Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 4-6-18

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Broadway Star Leslie Odom, Jr. Captivates USF Audience With His Story And Music
“Finding your purpose “is as simple as walking toward the thing that makes you come alive.”
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
Leslie Odom, Jr., was 13- years-old when he first realized his passion for the theater.
At that age, Odom knew all the words to the Broadway show “Rent.” So, when Odom saw the play in his hometown of Philadelphia, it not only enter- tained him – it solidified his pursuit of a career in the theatri- cal arts.
“I did not want to be in show business. I wanted to be in “Rent”.”
“That show WAS my “Ha- milton”,” he said, referencing one of Broadway’s biggest hit plays in which he earned a Tony Award as Aaron Burr.
For about an hour on Tues- day, Odom, who kicked off the University of South Florida’s ‘USF Week 2018’ by engaging hundreds at Marshall Student
Center with his career high- lights and sang selections from both “Rent” and “Hamilton.”
Offering a mix of humor and contemplativeness, Odom walked the audience through a brief history of his path from drama student at Carnegie Mel- lon University to Broadway star and Nationwide Insurance pitchman.
“I really think...my major was empathy,” he said of his time at college. “I spent a lot of time putting myself in other people’s shoes, understanding the decisions they made.”
Doing so “made me more compassionate. It’s made me more disciplined. I think it’s made me more thoughtful,” he said.
Odom implored fellow mu- sicians and actors to protect the arts. The theater, especially, provides a catharsis that is “closely related to church and to worship,” he said.
Odom said he realized this after watching actor and men- tor, Billy Porter sing gospelized versions of the songs
from the play “Grease!”.
“It never occurred to me that
we could sing “Grease” the way we sing in church,” he said. “I just didn’t know we could do that.”
It was while working with Porter that Odom said he dis- covered his key to a great per- formance. Porter kept asking Odom to recite a line over and over until Odom became “pissed off.”
The next day – still smolder- ing from Porter’s persistence – Odom tapped into his feelings and “flew,” he said.
“The thing about emotions istheycanbeahellofanoc- tane,” he said. “For me, anger has been good for me. You piss me off right before I go out, I’m going to have a great show.”
Odom starred in a number of Broadway plays, including “Rent”, “Dreamgirls”, and “Leap of Faith” before snagging the role of Burr, the hapless senator and the nation’s third vice president, in “Hamilton.”
Odom said he approached the character thinking there
would be more people who identified with Burr than with Alexander Hamilton, the founding father and first Secre- tary of the Treasury whom Burr famously killed in a duel in 1804.
“I thought of Burr, not as your standard villain,” he said. “I thought of him as more com- plicated than that.”
The play’s success was a shock especially since, as a his- torical tragedy, everyone knows how the story ends, Odom said.
“It ends in tragedy and two lives are ruined,” he said, adding that the ending would be different had Bur and Hamil- ton seen parts of themselves in each other.
In addition to singer and actor, Odom has added author to his resume with last month’s release of his book “Failing Up.”
The title refers to the will- ingness to fail, he said.
“The best stuff in my life didn’t really happen until I gave myself permission to fail,” he said. “I graduated with honors. After college, I realized all it
Leslie Odom is the Tony- award winning actor in the mega-hit play, ‘Hamilton,’ and the song man in the Nationwide Insurance commercial.
meant is I didn’t take one risk in four years. I thought that my teachers didn’t reward or en- courage failure nearly enough.”
Finding your purpose “is as simple as walking toward the thing that makes you come alive,” Odom said. “Whatever it is, you love it enough and even- tually you’ll wrestle it to the ground and it will love you back.”
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 2018 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 7-A