Interview: Peloton London Cycling Instructor Sam Yo on Bringing Broadway to the Bike

Peloton Studios London instructor and former West End performer Sam Yo has been bringing his unique energy and passion for musical theater to Peloton members since he joined the team as an instructor in 2019. For Peloton members familiar with Sam, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he was every bit as enthusiastic, genuine, and warm in this interview as he seems on the bike. On the heels of his special Andrew Lloyd Webber Peloton Broadway ride last week, I connected with Sam about inviting Peloton members back into the studio for the first time since 2020, some insider secrets on how he programs his Broadway rides, and how his background as an actor informs the immense presence he brings as an instructor.

What has it been like having live riders back in the studio and inviting them into the brand-new Peloton Studios London for the first time?

Oh, it's been fantastic. It's beyond words, really, how amazing it is to have people in the room, but it's sharing energy. You know, it's like when you're on stage. When you do a rehearsal, you're in the house, but there's no audience there. There's an element in which you need to push, push, but it's not performance level. And it's the same with the members in the studio because when they're there, I feel their energy. And it helps me push the energy to the people at home. And I feel like energy is pushed back. So it's just like a stage show when the energy is transferred from the audience to the performers on stage. And it feels like that. And I think it's learning again how to do that and incorporating everybody at home and in the studio into the Peloton experience and the fitness journey, the music journey that we always do.

Likewise, what has it been like seeing live theater in the West End and in London again?

It's the same thing. It's amazing, you know, because I think during the COVID time, there's a lot of productions which they transferred to streaming or to television, didn't they? But nothing beats you sitting there in your chair. And then there's the thrill of the overture starting for a show. I think the first show I saw post-COVID was SIX. And that was still socially distancing. And it was just phenomenal with these amazing, talented ladies on stage who just blew it away. That was just them on stage all the time. You know, the stamina you need as a performer for musicals. It's like being an endurance athlete. And that was the first show I saw.

And I've seen so many now. The last show I saw was MOULIN ROUGE, which was fantastic. I saw DEAR EVAN HANSEN again. I saw CINDERELLA. I see maybe two every month if I can. I see everything on the West End now.

What current or upcoming shows are you most excited to see in the West End?

Like I said, I think I've seen everything in the West End. When I'm over in New York again, I definitely want to see Hugh Jackman in THE MUSIC MAN. I love Hugh Jackman. I've followed his career actually. I went to see him at the Royal National Theatre where he was in OKLAHOMA [back in 1998] playing Curly before he made it big and before he was a superhero. I remember watching him and being like, "Wow, that's amazing." And then I remember like a year or two years later my friend goes, "Oh, you know the guy you went to see in OKLAHOMA? He's Wolverine." And I was like what? I watched him. It was amazing.

I also want to see MJ THE MUSICAL for the music and dance in that as well. But I just need to go to New York a bit more.

One of the biggest parallels for me between Peloton cycling classes and attending musical theater is that both are experiences that allow me to be present in the moment with what's happening. What are some of the parallels between Peloton and musical theater for you?

Oh, there's a lot. I mean, you know, because of my fitness background, because of my musical background, and my TV background. So what I do at Peloton is a hybrid of all those things. You know, so when this opportunity to be a Peloton instructor came to me, I was like, "Oh, my God, this is like my dream job. This is like everything I've been training for for the last 20 years."

So it's a combination of everything. And when I do my Broadway rides, I approach them exactly the same as when I used to do productions in the West End. It's not just a cycling class with music, I think of it as a musical theater experience with the added bonus of cycling fitness. So when I approach Broadway rides, and I think I've done about five of them, it's the same thing [as a musical production] where you have a theme and you have a story. That's the foundation, the feeling and the story. And then I find the music, the playlist. So it's like composing music to the journey. So I add all the music to a playlist and I then move the running order of the music so it fits the narrative, and it's the light and shade. Like with a show, there's always a light and shade. You start with the big number, it goes up and it brings it down emotionally. And then I add the scripting element. So I write the narrative. And then I combine the music and the narrative and the scripting together. And I cut the script, cut the music, move things around, time the beats.

