On May 30, . (You may also recognize him from the as the original Captain Phoebus de Martin.) One of the first sweet nothings this smooth operator whispered in his new wife鈥檚 ear was: 鈥淭his week ruined my life.鈥�
Samonsky was actually talking about how hard it would be to be to go back to New York after such a magical week with Reinders in the Magic Kingdom where they wed, but that鈥檚 not exactly how it came out. 鈥淥ne of the best things about having a new husband,鈥� says Reinders, 鈥渋s catching him saying all the worst possible things he could ever say in the first week of marriage.鈥� One of the best things about their relationship however, is that they keep laughing about it.
Friends had been trying to hook the two actors up for months, but Reinders was convinced that since Samonsky was so hot, he had to be boring. Samonsky had seen his now wife play Portia, the hilariously naive Puritan in Something Rotten! and knew she was beautiful and funny, but wasn鈥檛 sure if she could also be serious. Their snap judgements were exacerbated when Reinders went to see her best friend Sarah Litzsinger in the Ventura, CA production of Little Miss Scrooge, which also starred Samonsky. The three actors shared a flight back to New York and when Litzsinger forced her two friends to sit together, Reinders continued to order cocktails after a bottomless mimosa brunch while Samonsky promptly fell asleep. Now they realize they might have stumbled onto the formula for a successful relationship. As Reinders says, 鈥淚 was drunk, and he was asleep, which will be the rest of our marriage.鈥� Mazel tov!
Congratulations on getting married! Did you choose the date because it was during a three-week layoff of the Bridges tour?
Andrew Samonsky: Yes, and we actually already had this trip to Disney World planned as just a little fun vacation. After talking and talking about every possible wedding option road to go down, we said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 we just get married when we鈥檙e down there?鈥�
Kate Reinders: We kept calling it our pre-Honeymoon, so we finally said, 鈥淲hy don鈥檛 we just make it our real honeymoon?鈥�
What is a wedding at Disney World like?
KR: Disney makes it very easy and magical. They have elopement packages called 鈥淲ishes,鈥� 鈥淓scape,鈥� or 鈥淢emories.鈥� We did 鈥淲ishes.鈥�
AS: We did 鈥淢emories.鈥�
KR: Oh, okay. Clearly I didn鈥檛 do a lot of the planning. I made Andrew do it, but he鈥檚 a really good planner, which I love! It鈥檚 so nice that I can just relax and show up. The Memories package included the two of you plus four people, so we had our parents fly down. Then they provide a bouquet, a violinist鈥�
AS: A photographer, a venue鈥�
KR: And then a magic in-room celebration where Tinker Bell leaves you a surprise. How can you not say yes to that!
That sounds very magical! Were you originally thinking that you would have a bigger wedding?
KR: We could not make a small list to save our lives. We kept trying to cut down, and our cut-down list was still 250 people. We鈥檙e a little bit older, so we鈥檝e made lots of friends along the way, and I鈥檓 from Michigan, and he鈥檚 from California, and we live in New York, so we didn鈥檛 know where to do it or when to do it. We knew that most people would have to fly to wherever it would be, and it would end up costing people tons of money and costing us tons of money. Now we鈥檙e just going to have a few parties after we鈥檙e done with our shows like here in New York, at my parents backyard in Michigan鈥�.
AS: And at my parents house in Ventura, California.
KR: Basically, we figured that we鈥檒l just come to you.
A bridal tour. I like it.
AS: After my [show] tour, I鈥檒l go back out on tour to celebrate the marriage.
KR: Which is kind of nice after the affair he鈥檚 been having across America.
Right! Speaking of the Bridges tour. You guys have had a crazy year. You started dating ten months ago, got engaged in March and married in May, and Andrew鈥檚 been on tour for most of it! The juxtaposition between being away from each other, but making such big strides in your relationship is really interesting.
