith, Alan something, but then my initials would be S.

[3:28] Alan Seales: So some people, yeah, they just like put initials in just because.

[3:32] Samuel H. Levine: I think you should just be Delos. Just one word, you know, you can be like Seal or yeah.

[3:37] Alan Seales: That's why my career went nowhere because I had two, Alan's too common of a name, Delos.

[3:43] Samuel H. Levine: I'll just be Delos.

[3:44] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[3:45] Samuel H. Levine: Oh man, there you go.

[3:46] Alan Seales: All right.

[3:46] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, so that's me, Sam, Sam.

[3:48] Alan Seales: I'm going to have Google's, my Google Home start just referring to me as Delos.

[3:52] Samuel H. Levine: There we go.

[3:53] Alan Seales: That's right. All right. So let's start with your early stuff, your early life. Where did you, where were you born? Where'd you grow up?

[4:00] Samuel H. Levine: My early life.

[4:01] Alan Seales: Your early life.

[4:01] Samuel H. Levine: As I'm now the old age of 24.

[4:06] Samuel H. Levine: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. I was born here.

[4:09] Alan Seales: I like how you quantified like Brooklyn, New York. I guess there are other Brooklyns, but.

[4:13] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, well, yeah, yeah. But Brooklyn, New York, which maybe I can see from this window.

[4:19] Alan Seales: Or no, that's somewhere else.

[4:20] Samuel H. Levine: That's Jersey.

[4:21] Alan Seales: That's Jersey. Sorry, Jersey.

[4:24] Samuel H. Levine: I was born there, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for which prompts that look of what?

[4:32] Alan Seales: Eyebrows?

[4:33] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. And lived there for around eight years and then moved back to New York.

[4:40] Alan Seales: And then was here from like the age of nine on.

[4:44] Samuel H. Levine: Oh, okay. So it was a young, a young move.

[4:46] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. That's right. Like when I was two years old and my mom was super smart and didn't sell the brownstone that she got in the 70s in Park Slope.

[4:55] Alan Seales: Yes.

[4:56] Samuel H. Levine: And so we moved back in there.

[4:58] Alan Seales: Yeah. So like that 20 grand she spent in the 70s is like millions now. Good for her.

[5:04] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. So you move back in there. That's amazingly smart.

[5:06] Alan Seales: Yes. And were you performing at all like while you were in Wisconsin? Because there's I ask this because I don't find it uncommon that there's a lot of good arts and culture in that area.

[5:21] Samuel H. Levine: I don't I don't really know. I don't think I was. I was playing Little League a lot. And it was always something that was like in the back of my head. But I didn't I wouldn't say like things didn't really kick into gear when I came back to New York and went to middle school. And the public middle school that I was at, MS 51 in Brooklyn, had a drama department. And so I became a part of that. And that's when it became more of a thing.

[5:49] Alan Seales: What attracted you to to want to join the drama? Because usually like you see in movies in small town, I came from small town, North Carolina, where being in drama was what the not cool kids did.

[6:00] Samuel H. Levine: I think here it was kind of the opposite. It seemed like the cool kids were doing it. Or I still to this day, I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out what drew me to it. But something did. And I went with it. It's like a calling, like a fulfillment.

[6:18] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, yeah, it just felt right. Yeah, it just felt like the right thing to do.

[6:23] Alan Seales: Well, was, I guess your parents were your parents at this time? Were they more like, we want you to stick on this track of being, you know, the traditional lawyer, doctor, whatever it was, or that's a phase.

[6:33] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, I don't think I mean, at that age, especially to watch middle schools, like 12 or something, I don't think they were putting any pressures on me to be anything, just trying to make it through braces and stuff. So no, there was there was no pressure there. At the time, at the time.

[6:54] Alan Seales: That's relaxing.

[6:57] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, yeah. So it's just drama class. And then at what point, and you went to LaGuardia High School, which is something you have to audition for.

[7:02] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. So at some point in middle school, you still had to decide to be serious about it.

[7:06] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. That's right. Eighth grade, eighth grade, you have to audition for LaGuardia. You have to prepare two monologues. And I did that and it went okay. And again, it was just this kind of thing of that's it just felt right. It just felt right. And so I just kept on following it.