And then with the Andrew Lloyd Webber ride I just taught, I always do two walkthroughs of the class. So 80% of the class I know [because I create a script for it], and then 20% I improvise. So then it's like 30 minutes of a one-man show.

Given that about 80% of a class like this is scripted, how do you memorize your lines for a Peloton class? How do you prepare your scripts for class?

So when it comes to a theme class like the Andrew Lloyd Webber one, it's more scripted. So I script the beats, and I add the script into sections of the music where it doesn't disturb the music. And then I leave room to improvise. In a normal Peloton class, it's maybe 70 to 80% improvised, the other way around. For me, I always learned lines by knowing the narrative of the journey. So if you know the narrative of the journey, you know where you should be going. And that helps me learn the lines and helps me memorize where I should be and what's coming up next.

How do you think your background as a West End performer has helped you on the bike? How did your experience in the theater inform the energy you bring to Peloton as an instructor?

Oh, I mean, the thing is live theater and TV, it's so different because with TV, if you did it wrong, you can do it again, you take it again. But you know what live theater has taught me is the show must go on. If something goes wrong, you keep going, and you keep driving the energy. And that's one of the things about live theater that I love is that it's never the same. You ask any performer on stage, no two shows are ever the same. There's always something different. There's always a unique element that pushes you; even when you're doing eight shows a week, there's always something different. And that's what I love about doing Peloton, too, because each class is a unique experience. It's different for us. It's different for the members. And I just love delivering the music and the movement...It feels like a show for me.

Can you talk to me a little bit more about how you determined which songs made the playlist given how prolific someone like Andrew Lloyd Webber is? How do you pick 30 minutes' worth of songs out of all the material available to you?

When I was asked by the music team to do it, I was like, "Wow, this is like 60 years [of musicals.] What do I put in this?" The great thing about Sir Andrew's music is that he pulls from different genres. He's got the pop element, he's got the rock element, he's got the classic element. And then he went through the electronic synthesizer phase. And then there's some gospel stuff. So that was the fun thing was being able to play with all those different sounds. And there's some songs that have to be in there, like "Phantom of the Opera" has to be one of the most famous ones, and I put "Memory" and I put "The Jellicle Ball" in there. The first one was "The Jellicle Ball" from CATS. I remember watching CATS, and all the cats, all actors were onstage. And the first thing [I] did [in the ride] was embody what it's like to be a cat on the stage. So from the get go, I set the tone of what this ride is gonna be about. It's going to be about movement, it's gonna be about dancing, it's going to be about singing, it's going to be like a musical experience. I went through a lot of different playlists.

How much time does it usually take to put together a themed ride like that one? What does that look like on the back end? Because I read the blog article about your Imagine Dragons ride, and so I'm curious to know, what does that process look like for a Broadway ride?

So the process for me, it's just listening to the music, and what songs jump out at me and what tone is missing. Because you can have a musical ride where every song is a showstopper, but then the [range in tones] isn't there. As you know, when you see a show, there's that light and shade. That's what you need is that narrative that takes you through it. So it is for me, it's just like listening and speaking to my production team and saying, "Oh, I like this. What do you think?" But then they might suggest certain things to do like the thing I did with the cats at the beginning, the cats movement. Those are some very iconic movements that you see when you see CATS, and I came up with that the day before...I just put it right at the beginning. You know, you know, the start of the show, right? At the beginning, we're gonna do a little bit of dance movement, you know, for Gillian [Lynne]'s amazing choreography. If you're listening to CATS, that's the imagery that you get is these iconic movements from these amazing dancers.

A huge part of the Peloton cycling experience is riding to the beat, but many Broadway songs have less discernible beats (at least in the classic "one-two, one-two" sense to quote your fellow instructor Cody Rigsby) or change tempo partway through the song. How does that inform which songs you select when programming Broadway rides, and how do you navigate some of the uniqueness of Broadway music when you teach those rides?