AS: Obviously going on tour wasn鈥檛 ideal for our relationship, but it kind of reveals things that either bring you closer together or drive you apart. We just really missed each other. We FaceTime every night and I don鈥檛 think we鈥檝e gone longer than 13 days without seeing each other. Either she comes to visit me or I go and visit her. We鈥檝e also been kind of blessed with a series of tour layoffs. We鈥檝e had a one-week, a two-week and a three-week layoff, which helped break it up. We鈥檝e seen more of each other than most people could hope to on a tour like this, but every day we just missed each other more, and in a way we really got to know each other even better by just talking every night on the phone. So as hard as it鈥檚 been at times, it鈥檚 really been quite a beautiful journey of us getting closer and realizing how right we were for each other.
You were only dating for about three months before Andrew had to go out on tour. What was your relationship like before he left?
KR: We were both a little bit tentative when we first started dating. We had both sort of decided that we were going to be single forever, and we were okay with it, and on our first couple dates鈥擨 only recently have admitted that they were dates. I was calling them interviews then鈥攚e had previously conceived notions of each other.
AS: Or you could call them low expectations.
KR: We had mutual friends who kept telling us that we would be great together, but I thought he was too handsome, so he must be boring.
AS: And I thought she was too cute, so she must not be very bright.
KR: And we both weren鈥檛 really interested in [starting a relationship], which is probably why it worked.
AS: We were totally surprised when we met each other.
KR: We had kept missing each other in life, like I was supposed to do Tales of the City in San Francisco鈥�
AS: And play my wife.
KR: No. You would have played my husband.
AS: Okay.
KR: So we were supposed to be in that, but I ended up not doing it. Then we were supposed to be in [a new musical called] Little Miss Scrooge [at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, CA] together, but again I didn鈥檛 do it. Then I actually started the application process for an apartment, which was where we live now, but at the time I ended up subletting an apartment next door to my stage manager. The first time I came over to [Andrew鈥檚] apartment I said, 鈥淲here are we going?鈥� and he was like, 鈥淭his is where I live,鈥� and I said, 鈥� I almost got an apartment here!鈥� I [had applied] to live in 3EE and he lives in 3M! We would have been literally down the hall and around the corner from each other.
That is insane!
KR: I know and thank goodness I didn鈥檛 move in because I was just looking for reasons we couldn鈥檛 date and that would have been a good one.
AS: Yeah we might have freaked out a little bit if that had been the case.
Who are the friends that set you up?
KR: My best friend Sarah Litzsinger.
AS: She was the main matchmaker in this whole deal.
KR: She kept telling me how great he was and I was like, 鈥淏oring!鈥� and she said, 鈥淣o! I鈥檓 telling you, he鈥檚 one of us. He鈥檚 a weirdo.鈥�
What was it about each other that finally made you realize that Sarah was right?
AS: Well, we joke about having low expectations, but we didn鈥檛 really know each other. I knew she was super cute and I knew she was funny. I had seen Something Rotten!, but after talking to her on one of our 鈥渋nterviews鈥� I realized that she is just the sweetest, most generous, kindest person you鈥檒l ever want to meet. That was an incredible revelation I had in getting to know her. Everyone tells me how special she is when they congratulate me, and believe me I know. I feel very lucky.
KR: It was sort of the same thing [for me]. On one of our 鈥渋nterviews鈥� he started talking about space and the Kuiper belt and black matter.
AS: Dark matter, babe.
KR: Right. Dark matter. And he was getting really excited about it. Then he told some really dumb dad jokes, and those are my favorite.
AS: I sound like the biggest nerd.
KR: That鈥檚 the thing. Nobody knows that he is the biggest nerd and the sweetest and just so funny. We laugh so much. I say it was a slow burn, but I guess it happened pretty quickly. It felt like it was gradual and steady, and then it just was. It was the feeling of, 鈥淵eah of course he鈥檚 my husband. He was always supposed to be my husband.鈥�
