When Samonsky received the invitation to audition for "South Pacific," he had never seen Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical adaptation of James A. The song he used as an exercise - "Younger Than Springtime" - happens to be Lt.
It was at Irvine that a professor convinced him to train as a tenor. Samonsky then enrolled in the opera program at Cal State Northridge, and went for a master's degree in theater at UC Irvine. Undecided on a career path, he spent a year casting about at UC Santa Barbara, until voice coach Linda Ottsen encouraged him to pursue a stage career. The son of Susan, a teacher, and Louis "Chuck" Samonsky, a defense attorney, he played sports while at Buena High in Ventura.Īfter an injury sidelined him, he tried out for a school play and landed the leading role. He wasn't always so focused on the stage. Samonsky went into what he called "hyperfocus mode" as the stage manager walked him through the blocking. There was a minefield of potential gaffes awaiting him onstage, including a scene with a paring knife and a 10-second wardrobe switch. March 22, when the phone rang at Samonsky's Brooklyn apartment, he knew he'd be going on for that day's 2 p.m. He knew Cable's lines cold and had his range-racking solos down pat.Īnd at 9 a.m.
In his waking hours, though, Samonsky had prepared in every possible way short of rehearsal. You dream you find yourself onstage and don't know the lines," said the 32-year-old Samonsky, who also performs the raucous "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" in the men's chorus. Picked to understudy the part of the lovesick lieutenant who volunteers for a suicide mission, Samonsky had to fill in for three performances when Tony Award winner Matthew Morrison fell ill. Without so much as a New York minute of rehearsal, the Ventura native performed the leading role of Joe Cable in the revival of "South Pacific" at Lincoln Center. Andrew Samonsky made his debut on Broadway the hard way.
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