BWW Interviews: Sam Edgerly from DIRTY DANCING on Tour

Sam Edgerly has been performing since he was in middle school along with his older sister who also enjoys performing. Recently cast in the touring production of DIRTY DANCING, Sam shared his experiences of playing the not so loveable Robbie in this current touring producion.

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got interested in performing.

I grew up doing theater. I auditioned for my first play in sixth grade at my middle school. The director and choreographer had a dance studio and the director had a theatercalled The Talent Machine Company in Annapolis, Maryland. My sister who was a year older than I was, we started doing shows there together. We did that almost all the way through high school. I veered off for a couple of years; I went to Virginia Tech for my first two years of college and I was doing something completely different. I was studying Environmental Policy. I ended up at American University for my final two years finishing my BA in Musical Theater. It was nice because my sister was also going there with a double major Musical Theater and Journalism so it was nice to finish a year with her there as well. I finished there and I stayed around the DC area for a while. The musical theater scene was really good to me and had good connections and was able to work a lot and get a lot of good experience. I had been back and forth up in New York for a couple of auditions but had never really lived there. I ended up doing a workshop at a theater called down in DC and they brought the workshop up to New York. Then when I went up there, I met the casting director of DIRTY DANCING and she brought me in and it worked out really well. This is my first experience like this. It's been pretty great.

How did you get the role of Robbie in DIRTY DANCING?

The casting director called me in and they were looking for Robbie which is funny because I never played these smarmy characters before but it was fun to read that. I auditioned for the entire creative team, the director, James Powell and the writer of the show, Eleanor Bergstein who was actually with us through the entire rehearsal process. I went in and read the sides for Robbie which are very few but then I sang a couple of songs and that was it.

Tell us a little about the character of Robbie.

Robbie comes off as a standard good guy who on the surface everything is working for him. He's going to Yale Medical School. When he first meets Baby and meets her parents in the show, they love him. Max, the owner of the establishment loves him. But then you slowly find out that he's just this jerk. It's fun to play that. Like I said before, I hadn't really played characters like this. It's interesting that the first character I get to play happens to be the most hated character in DIRTY DANCING history so that's fun. There's even moments at the end of the show when Baby's dad gives Robbie a check to go to medical school and then it comes out that Robbie was to blame for this whole Penny nonsense that happens throughout the show. The dad takes the check back and he rips it up. And I consider it a very successful evening when people cheer when I get to leave stage and people are rid of Robbie for good which is fun.

Does the play stay close to the movie script?

They stayed very true to the movie. It's a really good theatrical adaptation. I think one of the interesting things is that they have every moment from the movie and they actually added about 22 scenes to the show which helped flush out characters a little bit more and give a little more depth to the story. The other fun part about the show is that it's told a lot more through dance. There's a few dancingscenes in the movie but they are few and far between. This one has a lot which helps tell the story a little better onstage.

What do you like about being on tour?

This is my first touring experience. So, I had a lot of reservations. It's nerve wracking being away from home for so long and learning the tricks of the trade. I had friends who were on tour and I got to talk with them and get little tips which was nice. The fun thing is exploring new cities. This is a chance to travel around the country and see places that I have never seen. It's nice to be able to experience all those things. In each city, we find the best local food or the best local night life. We get the full experience of each city which I think is something that...even if you're travelling to a city without a tour like this, you don't get that whole experience and we're able to fully experience that together which is nice.

If you had not gotten into show business, what would you have done?

I think that I still have a love for Environmental Policy especially now and I think I would have gone into that. I'm sure my parents would have appreciated me getting into that. I think that I would be somewhere in that world.

What advice do you have for anyone thinking about getting into the business?

I would say that you have to keep going and figure out what makes you happy other than this, whether it's a hobby or something else. It's easy to get bogged down in this business because it's so hard. Unfortunately, you can't really choose what your passion is about so it is a struggle especially in New York where the competition is just huge and everybody's very good and you just have to know that you want to do this and that your time will come. If you put in the energy that I think you'll be rewarded.

DIRTY DANCING plays at the Majestic Theatre in San Antonio Texas from November 4-9, 2014. To purchase tickets, you can go to the Majestic's website.

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