Andy Sandberg is an American director, writer, actor, and producer. A 2005 graduate of Yale College, his Off-Broadway directing credits include Straight, Application Pending, Shida, Craving for Travel, Operation Epsilon, and The Last Smoker in America. He is also known as a producer of the Broadway and West End revivals of the musical Hair.
He directed the Off-Broadway show Straight, which was named a Critics’ Pick by The New York Times, which wrote that the production was “directed with polished finesse by Andy Sandberg.” He directed the critically acclaimed Application Pending, a comedy about kindergarten admissions that he co-wrote with Greg Edwards. He also directed the world premieres of Craving for Travel, which he also wrote with Edwards ; Shida, a musical by Jeannette Bayardelle ; The Last Smoker in America, an original musical by Tony nominee Bill Russell and Drama Desk nominee Peter Melnick ; and Alan Brody’s Operation Epsilon. Sandberg directed Bernice Bobs Her Mullet in 2007, R.R.R.E.D. in 2009, Zelda at the Oasis in 2012 and "Eli’s Comin’ to Broadway," a BC/EFA benefit hosted by Nathan Lane, as well as two Sing for Hope benefits, featuring Dick Cavett, Michael Cerveris, and Richard Kind. In 2007, Sandberg assisted Hal Prince on the Broadway production of LoveMusik, and he served as the Associate Director to Sheryl Kaller on Christopher Durang and Peter Melnick’s Adrift in Macao at Primary Stages.
Producer
At age 25, Sandberg became the youngest producer in history to win a Tony Award. He has worked on Broadway and in London's West End. He was a producer of the hit revival of Hair, the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man, starring James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack, and John Larroquette, and Will Eno's critically acclaimed play The Realistic Joneses, starring Toni Collette, Michael C. Hall, Tracy Letts, and Marisa Tomei. In the fall of 2009, Sandberg and Daryl Roth produced the New York premiere of Vigil, starring Malcolm Gets and Helen Stenborg. In the spring of 2010, Sandberg helped produce Paradise Found, a new musical co-directed by Hal Prince and Susan Stroman, produced at London's Menier Chocolate Factory and starring Mandy Patinkin. Off-Broadway, he helped produce Love, Loss, and What I Wore, by Nora and Delia Ephron, and the lead producer of A Perfect Future, a new play by David Hay. He served as the Executive Producer for the Off-Broadway revival of Pageant. In 2010, he directed and produced a Columbus, Ohio, production of The Last Smoker in America, a new musical by Bill Russell and Peter Melnick, which subsequently opened in New York in the summer of 2012 under Sandberg's direction.
Actor
As an actor, Sandberg appeared as Jimmy opposite Lea Michele in the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival production of Hot and Sweet. Other roles have included Huck in Big River, Sam in Fully Committed, and Joey in Scarlett Fever. He has appeared in the films The Living and The Battle of Pussy Willow Creek.