[7:26] Alan Seales: Well, it was there. Do you remember a point when, like I said, you had to you had to say, all right, now I want to try to do this seriously. Because in eighth grade, you have to audition. Otherwise, you could just go keep playing Little League or whatever it was.

[7:36] Samuel H. Levine: Right. Um, I can't. I don't know. I don't have an aha moment. I think I'm still trying to do it seriously, to be honest, and still trying to just, yeah, figure out what it is.

[7:49] Alan Seales: Yeah. All right. Forever.

[7:56] Samuel H. Levine: Some people get there. I'll let you know.

[8:00] Alan Seales: Some people, yeah. Next time I'm on the show, I'll let you know.

[8:03] Samuel H. Levine: Okay, so then went to LaGuardia.

[8:08] Alan Seales: That's right. And then you went to college.

[8:08] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, that's right. I went to I went to a school called California Institute of the Arts or Cal Arts, which is in outside of L.A. in Valencia, California. And I went there for two years and then dropped out because I got a job in the city. And I had I had been working with an agent out of high school in this city, not L.A., in this city in New York. Yes, I had been working with an agent out of high school. And so I would when I would come back for breaks and whatnot, I would audition and see what was happening. And eventually after, yeah, I think the summer before junior year of college, I got a job here and then didn't go back to college.

[8:53] Alan Seales: What was the job? What did you get?

[8:53] Samuel H. Levine: It was a play called Kill Floor. That's right. Yes. Yes. Directed by the wonderful Lila Neugebauer with Marin Ireland and Danny McCarthy and Nick Ash and Natalie Gold and all these incredible, incredible actors. And I was like, I can't turn. I again, that thing of just I got to do this, don't I? You know, I feel like I'd regret it if I didn't if I just went back to school.

[9:18] Alan Seales: Do you think you ever will go back to school?

[9:25] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm about to be out of a job. So we'll see. Maybe I'll go back to school. But I've been so fortunate to kind of learn to be able to learn on the job and learn from incredible actors and directors and writers.

[9:39] Alan Seales: Yeah. So we'll see. I've heard that from from a lot of people who who have either just not gone at all or or have dropped out for whatever reasons. It's that school gives you certain opportunities that you may not have otherwise. But if you're lucky enough, you're one of the lucky few that has those opportunities given to you ahead of a graduation date, that sometimes you have more of the opportunity of, you know, the on the job training.

[10:04] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. Yeah. The training definitely. And I've taken classes in the city and it's it's always important to me to stay in training and practice and stuff. But I think the thing that I missed most or mourned most about not finishing school was just having the the community that school gives you and that I find that people I mean, these lifelong friendships and these absolutely strong bonds that you need to make it through this business and through life in general. And that's what I mourn most. And it's something that this play has actually given me and The Inheritance has given me. I've been working with these people for almost three years and in a way like a college, you know, a lifetime of a of a schooling process. So, yeah, I've been able to develop my own community.

[10:56] Alan Seales: Yeah, that was I mean, my my past four into theater. Part of what attracted me so much to it is a lot of what you just mentioned is it's instant family, whether or not you you enjoy your family at home or not. Like there are a lot of people that go into theater. And aside from like the accolades, you know, like getting applause on stage and and commanding people's emotions, you know, all that aside, which is its own reward, being able to bond like you're going through a form of trauma. I've said this before on this podcast. It's the rehearsal process and learning lines and the stress of all this. And I mean, we'll get into The Inheritance. It's a two part, heavy, heavy show. So, I'm sure like lots of trauma, lots of trauma, the length in general. I just imagine.

[11:51] Samuel H. Levine: Length is traumatic.

[11:52] Alan Seales: Everything else now, someone else is going to be complaining like, I have so many lines. You're like, dude, I didn't hear it.

[12:01] Samuel H. Levine: True. But yeah, exactly what you're saying that that family, I totally I feel you on that, that that's it's one of the most powerful and beautiful things about what we do and everyone involved in whether it's a podcast or just like these types of connections that you get are unique and really special.

