Interview: Sam Harris of OPENLY GRAY at Feinstein's/54 Below March 16 & 17

It's a time of renewal, a time of rebirth, a time of reemergence for the world as, one year after the official reopening of New York City nightclubs (and two variants later), the cabaret and concert community is fully back in business.

For Tony Award nominee Sam Harris, the reemergence is about more than COVID and quarantine. The Broadway veteran and concert star suffered a vocal setback, a surgery, and a re-training of his legendary voice. Now, happy, healthy, and completely free of hair-dye Sam Harris is ready to return to the cabaret stage, something that will happen next week when his new show, OPENLY GRAY, opens at Feinstein's/54 Below on March 16th.

Before that happens, Sam got on the phone with Broadway World for a chat about his voice box, his teenager, and his interesting tendency toward sharing more of himself on the stage than off.

This interview has been edited for space and content.

Sam Harris, welcome to Broadway World.

Hi there, Stephen. So happy to "see" you.

How's it going out there? You're out West in the sunshine, aren't you?

It is so beautiful. It's earthquake weather because in the morning it's about 45 degrees and then it gets to about 85, two hours later, which I always think is earthquake weather.

Is there such a thing as earthquake weather? Or is that a cool, clever term that you have coined?

It is something that I know other people believe in ... when the earth gets hot very fast, it's unhappy... the earth becomes unhappy.

I just figure that mother nature is having a bad day and boom(!) earthquake or tornado or tsunami... I think it's the earth fighting back for all the damage we've done her, but that's another conversation.

I would agree with that... but it's beautiful out here, though I miss New York like crazy.

When's the last time you were out East? Was it before the lockdown?

I've been there once since the lockdown. And prior to that, the last time I worked there was at the end of 2019. Wow. In December, right before everything went crazy.

You and I got to speak digitally during the quarantine and we discussed what it was like, being three men in quarantine, out in California. How did it go? How were the last two years for you guys?

Well prior to COVID, my husband Danny traveled three or four days a week, and absence makes the heart grow fonder; my son was going to school, everything was normal. And then, when COVID hit, we were, all of a sudden, together, 24/7 for insanely long periods of time. And we survived it well... but it was tough... and we live in a pretty big house with different floors, so we were able to get away from each other. It had its moments but we handled it well overall.

And now everything's opened up again - is school in session? Is everybody back to their lives?

Well, Danny's not traveling. His work just got more intense because he's doing the same thing except not in person - he's Zooming six hours a day. He coaches presentation and marketing and direct events and things, so his work has just transferred to Zoom, which makes him actually have no break. He doesn't have the travel day off anymore... and we torture him a lot.

And you are back performing live now, aren't you?

I am indeed.

You've recently had a club date out west, haven't you?

In Palm Springs. And I did something in Florida and after 54 Below I'm doing something in LA, and then in San Diego. But, for me, this has been more than just COVID because I had quite a scare - I damaged a vocal cord that hemorrhaged; my doctor told me that this was happening a lot because people hadn't been singing in a couple of years, so when they started back, it was rusty and vulnerable. I was really getting back in shape, and then I strained it. I did this music video that I spent six hours on, cause even if it's on a track, you still have to sing so everything looks like it's moving properly. I overdid it and I strained it, then I hemorrhaged it, and then it wasn't healing properly. Ultimately, I had to have surgery but by the end of it, I had been on voice rest for four and a half or five months. I had to rehab and start speaking again, and then slowly singing again. So, this has been a rebirth for me. It was really scary - there were times that I thought, "Am I going to sing again?" But I'm feeling better than ever. That's the crazy part: I'm singing better than I have in years. I've had great rehab help from Joan Lader, who is my voice coach in New York, who rehabbed me back, and my doctor here is the best in the world. I'm lucky that I have a great support team.

So the bottom line is that you're healed.

I'm healed and I am singing my tuckus off! It's so good to feel free

When recovering from something so scary that could strip you of your art form, of your livelihood, when you come back from it - like an athlete, who's had an injury - do you have to approach your work from a different place now?

