Meet Andrea Goss who stars as Sally in the National Tour of ‘Cabaret’
The National Tour production of Cabaret, the award winning musical and film, will be making a stop in San Diego from Aug. 23-28 at the Civic Theatre.
The musical, written in 1966, was based on the John Van Druten play I am a Camera and Christopher Isherwood’s novel Goodbye to Berlin. It ran for three years on Broadway in 1966 and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards, winning eight of those 11 nominations including Best Musical, Score, Director and Leading Actor.
Composers Kander and Ebb (Chicago, Kiss of the Spiderwoman) were brought on to join the project when director Harold Prince felt the piece wasn’t capturing the essence of the ‘20s. That musical change was exactly what the show needed.
It has had seven revivals since 1966 both here in the states and in London racking up ten more awards and over 35 nominations.
In 1972 Cabaret was made into a film starring Liza Minelli and Joel Grey and won eight Academy Awards including Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Minelli) and Best Supporting Actor (Grey).
The latest Broadway revival was in 2014 and the show is now touring the U.S.
The direction and staging of the tour is what patrons saw on Broadway at Studio 54 and stars Andrea Goss, who understudied the role of Sally on Broadway and Randy Harrison (who plays the Emcee) of Showtime’s long running series Queer as Folk.
Goss, a Broadway veteran, makes her National Tour debut with Cabaret and from the sounds of it she’s enjoying all that tour life can offer.
“This is my first tour and I am absolutely loving it,” Goss said. “I will be honest and say that it is an exhausting schedule, but at the end of the day I get to travel the country doing a show that I love and have the chance to bring it to people who maybe did not have the opportunity to see it at Studio 54. I love seeing each audience’s reaction and how it changes from city to city. This show was written in the ‘60s and it takes place in Berlin in 1930, but the themes are still very relevant to today’s world and I think it is a perfect time to travel the country and share this incredible piece of theater with people.”
The show, as mentioned earlier, is the 2014 Broadway revival with a few small changes, according to Goss.
“This is the exact same Roundabout [Theatre Co.] show that Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall directed on Broadway. The only difference is that in New York City they had the time to recreate a club setting and have a thrust stage and the orchestra section of the audience was transformed into tables and chairs to replicate what a club would look like in Berlin during that time. As we tour, we do not have the time to change each theater into an actual club, but other than that this show is exactly the same.”
As understudy for the role of Sally on Broadway, Goss went on many times and had plenty of time to prepare for the role she would eventually be able to call her own. She watched three different actresses (Michelle Williams, Emma Stone and Sienna Miller) come and go from the Broadway revival and in the end was asked to do the National Tour.
“I had the opportunity to go on quite a bit over the course of the year [on Broadway],” Goss shared. “It was really incredible to see three stunning Sally’s go on and see how different each of them were. I was also given so much flexibility and creative freedom, which is fairly unusual as an understudy. I was allowed to really start finding my own version of Sally.”
Before the role of Sally came along Goss starred in the musicals Rent and Once. Playing the lead role in Once is a far cry from Sally Bowles but it gave the actress a chance to spread her acting wings so to speak. Asking what her favorite part of Once was proved a little difficult for Goss to answer.
“This is tough,” Goss admitted. “I loved every single moment of that show. I think that Enda Walsh’s writing is absolutely stunning. I think that the book part of the show was actually my favorite. Of course I think the music of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova is perfect, but it is rare to find such a complex, intelligent, witty, moving book in a musical. It is more like a play with music. I believe it was his first musical that he has worked on and I love that it was approached exactly like a play. The scenes were beautifully formed and were quite long actually compared to most musical book scenes. I think his writing is brilliant and it was such an honor to be a part of that show.”
Given her impressive resume one might think Goss has been acting since the womb, but the actress shared that theater wasn’t something she thought about growing up.
“To be honest I wasn’t really interested in theater until I was a little older,” Goss said. “I think this was because I grew up in a town where there really wasn’t much theater that I was exposed to. I did love watching movies however, and Julie Andrews was probably my biggest inspiration as a child. I used to watch Mary Poppins and Sound of Music over and over again until our tapes started to get scratchy. Now as I have gotten older I find Kate Blanchett and Daniel Day Lewis very inspirational. I just find their work to be honest and they don’t seem to be placed in a box of what type of character they play. I would love to have a career that spans as many types of characters and genres as them.”
While theater may not have been a big part of her childhood, or anyone else in her family for that matter, music was.
“No one in my family is in this business, however we all grew up playing different musical instruments,” Goss said. “My parents gave us the best gift of starting us at piano at a young age, and then we all slowly added other instruments into our arsenal. My sister majored in modern dance, so I think the performing bug is in us all even though it isn’t specifically theater.”
Whatever the path was that Goss took, it was obviously the right one. Broadway credits and the starring role in one of the most memorable iconic musical theater pieces is pretty impressive to be sure. Not to mention being asked to play Sally without an audition.
“I find it rare that understudies take over for the roles they cover, even for touring shows, so I wasn’t expecting it,” Goss confided. “Also, this show is known to bring in some pretty big names for this role, including the last tour of it, so it never really crossed my radar that it was a possibility. Also, I never re-auditioned for it, so I feel very honored that they thought my work as an understudy was strong enough to move into the role. I take my responsibility in this role and in this show very seriously because I have so much respect for this piece. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to step into Sally’s shoes every night.”
Cabaret is playing at the Civic Theatre, 3666 Fourth Ave, downtown San Diego Aug. 23-28. For tickets visit broadwaysd.com or call 619-570-1100.