[12:21] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, yeah. Everybody is attracted to theater because like they're looking for that connection. They're looking for that emotion. And again, I've said this before in the podcast too. But Tanya Pinkins told me that, and every time I recall the story, I butcher it even more. But she said that theater allows you to empathize with other people and get practice developing that center of your brain. Because that's not something you can read about it, but you can't train to do it unless you're actually in the moment. You've got these stories, you know, the stories of love and loss and happiness and everything. And then your brain just...

[13:05] Samuel H. Levine: I think, and I'm no expert, I actually shouldn't talk to an expert about this, is that because you're tricking your body into feeling this way that, you know, your character, if you're acting properly, right, like you're giving the same kind of physical response you were if you were actually in love, or if you're actually scared, if you're actually whatever. And so, you're forming these real deep connections with your castmates. And as an audience, we're able to watch this, and it's, you know, we're a voyeuristic society anyway. Oh, I'm going so far off the rails here.

[13:46] Alan Seales: No, no, no, I love it. And it's something I think about often, especially with this play that I've been working with some of these people for two and a half years. So, when you say, when I say, I love you, on stage, it's no longer, I mean, it's, I'm saying, I love you, you know, it's no longer words from a page. It's becoming very, very real, and saying goodbye to the end, as we get ready to say goodbye to these people, it's going to be insane. And I think the funny thing is the one thing that's preparing us to say goodbye is the play itself. And that same way, it's allowing us to go through these emotions together.

[14:28] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. Well, the show, well, for those who haven't seen it, what's the best elevator pitch you can give?

[14:36] Samuel H. Levine: Oh, man, you need a long elevator ride. But I like to describe it as a group of young men on stage. And basically, our writer, Matthew Lopez, was inspired by E.M. Forster's novel, Howard's End. And Matthew has kind of reappropriated the story of Howard's End. And he's told it in his own way through the lens of 21st century young gay men in New York City. And so, you experience the play as a group of young men telling this story that Matthew wrote over seven hours.

[15:20] Alan Seales: Right. So, you're experiencing the whole thing in real time, as we're being told to you.

[15:27] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. And that's how I like to pitch it. Other people pitch it differently. It centers around Eric and Toby, this young couple who have just been recently engaged, and the spiral that their relationship takes, and the way they are affecting a younger generation that they come into contact with, and also how they've been affected by an older generation that they've also come into contact with.

[15:58] Alan Seales: Well, this is set in the 80s, yeah? Or is it set present day?

[15:58] Samuel H. Levine: It's set present day. But it does have a kind of one of the main characters, who's called Walter, who's played by Paul Hilton, was living in New York during the 80s, during the AIDS epidemic. And so, that time, although we're never really in it, is very much present within when it's taking place, which is like 2015 to 2017.

[16:24] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah, there was a lot of throwbacks to the 80s.

[16:27] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. And that's where I walked out, taking it more to be a story... Well, there was one line in there that I don't remember exactly what it is, but it's like, people don't tell gay history in schools.

[16:45] Alan Seales: Right, right.

[16:45] Samuel H. Levine: American students are still taught nothing about queer history.

[16:48] Alan Seales: Yes, yes.

[16:48] Samuel H. Levine: I think I know almost every line, by the way. And, but there's so much importance behind people learning that, because it's going to progress their society. And the show, to me, what I took out of it as someone who identifies as heterosexual, I took out of that, there's a whole world of history that I have been shielded from.

[17:14] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah.

[17:15] Samuel H. Levine: And it made me want to go learn more about it.

[17:17] Alan Seales: Yes, yes, absolutely. Queer history is American history.

[17:21] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah.

[17:22] Samuel H. Levine: And it should be taught as such. And I felt the same way as a young... I mean, I started working on this when I was 22. And just grasping what happened during the epidemic, and to have a cast member like John Benjamin Hickey, who was living through that, and to have him there and telling stories. And then Matthew, our writer, the next generation after John's, and just like the play playing out in real time, in the rehearsal room of, and then me, the younger generation of learning about what happened, because it has been shielded from so many. And people haven't been given the space to talk about the history and to feel the emotions that come with it.

[18:10] Alan Seales: Right. How do you identify sexually?

