Find Out Six Queen Samantha Pauly's Gravity-Defying, Gender-Bending Dream Roles and More

Name: Samantha Pauly

Hometown: "I grew up in Iowa. Six is my first Broadway show, so having grown up in the Midwest and not really doing a lot of theater when I was younger—this is still all very surreal to me."

Credits: The Tony-nominated Six: The Musical marks Pauly's Broadway debut. She also played the role of Katherine Howard at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Citadel Theatre and Ordway Theatre. She has played Eva Perón in Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre’s Evita in London. Her additional theater credits include Honeymoon in Vegas, Godspell, Hairspray, Elf the Musical and Beaches. She appeared on screen in NBC's Chicago PD.

"I didn't start doing theater until the end of my junior year of high school. That summer before my senior year of high school, we took a trip to New York City. We saw Wicked—it was my first time seeing a Broadway show. I remember watching 'Defying Gravity' and having a moment of, 'Oh, I wanna do that.'"

"I said no to auditioning for Six three times, partly because I wanted to be done. I had just come off of the ill-fated Bat Out of Hell tour that abruptly got canceled. I was so discouraged, mainly because that was going to be my first national tour. I had such high hopes for what it could bring and felt so much disappointment that in my mind and in my heart, especially, I felt like it wasn't worth that heartache to keep trying. Sic came around, I said, 'No, sorry.' A couple days later, they came around again. They came back a third time. Our music director Roberta Duchak called me and said, 'We've had the first couple days, and I just think this is your show.' The way that my life changed in less than a year from when Bat Out of Hell closed and I went back to Chicago—just absolutely mind-blowing."

"I have three dream roles: Elphaba in Wicked. Please! I'm waiting. Andrew Lippa, The Wild Party—I would love to play Kate, and I would love to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar."

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