On March 9th Leslie Odom Jr. Performed at the Staller Center Gala. Odom is best known for his role as Aaron Burr in Alexander Hamilton and as Sam in NBC’s Smash, and Lionel Toussaint in Knives Out: The Glass Onion. He covered a variety of genres with the hour-and-a-half show.
The audience varied from all ages, including the littlest ones, as a baby would occasionally talk loudly, which Odom responded to cutely and settled back down once he resumed his songs. There was also an 11-year-old fan, as well as Hamilton fans and many others. Fans were excited as they gave him two standing ovations and called for an encore. After the show, one young fan was able to sneak backstage to meet Odom and said he was still shaking from meeting him.
Odom’s journey on Broadway began when he was 17, debuting as Paul in Rent. During the show, Odom opened up about writing songs which helped him to be able to admit that there are times when he’s scared. He also shared stories about his career.
When Hamilton took off, he said that people had come to the cast, and asked what they wanted to do. Odom had said he thought and prayed about it and the next day he said he wanted to do things that he wouldn’t have been able to do before. In addition to TV shows and movies, he also put out a series of albums.
Since he was currently in a Broadway show, he hadn’t been able to do concerts like this one in close to a year and asked for forgiveness from the audience if he made any mistakes or forgot words. This came after he was reading French and German lyrics off a page for the song “L.O.V.E.”
He included many old standards and jazz music, most notably Nat King Cole. He only had one audience participation song, which was a call and response from an old Betty Boop film- a song called “Minnie the Moocher” originally sung by Cab Calloway in the 1930s.
Odom has 3 holiday albums and 2 original albums. His latest release, When A Crooner Dies, was released this past December. His original songs had a jazz vibe to them that was similar to the Rat Pack days in terms of messages, but were slower and with more of a slow jazz feel. He did say for his latest album; he wanted to sing songs that Nat King Cole would sing if he was around today, and I think he more or less achieved that. I will admit it isn’t what I was expecting given his musical theatre background and that the video Staller shared was of a Rent song. However, it can’t be denied that he has a smooth clear voice with an impeccable range. The emotions he emits through his voice are endearing. The piano overpowered him at times, as there were parts at times where I couldn’t quite understand the words. Despite that, I was able to understand the emotion through the softness or effervescence that his voice emoted.
He included three songs from Hamilton; “Wait For It” and “Theodosia”, and then he ended his set with “In The Room Where It Happens.” He received a standing ovation as people in the audience called for an encore. When he came out, he said he never expected an encore and sang one of Rent’s most belong songs “Without You”, which was the song in the clip that the Staller Center had up for a preview. Regardless of whether “Without You” was shuffled around in the set or not, it was a beautiful rendition of the song and a wonderful way to end the annual gala.
The next Broadway performer, another Rent Alum, Adam Pascal, graces the Staller Center in late March.