[18:13] Samuel H. Levine: I identify as heterosexual.

[18:14] Alan Seales: Heterosexual, yeah. So, when I was going to say, a few minutes ago, you said you're looking at your cast members, which are men, and you're telling them you love them. And that's, for a straight guy, you know, that's sometimes very hard to say.

[18:28] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, I think, yeah, straight men have, or men in general, are, yeah, not the best at feeling emotions, if you will, or have been guided against feeling emotions.

[18:40] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[18:41] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah. Yeah.

[18:42] Samuel H. Levine: I mean, it's–

[18:43] Alan Seales: Fuck that.

[18:44] Samuel H. Levine: It's, yeah, fuck that.

[18:47] Samuel H. Levine: Gosh, oh, this is all kind of coming back to Love is Blind on Netflix, which is one of the best trashiest shows I'm watching at the moment.

[18:57] Alan Seales: Someone was just telling me about that show.

[18:58] Samuel H. Levine: Oh, it's a train wreck you can't look away from. But it's these straight guys that, for the first time, you take away their outside stimulus, their phones, everything, and they're making these instant connections with these people, with these women, partially, in my opinion, because they're just forced to talk. And there's no one there, no one, you know, there's not their guy friends there edging them on, being like, oh, that's just being a sissy, or that's, you know. And it's this whole new world, like this generational flip we have to make. And I think it's like, it kind of starts with me. I'm 39. I think it's starting with me. And it's like, you're smack in the middle of it at 24. Like, to you, telling a straight guy, I love you, like, that doesn't seem weird. I don't feel like that seems weird to you now.

[19:47] Alan Seales: No.

[19:48] Samuel H. Levine: To me at your age, that would be insane.

[19:51] Alan Seales: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's, yeah, that's wild to hear. And I hope that, I mean, everyone should be able to say I love you, and also receive I love you from whoever.

[20:02] Samuel H. Levine: And I do.

[20:03] Alan Seales: Yeah.

[20:04] Samuel H. Levine: I do now.

[20:04] Alan Seales: Yeah, right.

[20:05] Samuel H. Levine: At this age now.

[20:06] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah. And I hope that the work continues on, and people can do that.

[20:11] Samuel H. Levine: Right.

[20:11] Samuel H. Levine: But yeah, not weird at all.

[20:13] Alan Seales: I mean, do you get that, the feedback about the show? And I want to get into, like, the differences between London and New York, because obviously, the run here is not as long as we would have hoped for. But the feedback, the positive feedback that you've gotten, like stage door, is there anything that stands out to you as like, oh, wow, I had no idea? Or, you know, things that are in your mind as, as somebody coming up and being changed by what they saw?

[20:42] Samuel H. Levine: Absolutely. I think I mean, one of the most powerful things is I was sent a letter, or I was given a letter outside the stage door that I had no idea at the time. The story behind what was being given to me, I just because it was just an envelope. But it was a young woman from Japan, who is queer, and she saw the show in London, and was inspired to, to come out to her family and to love her girlfriend openly. And she had taken a pilgrimage to New York to go to the Stonewall Inn and also see the show with her girlfriend. Wow. And it was just so I mean, I remember reading it on the taxi ride home after a show. Just a deep reminder of that. The show is inspiring people, it's changing people and people feel the love they feel the need to be truthful to feel their emotions truthfully, which is incredible.

[21:44] Alan Seales: Yeah, I love all all of the shows. I mean, there's a place there's a place for your mean girls and Shrek the musical and this place. But there there's like, the prom holds a special place in my heart. Yeah, because it's the story of being truthful. Yeah. And like the inheritance against it's like, exposing culture outside of the norm. And unfortunately, gay culture is not the norm, right? Yeah. And right on a mainstream scale. It's, you know, New York City, a little bit more so than other cities, but there's still work to be done.

[22:21] Samuel H. Levine: Right, right. I absolutely love the thing. But going back to again, the difference between London it like this, just reward after reward and positive positivity in London. And then what? So the difference between London and New York audiences, what do you think happened? Because I guess, to preface this, the show is closing on March 15. That's right. So come. So yeah, there's only a few weeks left at the time this episode drops, which is an early closing, shorter than we would have hoped for. So in London, it was great. When Olivier, same story here, what happened? What do you think?

