Leslie Odom Jr. isn’t feeling very happy right now. As he rightfully points out, the string of terrifying world events is enough to give him pause. However, as he pointedly clarifies, he is feeling joyful. Spending time with his children and community and pouring himself into his creative practices as an actor and musician have allowed him to access a bedrock emotion beyond happiness. It’s an emotion that, after a season that he describes as one of “the most intense periods of growth in my life,” he’s ready to finally reclaim.
“I don’t want to diminish it because it’s a lovely thing to be happy,” he explains. “But joy is deeper than happiness. I’ve realized the last couple years, in an effort to protect myself from a certain amount of pain and a certain amount of unhappiness, I’ve decreased the breadth of my emotional palette. What happens is if I cut myself off from these certain emotions that I don’t want to feel, I lose some of those higher [emotions, and] I lose the opposite end of the spectrum as well. The higher notes get lost as well if I’m not willing to feel the lower notes. So, I’m trying to make room for all of it.”
Many fans first took notice of Odom as Aaron Burr in the 2015 original cast of Hamilton, a role that won him a Tony and a Grammy, as well as an Emmy when it premiered on Disney+ in 2020. He went on to star in fan favorites (Glass Onion), guest on notable TV shows (Abbott Elementary), and even earn twin Oscar nominations for his performance and songwriting credits on One Night in Miami.
His new play, Purlie Victorious (A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch), represents a homecoming for Odom — and not just because it’s been seven years since the end of Hamilton run. Back on Broadway for the first time since 1961, the Ossie Davis-penned play features the story of Purlie Victorious Judson, a plucky preacher returning to his Jim Crow Southern town to retrieve his late cousin’s inheritance from white landowner Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee and save his church. Subterfuge, satire, and identity swaps all commence in a sharp commentary on society’s still-present inequality.
Leslie Odom Jr. poses at the opening night of Purlie Victorious at The Music Box Theatre on September 27, 2023 in New York City.
Odom notes that he was initially exposed to the play in high school and was told it was one of “10 to 12 plays you should know as a young Black actor.” However, it wasn’t until unpacking the work that Odom truly understood its emotional resonance.
“We read Shakespeare,” he says. “Depending on what kind of school you go to, sometimes you’re reading August Wilson or Tennessee Williams. But plays are meant to be seen. They’re meant to be read aloud. They’re meant to be experienced in that way. And so, there was so much of the play that I just missed and I didn’t understand until we started working on it. I knew that it was a big role. I knew that it was a big, challenging role, which is why I wanted to take it on, but it wasn’t until the rehearsal process when I discovered just how necessary this piece was for us all. It’s been healing. It’s focusing, and it’s galvanizing. I need to find my way to pieces like this more often in all the mediums, in television and film. I really need to get more serious about how I’m spending my time and the projects that I’m being involved with. Right now, what I know is that there’s just no better use of my time than this piece.”
When it comes to his creative work, Odom speaks with an enviable certainty. (“I have learned not to second-guess or question inspiration when it comes,” he notes.) Purlie Victorious doesn’t loom large in the canon of famous stage works, but even after having the revival fall through once due to conflicting schedules, he knew it was a project he needed to see through. Likewise, during the recording of his fifth album, When a Crooner Dies, Odom realized there was more to the material than he had originally thought. The only problem — he was the one who had to create it.
Leslie Odom Jr. is pictured at the Academy Museum on November 14, 2022 in Los Angeles.
“I wanted this album to be out a year ago,” he laughs ruefully. “I was about to put out an album, and I realized that it wasn’t what I needed to say. I was coming out of this season of some real spiritual and emotional upheaval, where the ground underneath me became really unsure. And I had to go on the hunt for some new tools. What I realized was that music had been such a lifeline for me. I called my producer, brother, manager Joseph Abate, and I said, ‘I want you to listen; take a deep breath. We’re going to have to rewrite a lot of this.’ I have to put some water back in that well. I have taken so much. If I’m not making the music that’s going to help somebody want to take one more step, if I’m not making the music that’s going to help somebody, I need to give it one more try. It just became really clear for me that I was supposed to make the kind of music that I needed to hear.”
It’s hard work, but as Odom assures, it’s an act of joy. He’s found his lane, and regardless of the form his creativity takes, he’s in the business of creating meaning.
“The best way for me to run my leg of the race is to make sure that when there’s a role or a song to be sung that comes through me, it is a truthful rendering of Black life, carving the space and holding the line respectfully, or bowing when that doesn’t align with somebody else’s goals or agenda,” he says. “Staying true to that is what I must do, in records and everywhere else. And when I do it, I can sleep at night, and I like myself. I can feel proud of the work that I’ve done.”
Purlie Victorious is scheduled to run through February 2024. When a Crooner Dies is now available to purchase or stream on all music platforms.
Laura Studarus is a Los Angeles-based travel writer who has contributed to Fast Company, BBC Travel, and Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter at @Laura_Studarus.
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