It's really knowing the music. With all my rides, like 90% of the ride is to the beat. So that's the jigsaw puzzle we have is once we find the music, once we know the musical journey, I move the cadence to what we're doing so we're always riding to the beat. Especially when it comes to a Broadway ride, the beat is so important. And that's one of the reasons why it takes me so long. It takes a lot of time. It is basically like you're workshopping a show, what works, what doesn't work. And the cadence for me has to fit the beat of the music. For me as a former dancer, it just feels off when you're not riding to the beat.

What are your hopes for the future of the West End and Broadway musicals?

The thing about musical theater is it's ever evolving. That's the beauty of it. There's always a new generation coming into the experience and bringing their own energy and what they want to see. Shows like SIX and HAMILTON would never have been done maybe 15 years ago, because the concept would have been out of place. But with HAMILTON having a diverse cast tell the story of the Founding Fathers, it works in so many different layers. And for me as a minority watching that now, it makes me so proud to be in musical theater because it's always pushing the boundaries. And it's always a reflection of what society is or what society should be or wants to be, isn't it?

Rapid Fire Question Round

If you could choose any Broadway performer to come to Peloton Studios London and take one of your classes, who would it be and why?

It'll be Hugh Jackman to do a GREATEST SHOWMAN original cast ride. And maybe Zac Efron and Zendaya will turn up as well.

What musicals would you love to see included in future Peloton Broadway Series?

There's so many. My favorite classic musicals are WEST SIDE STORY and GUYS AND DOLLS. Those are fantastic choices. You know, the music's fantastic. We've done RENT [at Peloton]. We've done WICKED. DEAR EVAN HANSEN has been on the [Peloton] platform. HAMILTON has been on the platform. Whatever our music team can get and whatever the Peloton members want. I know the music team works so hard just trying to get all these deals done for the experience of the members.

If you could only play music from five cast recordings in your Peloton Broadway classes, which recordings would you pick?

Definitely RENT. It's fantastic. Everyone's a Renthead....and WEST SIDE STORY. HAMILTON. I want to say SIX just for you.

But my all-time favorite musical, and, and for me, it captures what musical theater is about, the storytelling and the dance, is CHICAGO. Because with CHICAGO, it's just the performance. You can do that show anywhere with literally nothing, and you still create this musical experience. I think that's one of my favorite shows is CHICAGO.

What's a classic musical you'd love to see revived on the West End?

I want to be very cheeky because I've done it a few times: THE KING AND I. I did it at the Palladium in 2000 with Elaine Paige and Jason Scott Lee. And the last production I did before my musical retirement was THE KING AND I at the Palladium, the Lincoln Center production [directed by Bartlett Sher]. That was the last production I did so I went full circle.

I would like THE KING AND I to come back and perhaps play the King. Finally, be the first Thai actor to ever play the King in THE KING AND I. I've watched so many amazing actors play the King, like Jason Scott Lee, Daniel Dae Kim, and Ken Watanabe. And I learn a little bit of something from all of them. I think if I ever got the opportunity, I will bring something authentic and different to it. That's the revival I want. Another Rodgers and Hammerstein revival of THE KING AND I.

If you could pick an instructor, either in London or in New York, to do a dual Broadway ride with you, who would you pick?

It would have to be Christine [D'Ercole]. She is fantastic. She does amazing Broadway rides. I would love to do a ride with her, and I know she's very knowledgeable. I think we'll have lot of things to kind of create together and give the members

I've also always wanted to do a Lip Sync Battle right with Denis [Morton]...I would like to see a class where you ride, but then there's a section where we lip sync. I don't know why, but I imagine doing that with Denis.

Take cycling rides like the Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway ride and enjoy strength classes with Sam Yo on the Peloton platform, either on a Peloton Bike or using the Peloton App. Visit OnePeloton.com to learn more. Current Peloton members can view all of Sam's classes at members.onepeloton.com.

Follow Sam Yo on social media @yoiamsamyo on Instagram and Twitter.

Interview responses edited for length and clarity

Photos courtesy of Peloton

Interview by Rachel Weinberg

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