[22:59] Samuel H. Levine: I don't know. I mean, fortunately, that's not my job. So I don't know. The world will never know. Or I don't know. I think New York and America in general is just, you know, like the go big or go home or people, I think, love things even more intensely in New York. And they also hate things even more intensely. So I think the people that really, really loved it, really loved it with a passion and a vigor that wasn't felt in London. And the people that maybe didn't like it also, on that same note, really didn't like it. But who knows? I like to think that the people who needed to see it saw it. And the play will live on forever within those people.

[23:49] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah, it's good. I think someone told me their theory was that because so much of the people with the disposable income now to see Broadway shows lived through the AIDS epidemic themselves, that they don't want to go see a show about it.

[24:01] Samuel H. Levine: It's true. Yeah, because it was it was hard.

[24:05] Alan Seales: Yeah, that's very possible. Lost lots and lots of friends.

[24:09] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, it's also that I mean, on that same note, or a more financial note is just that I think London theatre is just a different, it's more ingrained in the culture there. And I think it's something that's slowly starting to happen here. But you know, they got that guy called Shakespeare and stuff. And like, it's just like a part of who they are for since the beginning. And I think it's becoming more interwoven here. But there's still work to be done to make it more, more accessible, more attainable, and more interwoven.

[24:34] Alan Seales: Yeah, I mean, musicals have commercial success in the soundtrack that you can do. And there's more marketing, and there's just more budget. But yeah, plays, plays, not saying that musicals can't go deep and be great acting, like you have to be a good actor to be good at a musical.

[24:49] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. That's right.

[24:49] Alan Seales: But I've seen I've seen more boundaries pushed in straight plays.

[24:53] Samuel H. Levine: Yeah, yeah, hands down.

[24:53] Alan Seales: Yeah, yeah. Hopefully that continues to happen.

[25:00] Samuel H. Levine: Oh, I hope so. I mean, of course it will. Absolutely. Our writer often talks about how he hopes this play opens the door to many other seven hour epics about other experiences.

[25:12] Alan Seales: Right. Yeah. The character, like, it's a two show, what, four acts, right?

[25:23] Samuel H. Levine: Six acts.

[25:23] Alan Seales: Six acts, right. Because, okay, yeah, six acts, two different shows.

[25:28] Samuel H. Levine: That's right.

[25:28] Alan Seales: That all make the whole story.

[25:32] Samuel H. Levine: That's right. So, it's a two-part show, sorry. And you play two different characters. In this first part, you're Adam, a rich actor on the rise of New York City. And then in the second part, you're Leo, a young, desperate sex worker. So, it's kind of like opposite sides of the same coin.

[25:42] Samuel H. Levine: That's right.

[25:42] Alan Seales: Right. So, are you, I guess, talk to me about the two characters. And in your mind, is it completely two separate characters in the same story? Or is it the same character? One's positive, and then one's down on her luck, right?

[25:58] Samuel H. Levine: Mm-hmm. That's a good question. Yeah. So, I play Adam and Leo.

[26:10] Samuel H. Levine: And I love both of them very much. And I think they're two, they're definitely two different people. But it's the thing that the challenge of, I'm not two different people, I'm just one person, so ultimately they will share certain things. But it's been the, I mean, a challenge, so challenging, but also so rewarding to get to kind of figure out how to, yeah, be two different people. And it gives you a lot, because I think everyone has multiple sides to them. And it's kind of given me permission to be okay with the duality of being alive, and everything's not just one way, or you can't, you can be multiple things. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, everybody, someone asked me the other day, they said, how many sides do you have?

Or infinite? It wasn't sides. It was like modes of personality or something. Yeah, infinite. I mean, right? What did you say? I think, well, they brought it up because they were like, somebody I was talking to said that you have five. And I said, oh, there's way more than five, because there's like, there's Podcast Alan, there's Business Alan, there's Party Alan, which doesn't really exist anymore. But yeah, there's different facets of who makes up your personality. So, to be able to tap into each one of those, and kind of make them caricatures on stage. So, you've got, yeah, rich actor, affluent guy, and then young, desperate, do anything because you have to survive guy. But you're still, like, I guess, internally, you're still Sam, presenting.

