'Wicked' Star Sam Gravitte Heads to Ptown for Cabaret Debut on Saturday

EDGE: You have showbiz parents. How did that impact your childhood?

Sam Gravitte: Well, there was no child acting. That was clear. There was never going to be any child acting. They were very deliberate in that, and they encouraged me and my siblings to sort of spread our curiosities in as many different directions possible. I knew very early on that I wanted to be an actor, that I wanted to be in the arts. I thought artist were the coolest people of all time and I just wanted to be a part of that club, that community and that way of seeing and being in the world. I really admired my parents and the people with whom I came in contact through them and their experiences.

It's funny because who my parents were was always just a fact of life. I understood it was unique early on. I grew up in a commuter town and everybody's parents were going to the city to work in finance and my mom would be flying to London to sing with a symphony orchestra. I thought it was a much more interesting version of life and I feel so lucky in many ways. And now, to sort of share professional spaces with my parents as, peers isn't the right word, we get to share these spaces. It's a lot of fun to collaborate with them and talk to them about it in ways a lot of people in the community don't get to do.

EDGE: Your mother won a Tony Award. Where does she keep it?

Sam Gravitte: Oh yes, that thing. It's on the grand piano. When sit at it, you can spin the Tony.

EDGE: You were an athlete growing up.

Sam Gravitte: I was. My parents encouraged us to follow our own interests. I always loved being outside running around and I found that I had a knack for a lot of sports. I was a really competitive person and I was able to flex that competitive nature in a really explicit way on sports fields. It felt good. I loved it. I played football, basketball and baseball early on and then I found lacrosse. I grew up in Connecticut, but my parents had no idea what lacrosse was. All my friends were playing it and thought I'd be really good at it. I picked it up in middle school and I ended up being recruited as a lacrosse player by Princeton where I played D1 lacrosse for four years.

EDGE: When did you start acting?

Sam Gravitte: I did my first musical in fifth grade. I played Curly in "Oklahoma!." I told my mom I was going to be an actor. There was absolutely no looking back for me from then on. Most of the acting I did growing up was in my schools right through college. When I got out of Princeton I threw myself into voice lessons and acting classes. I knew I would be competing against kids with BFAs and MFAs. There was no theater major at Princeton, so I after graduation, I pursued to the training I knew I was going to need.

EDGE: Did your worlds, lacrosse players and theater kids, ever collide?

Sam Gravitte: They did. My sophomore year the school was doing "Spring Awakening" and I really wanted to be part of it. It was during lacrosse season, but I knew I could make it work without miss any lacrosse. I went to my coach, defensive coordinator Dylan Sheridan, and he sort of blew my mind. I told him lacrosse was my priority but I really wanted to do this show and I'd love to find a way to make it work. Without missing a beat he said, "I knew when you're a happy guy you're going to play your best lacrosse. If this is something that's going to make you happy, let's make it work."

We opened "Spring Awakening" on a Friday night. After the show I got in the car with my mom who drove to Baltimore so I could play a game against Johns Hopkins at 1pm. After the game, which we won and I played great, we got back in the car and drove back to Princeton for the Saturday night show.

One of my favorite memories was my senior year when I was in a production of "Once" the musical. Opening night, I looked at the audience and saw a section with 50 lacrosse players in it. How many musicals have those guys been to? Especially at school. It was the first thing they had ever been to. To look out and feel that support from my teammates, it was really special.

EDGE: How many theater kids ever went to your lacrosse games?

Sam Gravitte: (Laughs) Exactly!

EDGE: How did you end up in "Wicked?"

Sam Gravitte: The first job I got out of school was a weekend run of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." It was thrown together at a fast and furious pace. The creative crew was a roomful of "Wicked" alums. I auditioned for "Wicked" a few times and had gotten as far as the dance call. Two weeks in the room with a bunch of "Wicked" folks and two weeks later I got a final callback for "Wicked" on the road. I shipped out to Memphis to join the troupe on the tour for a year. I came back to New York after a year and made my Broadway debut as an understudy. On February 25, 2020, I took over the role as Fiyero. It was sort of like climbing the ladder, building relationships. Two weeks later the world blows up.

EDGE: What did you think when they were shutting down the show?

Sam Gravitte: Like everyone else, at the beginning we thought it was going to be two weeks. It didn't feel that monumental, but It felt big, and I don't think anyone understood the magnitude of what was unfolding. We were sort of operating on a day-to-day basis, then two days turned into two weeks that turned into two months then six months then it was 18 months that Broadway was shut down. I think it was more jarring than anything else. I'm certainly not unique to having an experience of interruption in that moment, but I had spent my whole life dreaming about playing a principal role on Broadway. There I was doing it and two weeks later it got taken away in an interesting way. It was a healthy dose of perspective, but it also catalyzed a different relationship to my own creativity. I started writing and since then I've published a play and workshopped a different play. I'm grateful for that time in a sort of Stockholm syndrome way because of how it affected my life.

EDGE: What was it like returning to the show?

Sam Gravitte: It was a wonderful, anxiety-ridden, terrific thing. We were still operating under so many unknowns, testing every day, wearing masks, singing with masks, rehearsing with masks. But then how lucky were we to be able to reopen the show? I honestly think there was so much love for the show during the pandemic and it really brought together this community that loved the show so much that by the time we came back ticket sales were crazy. I think it played an important role to a lot of people in lockdown; getting to experience it in person again was cathartic in a lot of ways.

EDGE: Let's get back to your show, "Songs That Raised Me." What can your audience expect?

Sam Gravitte: The show is called "Songs that Raised Me." As you might infer from such a title, I'll be telling stories about being raised by artists and what that means. There are a few explicit nods to my mom. I think the show is about how I felt like an alien in a lot of ways growing up as a kid who was a jock who also loved theater. There'll be some beloved show tunes, a couple they might not know, some of the songs they tell you to never sing in New York, a duet or two, some guitar arrangements I've done. All of this and hopefully a fantastic time with a little tugging of the heartstrings along the way. There will be a surprise duet if he can find housing for Friday night. We're working on it.

EDGE: What's next for you?

Sam Gravitte: I'll be heading up to the Cape Playhouse to do "Beautiful."

EDGE: Did you know the ghost of Gertrude Lawrence is there and if you don't put hydrangeas in her dressing room, she will wreak havoc on the show?

Sam Gravitte: I didn't know that. That's very good to know.

For more information on "Songs That Raised Me," follow this link. For more information on "Beautiful" at the Cape Playhouse, click here.