Leslie Odom Jr.’s laugh can light up the earliest of morning phone calls, and the original Hamilton cast member unleashes one when CL asks him about whether he and Lin-Manuel Miranda ever considered swapping their Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton roles.
“It makes my knees and back hurt already,” Odom Jr., 35, joked. “The second you felt like that in that show, the show would literally run over your face. It would just bowl right over you. It moved at lightning speed. It really was just a couple of years of doing my best to keep up.”
Odom — who’ll play Tampa’s Straz Center on Friday — is keeping up just fine these days, and we caught up with him to talk about his new baby, being your highest self and whether or not he’s interested in playing any more Sean Connery roles after filming a new version of Murder on the Orient Express. Read our Q&A below and get more information on the show via local.cltampa.com.
How are [wife] Lucille Ruby [daughter] and Nicolette? You’re actually taking time off, right?
Well the time off is over. I took six weeks off. The girls are great. It’s been…sleepless (laughs). It’s been great though. You know, your focus completely changes. If I’m not busy, then I want to be with my ladies.
You’re career has been amazing, obviously everyone talks about Hamilton, but you're booked for Newport Jazz festival. I know you’re big on declaring the things you want and being proactive about doing what you need to do to get them. Was it a checkbox on your list?
Well, you know, the boxes that I cared about most were checked with the Hamilton experience. All I ever wanted to do, all through my childhood, because was the thing that got me into theatre was a show called Rent. I ended up doing the show. So that was artistically fulfilling. It was commercially successful, and it was also culturally relevant. So that’s what I thought the best of this industry looked like — if you were in something that is all three of these things. I never knew if it would happen for me. Hamilton was that. I got a year-and-a-half of that, and I got a Tony award and a Grammy award to boot. So really everything after that experience has been gravy. So the music thing is like tangential childhood dreams. Not anything that I really have any energy to, but Hamilton just opened up so many doors.
You know, if you’re willing to work hard and deliver for people, then the doors continue to stay open and new ones open after that. So yeah, we signed a record deal with S-Curve after Hamilton and did an album. The response was so great to the music and what we bring on stage. We’ve been getting booked, the gigs have been getting better and better. I’m almost a year removed from the show. I just played with the Boston Pops, and I’ll be back with then for the Fourth of July. We have the San Diego Symphony and of course Newport Jazz Festival — it’s just, we just keep trying our best for deliver for people. We don’t believe in sending an audience away without smiles on their faces, and it keeps working out for us, thank God.
And you talk about "we." You talk about the gigs, the quality getting better. Can you talk about the band you’re touring with on this one?
Yeah, I tour with a five-piece, usually. Every now and then I go with a trio, but 95-percent of the time it’s a five-piece. I have a drummer, percussionist, bassist, guitarist as a pianist who is also my MD [Musical Director]. Yeah we’ve developed a sound and vibe that we believe in. The reactions are the gigs are positive and emotional. We also try to find a way, you know, coming from the acting world, from the world of being a performer. Audiences may be familiar with the album stuff, but they are coming primarily because they know you work as an actor, so we have to find a way to make those Hamilton songs fit nicely into an evening that also features songs from albums that I’ve recorded. We found a way to do that.
These evenings don’t feel scattered. They don’t feel random. They feel organic and hopefully exciting and a lot of fun. It also gives us a chance to connect with people and audiences in a way that we don’t get to in New York City. You know I would be doing a show and then going home to ice my knees and ice my back afterwards. It’s not the kind of thing where I get to reach out and touch people in a way that I get to know.
You mention Hamilton opening doors. We’ve covered Daveed’s project a few times. It’s obviously different from the play, but Hamilton fans go towards it because they are just hyper-intelligent and really into complicated stuff. Do you listen to any of the stuff Daveed is doing with .clipping?
Oh sure. Yeah absolutely. “Work Work” is my favorite clipping. song. I got to see them when they were in London. I was over there shooting Murder on the Orient Express, and Daveed and clipping. were doing a little European tour, so I got to see them late one night. The energy in that room, I’d never seen them live, and Daveed is a master up there. The audience was…
Oh dude, it’s crazy. They know every word, and that guy raps fast.
They know every word. They loved it.
Did you and Lin-Manuel Miranda ever consider trading off the parts of Burr and Hamilton, a la Little Foxes or True West?
That’s funny. Maybe one day for some big benefit and return to the show. I think we both kind of of felt like our hands were full. There was never really a moment where I felt like, “Oh, I got Burr licked — I got that down.” The second you felt like that in that show, the show would literally run over your face. It would just bowl right over you. It moved at lightning speed. It really was just a couple of years of doing my best to keep up.
So we never thought about it while we were in it. I have friends now, that I’ve come up with, guys like Donald Webber [Jr.] is doing the show. He’s the matinee Hamilton on Broadway. Michael Luwoye I’ve known for a long time; he’s Hamilton on the road. So there are these cats who’ve I grown up go into the role, so I am like, “Maybe I can do Hamilton one day.” I’m certainly, the thought of it makes my eyes kind of…
It scares you.
It doesn’t scare me.
Does it makes your knees hurt?
Ha, yea it makes my knees and back hurt already. So you know it’s a cheeky little thought now. Maybe one day.
You've talked about theater being a reminder for all of us to be our highest selves. When have you been your highest self? How do you move toward that on a bad day?
Usually I, you know I am a spiritual guy, so a relationship with God is at the center of my life. So usually I can tell if I am in flow. It doesn’t always mean that things are easy, but it means that I am aided by the universe in my pursuits. It’s when coincidences happen. When I am running into people that I was just thinking about. I’m helped by the universe; I don’t have to do it alone. That’s when I know that I am in flow.
When I am trudging uphill, and I am fighting to kind of make things happen is when I have to take a pause. It doesn’t mean that it’s never going to happen. It just means it might be happening right now. Listen, if I could’ve made a Hamilton happen in my life, I would’ve done it 15 years ago. I couldn’t. I just had to stay on my path. So when I am feeling low, there are a lot of things that I do. The main thing that I do is reach out. I do not isolate, you know? I have mentors. I have friends around me. I surround myself with people who I respect, and who are also highly driven, highly motivated. People who help me stay afloat. So I reach out to those people — it’s the first thing I do.
My wife is one of those people, and so is my father-in-law. So I keep people like that around me. When I need to, I call them up. I tell them I need a boost, and they give it to me.
My editor-in-chief was wondering if you ever think about stepping into another Sean Connery role now that you’ve kind of gone through the motions of Murder on the Orient Express?
That’s so funny. You know, you’re right. I need to comb my way through that Sean Connery filmography and find out which parts of his I can take a crack at. That’s a good idea. I am gonna get started on that today.
I think you have it on lock. It’s time. So people saying you “saved the Tonys.” I know that you were just happy to be there on stage with Cynthia Erivo. Would you host next year if available?
That’s 100 percent a dream of mine. The Tonys, every single year, is a commercial for the theatre, which I love. It’s really about getting as many eyeballs on that thing as possible, so I think I have to do a couple more of those Sean Connery movies before they let me host, but yea I would love to host, are you kidding?
Last one, is Nationwide really on my side?
You’re gonna have to call them for a quote and let me know.
This article appears in Jun 22-29, 2017.