Yeah, I don't know what I'm getting at here. But you see what I'm saying? It's crazy. It's a head trip. It's a total head trip. It's a total head trip to have two people kind of like living within you at the same time. But I love it. And I love both of them so much. Yeah, I love Adam's confidence and his manipulative attitude sometimes, and yeah, his charm. And I love Leo's heart and his kindness. Yeah, like, Adam just does whatever he wants. That's right. Including, well, he just drops trowel. That's right. Drops towel. Towel? Towel, yeah. Drops towel. That's right. And he's like, what's that? Was that weird for you? That was super weird. Total nude on stage. Super, super weird. Really? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, the first time. I mean, it was insane. I went through, I think, the entire rehearsal process, not doing it. We get to that scene, I do it in my underwear or something. And then, I mean, but then I think the final dress, I went for it. Very weird. Very, very weird, but ultimately liberating. And yeah, you know, it's the character. Right. You know, so I feel some protection in that. Yeah, I have never had the fortune, we'll call it, of opportunity of being totally nude. Like, for me, I remember the first time I had to kiss somebody else on stage, and I was young, and my parents came, and that was weird. Yeah, so you can only imagine. Yeah, so I guess if it's weird, I guess, yeah, it's weird.

When you don't know the people, I think it's easier. Definitely. Right. Definitely. And there is that space of, you know, when the lights go down, it's a sea of strangers. Yeah, blank faces. Is there any sort of empowerment you get from being like, I have the confidence to do this, and most of these people would never do this? Again, I feel like it's the character that has the confidence. So, I don't know. Ask me again, you know, when this all ends. I don't know. There's going to be a lot of unpacking of what this show, yeah, has given me, if you will, after we finish over the next, yeah, I mean, forever. There's so much to unpack. Well, how has it grown? How have you grown from it? Because 21 to 24, those are very impressionable years.

Absolutely. And so, it's insane to get to kind of grow up with these characters, and with these people, and with this play, with this story. I mean, yeah, I'm at a loss for words, and I think it's something that I really do need to. We've talked about Andrew Burnap and Kyle Soller, who play Toby and Eric, and we share a dressing room, and we've shared a dressing room since the very beginning. We were offered many times, when we transferred to the West End and to Broadway, to have our own dressing rooms, but we all got on the phone, and we're like, we're not doing that, right? Everyone, unanimously, is that the word? We've all stuck in the same room. We were saying, we kind of need to, after the show closes, should we go to a group therapy session, and kind of debrief about what this thing is?

It's going to be insane. Wow. But I've grown. Yeah, again, I'll let you know. I feel like it's something I won't really realize until later down the line. Yeah, I think when you're old, yeah, when you get past it, move into your next— I'm old and 27. Yeah, when you can finally rent a car on your own and hit 25. Yeah, first I have to get a driver's license, but yeah, I'm a New York baby. Oh, gosh, that worries me about my kids. Swimming, riding a bike, and driving a car. Yeah, gotta know. Hard. Hard to do in the city. Yeah, that's interesting that you guys talked about group therapy, because it seems to me that the show itself is a form of therapy. Yes, very much so. Yeah, there's a lot of catharsis, a lot of exploring of emotions, a lot of letting go, which feels really good.

But in and of itself, the show has caused so many other things and emotions, and letting go of it will be extremely intense. So we talked about, yeah, maybe doing that. I think it's a good idea. I think so, too. I think ending any show is traumatic. Ending anything, letting something die, letting something go is very hard, and something that every human deals with. But especially this one, because we've worked on it for so long, because the emotions are so intertwined with who we are as people, because we've spent more time over the past two and a half years as those characters than we have as ourselves. It's going to be extremely intense. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, do therapy. I recommend therapy just in general.

