Tony Award nominee and Hamilton actor Leslie Odom Jr. actually got to sit in the audience earlier this year to view the smash hit he stars in and unexpectedly got front row tickets to another show. This one starred Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes and another famous face.
There's not a lot of time off on Broadway, especially if you're in one of the highest acclaimed musicals in the world. But when Odom (who plays Aaron Burr in the show) got some precious vacation time in January he just had to see it for himself. (And yeah, he was able to get tickets because he “knew a guy.)
Sitting in the “famous person section” of the Richard Rodgers Theatre with his wife, the actor relayed an amazing story on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“I didn”t know exactly who I was sitting around. My wife and I got there like right before curtain and so you know you”re around people that matter, right? So there was a guy that was a little disruptive down the row. He's talking, he's singing a little bit. He's a little bit disruptive to… there's a group of people in front of us and they're getting very agitated. The woman's turning around. She said you know, 'Stop talking. It's not that difficult, you don't talk in a show. Can you please stop talking?'”
Odem said at that point he still didn't know who anyone in the section was. At least until the lights came up during intermission.
“The woman gets up, she turns around, it's Shonda Rhimes. And the dude is Art Garfunkel,” he said. “Shonda Rhimes almost whooped Art Garfunkel's ass.”
There will be tales told of this for years to come.