Interview: TV Star Sami Gayle Talks Broadway Return in BAD CINDERELLA

Sami Gayle first came to Broadway at a young age, starring in Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical and Gypsy, before making the jump to television and film. She is best known for her performances on screen in the CBS hit Blue Bloods, the Netflix original film, Candy Jar - which she co-produced - and Vampire Academy among others. In addition to her acheivements in the entertainment industry, Gayle also graduated from The Wharton School of Business!

Now, Gayle has returned to the stage, starring as Adele, one of the stepsisters in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bad Cinderella which opens on March 23, 2023 at the Imperial Theatre.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Sami Gayle about returning to the stage, how it feels to be a part of a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, stepping into her character's shoes, and more.

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You are returning to Broadway after making your debut when you were 11 years old. How does it feel to be back on Broadway?

It's incredible. Broadway was my first love, I came from a small town in Florida, and somehow, it felt like by accident, I landed myself on a Broadway stage after someone saw me in a dance class and picked me out of the people there. I fell in love with it immediately and always wanted to perform. I came from a dance competition background, so that was always in my blood.

My goal was to always to be on Broadway. I didn't know I would fall in love with TV and film as much as I did. In fact, when I was first on Broadway I'd refuse to audition for television and film, thinking I only ever wanted to be on Broadway! And then I fell into a film, and fell in love with film and TV, and I love that very much as well, and did that for many, many years. But because there was this immediate first love thing with Broadway I always wanted to get back, and it really was a dream come true to be able to do it in a production like this one, helmed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the creative team behind it that we have, and the endlessly incredible cast. So, I'm overjoyed to go to work every single day!

How does it feel for you to be a part of a new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical?

It's very surreal. I have been in the theatre 24/7. I've been trying to soak it all in, trying to learn as much as humanly possible from the experience. I've been sitting with our Lighting Designer, Bruno [Poet], or our Scenic and Costume Designer, Gabby [Gabriela Tylesova], trying to understand all of the different elements of the production, I sat with Andrew's creative team. I've tried to really soak it all in from all perspectives and learn as much as I can.

The first time I was on Broadway I did that too, and I understood that everyone around me was extra special, but I was 11, so you don't really have a whole appreciation for what's happening, and the grandiosity of being directed by Arthur Laurents, and having Patti LuPone play your mother in Gypsy. And in The Grinch, Patrick Page was our Grinch. And so, as an adult, I come to this with a renewed understanding of how blessed I was a child, and how blessed I am now to get to work with all of these people. So I'm trying to just engage in as many different ways as possible.

What has it been like getting to build a new show with this company?

It's been amazing. Everything, especially choreography-wise, is happening in real-time. In the rehearsal room, you watch things get to change on a daily basis, and watch our amazing choreographer JoAnn M. Hunter in real-time. I have never seen anyone work in the same way as this lady, just totally be able to create new versions of entire numbers in the span of minutes! And so, to be able to watch the production grow, and watch script changes, and dance changes, and see it all evolve, and live, and breathe, it's been a process for me.

The stuff that I have worked on has been very set. Gypsy is an amazing play, but it's very much not changing with reproductions, and this is something that I watched come to life before my eyes, we're going in and making adjustments. It's cool to get to ride that wave, especially with your character. To see what it looks like in a room when you don't have all the clothes, and so acting choices are much bigger so you can differentiate your character. And when you get to tech, all of a sudden you're wearing all of this incredible clothing and you realize that does a lot of the bigger choice work, so how do we make more intricate choices? And then the character changes, but you have that sense of who she was before to inform those changes.

Being able to spend time with a character like that is invaluable, especially coming from TV and film, where, traditionally, you're spending, at most, a couple of months with a character, then moving on to the next thing. I was fortunate to spend ten years with a character on a TV show, but the script is changing every five or six days, so you don't actually get to live and breathe the material for as long.

What's been your favorite thing about playing Adele?

There are so many things! I am always fascinated by playing characters who are super different from me. I think as an actor, I'm a professional empathizer, I get to step in the shoes of different humans, and see the world through their eyes. And people who maybe I hadn't thought I would otherwise connect with, I'm connecting with, having done that work. And I think for that reason acting is very powerful in being able to bring people together because it creates similarities between divergent people most of the time, rather than doing the opposite, when you step into the shoes of someone who seems, at first glance, very different from you.

Getting to be different is the core message, embrace difference. It has been extremely exciting for me. To give it some color to what that difference is, I think Adele is very ditzy, and sassy, and conniving, and she knows how to use her brand and reputation in the town to get what she wants, which, I think is something that we all want, love. That's the commonality that I've found with her. Growing up, unfortunately for Adele, she didn't really get that from her mother, so she seeks it out in the wrong things, status, wealth, power, but the journey she gets to go on every night that's exciting for me is discovering that love doesn't come from all of those things. That it really comes from personal fulfillment and human connection. And I think that is something that everyone can connect to and learn from, even though these characters are eccentric and sassy, and a little mean girl-ish at first glance.

What would you like to say to audiences who are planning to see Bad Cinderella?

Our audiences are having so much fun. So, what I would say to the audience is come have some fun, come laugh. I love being a part of a production where everyone is smiling backstage all of the time, and we're so excited to put on the show for everyone, and to give our audiences that laughter and that fun every night. Come experience it.

You are so multifaceted, you've done TV, you graduated from Wharton, you're on Broadway. What does the future look like for you?

I definitely want to do more Broadway in the future. I always say in a dream world I would be producing and starring in a TV show or film during the day and then performing on Broadway at night. I think I am truly happiest when I am on a stage or in front of a camera. And in terms of having gotten my MBA from Wharton, I was literally auditioning for this, coming to New York in the morning before commuting back to Philadelphia for school, I was doing that alongside this process.

I think the goal of having the MBA is to be able to make content that I'm passionate about, and I think it's useful to be able to produce to ensure that I can do that in today's world, where there are so many different streaming platforms, and platforms for performance. So, my hope is to be able to use that degree and producing background - I've already co-produced a movie called Candy Jar that my brother wrote, and we have a couple more movies currently in development- to continue doing that producing work. And continue telling stories that I'm passionate about for myself, and also empowering other actors and other playwrights, and screenwriters, and crew members, all that stuff in the process, to be able to tell the stories they want to tell too.

Photo credit: Emilio Madrid