Andrew Burnap, 32, has been most known for excelling in dramatic works. He’s done his share of Shakespeare, including Troilus and Cressida and King Lear at the Delacorte in Central Park, and he won a Tony for his leading role in The Inheritance, which he originated at London’s Young Vic and traveled with to Broadway.
His early thirties, however, are returning him to his musical roots. This spring he plays King Arthur in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of Camelot, and next year, he appears in a new live action musical version of Snow White, opposite Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot.
“I was a musicals fan as a kid,” says Burnap. But if you’d told him he’d be experiencing a musical renaissance, he wouldn’t have believed it. “I kind of put that dream on the shelf.”
Despite a few trepidations and some voice coaching, he’s discovered it’s not much different from classic drama. “In Shakespeare, they leap into verse. In musicals, they leap into song. It’s all an articulation of a complex emotion,” says Burnap.
Camelot is a particular pleasure, he adds, because he gets to work opposite actors Philipa Soo (as Guenevere) and Jordan Donica (as Lancelot). “They’re so deeply talented,” he says. And with director Bartlett Sher and writer Aaron Sorkin, who has provided a new book to the show. “I’ve been a fan of Aaron’s since my dad let me watch The West Wing,” Burnap adds.
“It’s a big playground,” Burnap says of rehearsing and performing Camelot at the Vivian Beaumont, “and it’s going to be so much fun.”
Phillipa Soo and Andrew Burnap in “Camelot”
