Benjamin Scheuer - "I Am Samantha"

Benjamin Scheuer is an American songwriter, guitarist, playwright, performer and recording artist, based in London and New York City.

Benjamin Scheuer (pronounced “SHOY-er”) wrote and performed The Lion, a one-man autobiographical musical. The Lion premiered off-Broadway in 2014 at the Manhattan Theatre Club, directed by Sean Daniels. It has since enjoyed critically acclaimed runs off-West End in London, again off-Broadway in New York, and at theatres around the United States. The Los Angeles Times writes that in The Lion, "the vibe of casual, unrehearsed immediacy masks the narrative complexity of a novel or an opera."

I Am Samantha was released on March 31, 2020, to coincide with International Transgender Day of Visibility. The video features a cast of 27 transgender performers, including Monica Helms and is directed by T Cooper. Scheuer wrote the song for his trans friend Samantha Williams.

Scheuer is the recipient of the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, a 2015 Theatre World Award for The Lion, the 2014 Off West End Award for Best Musical, the 2013 ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award for songwriting and the 2013 Musical Theatre Network Award for Best Lyrics. Scheuer has been nominated for a 2017 Helen Hayes Award, a 2015 Lucile Lortel Award and two 2015 Outer Critics Circle Awards, as well as the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Best Lyrics.

He’s a rare talent and he’s willing to tell the stories too often not looked at.

So today, with a nod to all the alternate versions of ourselves that hide inside our hearts, I choose Benjamin Scheuer’s “I Am Samantha” as my, believe yourself into the best version of you there is, go on and try, give yourself the freedom to fail, song for a, push through the fog, yours is the life worth fighting for, one more hope, Wenesday.