Yes, I do. I had to rethink how I was singing (and I've been doing this for a very long time). Several years ago, I noticed that I was working harder to accomplish the same thing, and it kind of took the fun out of it. I already have really bad stage fright - really bad until I'm on a stage, and then I'm happy and free. But I wasn't feeling free on stage. I was getting more anxious and more nervous and wondering if I should be doing this. So when this trauma happened, it was actually difficult and painful, but it was also a learning experience. I had to look at some of those habits and the things that took the joy out for me. And now it's back. That's why I feel like I'm celebrating right now, in this work.

And you are celebrating a new hair color.

(Laughing) Yes. The show is called Openly Gray. And actually, it's not a new hair color, it's been there for quite some time, (Laughing) it's just been covered up!

Did you just get tired of dyeing it, or was it just a chance to unfetter yourself?

I think everything changed during COVID - I think we were able to look at ourselves - we didn't have to keep up anything, all of us in the performing arts, nobody was working, and I think we just said, "I'm home. This is me. I'm quarantined. This is the real deal. Let it down." Then, that was the question: "Am I going to go back and do that same thing?" and the answer is NO. There are so many of us who all of a sudden went gray, who let it go white during the break.

So what is Openly Gray the concert all about,

I'm a theater guy. And when I create a show it's with a theatrical arc, and one of the things that I love most is finding pieces of music, if they're known, and reexamining them and giving them my perspective, which lets me reinvent and explore songs. So, what I've done in this new show is a lot of new material and also digging out some things that I did years and years ago that I look at differently. It's pretty raw. I mean, there's fun, of course, I always do a lot of comedy, but there are some new things that I've been able to really give my own spin on that express what I'm going through now. I sent you that little video from the wings (that was shot when I was in Florida) of the song HELP!, which is an up-tempo, and those lyrics mean something to me now in a different way, so I turned it into a ballad and really examined those lyrics, cause I'm such a lyric guy. "When I was younger so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way. Now those days are gone and I'm not so self-assured." Now, I'(M) Willing to open up the door. I think what I went through with voice stuff... when I was young, I didn't need anybody. It was a different thing. I'm exploring things differently. I think I've always been honest on stage, but I'm allowing myself to find pieces of music that reflect where I am now, some of which have come out of some difficult stuff.

The one component, Stephen... I have a great doctor, great voice coach, great family, great friends supporting, but one element was missing, and that's the people I get to sing for and, now, being live again, it's complete. At last.

You have had a tendency in your work toward absolute honesty. In your stage play (and now film), and book A SLICE OF HAM you were unapologetically open: where does that instinct come from?

(Sam takes a long time to gather his thoughts.) My husband always says, "If I want to know what's going on in your life, I'll come see one of your shows." Because I'm not really that way in real life. I mean, I'm emotionally available, but I don't really talk about my life or my feelings or my problems, or even my thoughts very much. I have close friends that, of course, I share things with... but it's very different than honesty on the stage, when I've always sort of exposed myself in a different way. Isn't that funny? I've thought about that before: why can I do that publicly in front of some people I don't even know and yet it's more difficult for me to do it in my offstage world.

Well, if I can make an observation, I think that your art means a great deal to you and you pour all of these important factors of your being into your art and, having done that, you don't feel the need to do it in your personal life.

Wow. That's a really good observation. And maybe that's why, when I haven't sung for a long time, I become an asshole (Laughing heartily).

(Laughter from both of us.)

I'm making a joke, but the point being, if I'm able to express that and feel that in a public forum... andthat's true with my writing too, Stephen. It's so funny: since the book Slice of Ham came out, people will come up and say something very private and I'm like, "How do they know that?" And I'm like, "Oh yeah, I wrote it IN A BOOK!" (Both laughing.)

I think you forget that because once it's done, you move on the next thing.

Exactly. Exactly!

So speaking of the writing - The Substance of All Things - is there anything in the future for that? Will it be translated into any other mediums?

Funny you should mention that. I am working with someone on the next steps to a limited series. This is not a memoir, this is literary fiction. People who've written to me, whether I know them or not, have all talked about how visual it is and how it will make a great film. And I agree. So I'm working on something with someone.

Does it excite you?

To be moving into taking the book into a visual medium?

Yes.

Oh, god. Yes! That would be the most thrilling thing! First of all, when I write - it's a big task, when you're talking about writing a novel. I think if anybody knew what it really meant, they would never do it.

I would not do it. I don't have the bandwidth to write a novel.

Well, once you start it, it goes. There are many puzzle pieces, it was a four-year process, not daily, of course, but it was a lot, and it's a very emotional book, it deals with some serious subjects. And it's also a coming-of-age story. I think whether you're a writer, if you're a songwriter or you're a literary writer, or you're a painter, or you're a choreographer, you're creating something that is from your soul and from your psyche, and from what you need to say to the world. The whole point of it is to find the commonality of the human experience, and my experiences - my specifics are different from yours but the face of it is exactly the same. That's what I think I love so much about performing is that I can sing something that has my secrets, that I know are why I'm singing the song, what it means to me. But if I do it correctly and I'm really honest and allow it to unfold, then it is my hope that whoever is watching or hearing will relate to it in their specific.

This is what we've missed so much during COVID: there is great value in assembling with other people that we don't know to have a common experience. And you can't do that on zoom.

I'm so grateful that 54 Below is streaming this because so many people don't get to New York and they don't get to LA, so I love that it's available. But I think that it's vital that we breathe the same air and sit and cry together and laugh together and think together. It's vital. That's why theater will always be. Because we need that commonality, we need a shared experience in the same place.

I recently heard a theater professional ask the question, "Why are we continuing to do this when the world is in the state that it's in?" and I said, "It's because there's someone out there that needs to hear the story that you are telling."

Absolutely. If you're an actor or you're a singer (and I consider myself an actor first) you don't always know who that person is (who says something), and I'm always so grateful when someone says to me, "Your music really helped me through this period of my life." We don't know what it does when we put it out there; we just know we put it out there. What a great feeling to know that (it touched someone). That's why I'm doing it. Because somebody affected me - because somebody that I heard when I was a little kid spoke to me.

You just said, "I am an actor." You're doing a lot of cabaret and concert right now. Is there any chance that we're going to get to see you do some character work anytime soon?

No. In a word. No. I've lived in LA now for a while, and when we had our son, Cooper - who is almost 14...

What?!

Can you believe that? And he's so much taller than us. He's five-eleven. I'm not. He's extraordinary. But when we made that choice, I knew I wasn't going to be going to New York for any long periods of time to do a play or do a show. People have always said, "Well, so-and-so does it, they go on location for nine months," and I'm like, "Well, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea. That doesn't mean that it's necessarily great parenting." Everybody's got their own thing and it was my choice to raise my son. And now that he's a little older... when you're talking about going back on the boards, I don't think I would come into New York right now to replace - it wouldn't be the same thing. I would come into New York to originate something for a new piece. And the other side of it is I didn't want to move him around. At this age, knowing that we were going to be in New York for a year could be a fabulous experience.

It's an adventure.

So that door is open. We'll have to see.

We'll just leave that in the air for you.

Thank you.

I'm looking at the artwork for Openly Gray and your hair is gray, but what's not gray is your arm: how much ink do you have on your body?

Well, the arm that you're seeing there is from my elbow up; my entire chest is tattooed and my right arm is half tattooed down. My whole upper chest is all heavily inked.

So, as somebody who has nine tattoos of my own, what I want to ask is: do you design your tattoos or do you have an artist that you go to and say, "Draw on me!" to?

I don't draw them myself, but I collect information, I collect examples, I talk them through it - and the same person has done all my tattoos, so he sketches on me and I say yes or no, or can I make that bigger or whatever. But it is an art. And the chest stuff is very new, and I did most of it in two days - it was two five-hour sessions. And, as a person who has tattoos, you know that that's a long time for that kind of pain.

You start to feel like a Thanksgiving Turkey.

Exactly. What I will say about tattoos - to be able to choose things that... for instance, one of them I have on my arm is an anchor and it has a treble clef on it and a wing. Music is my anchor and my flight. My freedom.

Sam, I'm so happy that we got to talk together. I know the show will be wonderful, as always.

I can't thank you enough, Stephen.

Sam Harris OPENLY GRAY plays March 16 & 17 at 7 pm. For information and reservations to Sam Harris OPENLY GRAY visit the 54 Below website HERE.

Sam Harris has a website HERE.