By Claire Dietz
The Tony Award-winning singer and actor Leslie Odom Jr., known for his role as Aaron Burr in the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, will speak in Iowa City on March 27.
His appearance, part of the University of Iowa Lecture Series, will take place at 7:30 p.m. March 27 in Hancher.
According the UI Lecture Committee, “Odom Jr. made his Broadway début at the age of 17 in Rent before heading to the Carnegie Mellon University prestigious School of Drama, where he graduated with honors. He is the recipient of a 2002 Princess Grace Award for Acting, which is dedicated to identifying emerging talent in theater, dance, and film.”
Odom met future costar Lin Manuel Miranda, the writer behind the hit musical Hamilton, in Encores Off-Center production of Tick, Tick … Boom!. From there, Odom originated the role of Aaron Burr in the multiple Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton.
In a conversation with the New York Times from May 2016, Odom said this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“There is a chance that this is the greatest role I might ever have in my life,” he said in the piece. “And that’s OK. If this is the greatest role I ever have in my life, thank God I got to do it.”
In a recent interview with Iowa Public Radio, Odom noted the power theater has in comparison with television or movies.
“We can do things that we can’t do in television and film, because we don’t have to be literal,” he said. “We walk into those buildings, and we’re willing to suspend our disbelief and take these journeys. That childlike belief and using your imagination, that’s the power of theater. That’s maybe when theater is most powerful.”
However, Odom is more than Burr on Broadway. Offstage, he has developed a prolific singing career, one that earns him a household name.
Odom has also had success off the stage, one of which includes a successful Kickstarter to release his self-titled début album, for which he raised more than $40,000. While the album was initially released in 2014, Odom returned to the studio to recreate and re-record aspects of the album he had not been happy with the first time around. It peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and 147 on the Billboard Top 200.
Odom left Hamilton on July 9, 2016, and in October, he and wife Nicolette Robinson announced they were expecting their first child.
Though he may not be shooting Alexander Hamilton every night, his career is far from over. It seems Odom is only at the beginning.