Yes. So on to a lighter note, you're in what we're calling the untitled Lila Nugabower movie, opposite Jennifer Lawrence. That's right. Jennifer Lawrence, Brian Turi Henry, Samira Wiley, Jane Houdyshell, who's another great theater actor, Linda Emond, some incredible, incredible actors. And are you looking to see yourself? Do you see yourself more in the TV film thing later on down the line? Because everyone's like, you do theater because you love it. You do TV because you got bills to pay. Right, right. Yeah, people say that for a reason, for sure. I definitely want to make movies. Movies like theater have impacted my life deeply, deeply, deeply. And I want a chance to do that for other people.

But I also just want to follow, you know, after working on The Inheritance and a play like this directed by Stephen Daldry and written by this amazing man, Matthew Lopez, it's going to be hard to work on things that I don't feel deeply connected to. So that's really what I want to do, no matter what the medium, just find things that I connect to. And hopefully I have the opportunity to do that. I guess Lila Nugent Bower, you worked with her previously. That's right. Yeah, you got connected with – that's how you get connected with this one. That's right. Working – when's the movie supposed to come out? Do you know yet? I have no idea. But it was crazy, man. I mean, I'm down there as we shot in New Orleans.

And yeah, all of a sudden, I'm at dinner with Jennifer Lawrence and these incredible actors. Oh, okay. Cool. So I definitely want more opportunities to do that. Because it was also, while yes, there was that kind of starstruck feeling, there was also the feeling of, oh, yeah, I can do this. Anyone can do this. There's not some secret passageway that you have to go into to do it. It's just you just do it. And it's, again, like, yeah, working with Lila. I worked with her five years ago. She gave me my first job. So then it's the same thing. It's still just doing the work. And it was like, oh, yeah, I can do the work. Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. Were you filming – so filming's wrapped already?

That's right. So were you filming while you were doing The Inheritance? There was like one week of overlap with rehearsal. Oh, so it was before Inheritance opened, then? That's right. I was in the summer. I don't know how you could do a two-part play. I'm not a real person. I mean, even just, yeah, the days off. We have two days off, which is unheard of in the theater community. But I mean, I'm just dead to the world. Rarely. You can just go home and crawl into a shell and sleep. Absolutely. Cool. All right. Well, we'll wrap this up with three standard closing questions that I ask everybody on the podcast. The first one, what motivates you?

[37:06] Samuel H. Levine: People. People motivate me.

[37:09] Alan Seales: To impress them or inspired by them?

[37:12] Samuel H. Levine: I think in regards to this play, it's just when I'm not feeling it that day, or if I'm feeling tired, I look to my fellow castmates, and I see that they've showed up, so I can show up, too. And in that same regard, when they're not feeling good, then it's on me to kind of raise the bar, and we kind of lean on each other that way.

[37:34] Alan Seales: Oh, nice. Okay. So the second question is, what advice would you give to your younger self and younger people listening now, starting out down a similar path?

[37:43] Samuel H. Levine: I would say to my younger self, I love you, and keep on going.

[37:48] Alan Seales: I love you. That is nice. Very simple, but speaks volumes.

[37:53] Samuel H. Levine: Okay. Last question. If you could only see one show for the rest of your life, but you could see it as many times as you want, what would you see?

[38:01] Samuel H. Levine: Oh, man. This is a play.

[38:06] Alan Seales: Anything.

[38:07] Samuel H. Levine: Anything. Anything. I would see the Batsheva Dance Company dance. Sorry, theater goers. I would go with the dance.

[38:21] Alan Seales: All right. And we can find you on Instagram at Sam H. Levine. You're not on Twitter?

[38:27] Samuel H. Levine: No, not yet. Should I? I gotta do the TikTok and the Twitter. I'll do it. I'll do it one day.

[38:33] Alan Seales: All right. And you can find more of me and other past episodes online at thetheaterpodcast.com. Support help me continue the transcriptions for all of those who need it at thetheaterpodcast.com slash Patreon. I'm on Instagram and Twitter at theater underscore podcast on Facebook, on facebook.com slash official theater podcast. So many socials. Please leave a rating, leave a review. I love to read those. And then thank you to Jukebox the Ghost for the intro and outro music and Samuel H. Levine. Thank you. Thank you for being here. This has been fun.

[39:08] Samuel H. Levine: Thank you.