Leslie Odom Jr. joins Philadelphia’s Music Walk of Fame
“Philadelphia, for better or worse, has a lot to do with the man I am today,” he tells The Inquirer.
Leslie Odom Jr. will be honored Thursday when a brass plaque on South Broad Street adds his name to the Philadelphia Music Alliance Walk of Fame.
Odom Jr., 41, grew up in East Oak Lane and came to fame in the Broadway musical Hamilton, for which he beat out Lin-Manuel Miranda for a best actor Tony.
The multi-hyphenate has since found Hollywood fame, released four albums, and written two books, including I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know, a new children’s book written with his actor wife, Nicolette Robinson, and illustrator Joy Hwang Ruiz.
This fall, Odom Jr. returns to Broadway in Purlie Victorious, the 1962 satire about racism in the American South, as star and a producer. And he has the central role in David Gordon Green’s reboot of The Exorcist, as the father of a possessed child, also due this year.
Plaques will be unveiled outside the University of the Arts’ Hamilton Hall at 320 S. Broad Street at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. A (sold-out) gala will be held at 6 p.m. at Vie at 600 N. Broad, with performances by the Spinners, Adam Weiner of Low Cut Connie, and others.
Odom Jr. spoke this week from his home in Los Angeles. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Are you surprised to be going into the Walk of Fame?
It actually comes in as a request. “Would you mind being honored, or would you agree to be honored?” It’s a very respectful and loving way they come at you. So the “yes” came from me right away.
You’re young to be so enshrined.
I understand what you mean, but I’m also not a kid. I’ve lived though enough seasons, thank goodness, that if your city singles you out this way, it’s a wonderful opportunity in a time when I’m still building. They could have waited 25 years, but I’m certainly happy to come back to Philadelphia in a season of my life when I’m just getting started in many ways and when I could be useful to a city that was so good to me.
You were born in Queens and moved to Philly when you were how old?
I was 6 or 7 years old when we moved to Philadelphia. I came of age in Philadelphia. Philadelphia, for better or worse, has a lot to do with the man I am today.
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Where did you start singing?
In church. We were at Zion Baptist Church on Broad Street, when Dr. Leon Sullivan was there, and then Gus Roman took over and we followed Pastor Roman to Canaan Baptist Church [in Germantown]. It connected singing to something holy and spiritual. We were there to serve, to make an offering.
I really don’t remember having some kind of voice that knocked people out. I spent a whole lot of hours in my parents’ basement, trying to get better.
Were you a hip-hop kid?
Even then, you could see that hip-hop was becoming the popular music. R&B got harder. That was part of the kinship that I had with Lin-Manuel. It was like we grew up in the same cradle. I understood that jukebox. With a character like Burr, hip-hop was obviously the main driving force musically, but I also got to do jazz, R&B, folk.
You’re going back to Broadway. Tell me about ‘Purlie Victorious.’
I’ve pursued the rights to this show for six years and was finally able to convince the Davis children and the estate of Ozzie Davis and Ruby Dee to trust me with their father’s work. The list of African American writers that have been produced regularly on Broadway is very short. Purlie Victorious hasn’t been produced on Broadway since 1962.
We’re going to do the original play. Alan Alda was in the original production, and as we’ve been doing readings and workshops, he told us this amazing story about Dr. King coming to the 100th performance of Purlie Victorious. There’s a picture with the cast taken backstage.
Mr. Davis was a great American. You talk about a Walk of Fame? That was a man who earned his place on the Walk of Fame for Black America, in film and on the stages of this country. I just think [the play] deserves to be produced. It’s a real honor to get to do it in this time.
On your 2019 album, ‘Mr,’ you include a sample of Sidney Poitier saying ‘They call me Mr. Tibbs!,’ from ‘In the Heat of the Night.’ You’re doing an Ossie Davis play. Who are your Black entertainer role models?
There are a lot of great Philadelphians. John Coltrane wasn’t from Philadelphia, but he spent time there with his family and has been a great inspiration to me. I grew up when you couldn’t find a bigger act than Boyz II Men, and they were such a fine example of uprightness and fun and fraternity. And then Marvin, Nat, Sam Cooke, of course.
There’s this stunning detail in your bio. ‘At 17, he made his Broadway debut in “Rent.’”' How did that happen?
When I was 16 the show came to Philadelphia, to the Merriam Theater. And I’m hearing on Power 99 and Q102 that they were going to have auditions at [Delaware Avenue dance club] Shampoo. An open call, a cattle call. I convinced my parents to let me go.
What did you sing in the audition?
I sang “For All We Know” [a 1934 song, later sung by Donny Hathaway]. The most inappropriate song for a rock musical.
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We spoke in 2016 about your self-titled album. You said: ‘The album is called “Leslie Odom Jr.” The idea is to find out who is that guy and keep being true to that.’ Seven years later, who is that guy?
Thank you for that question. I’ll hope you won’t mind the way I’m going to skirt the answer. I have two children, 10 years of a marriage. My parents live five blocks away, here in Los Angeles. I have a pretty clear understanding of who I am. And as nice as it is to talk to you every seven years, the best place to show people who I am is through the work. Through the choices I make. That’s the record of who I am.
As a Black man, do you make it a priority to play people of substance? I was walking around Philadelphia, and saw a plaque honoring William Still, the abolitionist you play in ‘Harriet.’ In ‘Murder on the Orient Express,’ you’re a doctor. In ‘Glass Onion,’ a computer genius.
It is that serious for me. The first couple decades of my career, a lot of it was learning, keeping the lights on. I made some mistakes for sure. But from here on out, it’s very important to me to leave behind truthful renderings of Black life.
That includes a wide spectrum. It includes the joy that I’ve known. Ozzie calls being Black “a secret cup of gladness.” I want us to be able to recognize ourselves. The Black people that have known me and loved me on the streets of Philadelphia and have continued to love and support me. Everywhere I go.