‘The Pitt’s Isa Briones Joins ‘Just In Time’ on Broadway

Isa Briones is taking up the function of Connie Francis within the Broadway musical Just in Time. 

The function marks a return to Broadway for The Pitt star, who made her debut in Hadestown in March 2024. She begins her restricted run beginning April 1, reverse Matthew Morrison because the crooner Bobby Darrin, and can later play reverse Jeremy Jordan, when he takes over April 21. 

In addition to her function as Dr. Trinity Santos on The Pitt, Briones has usually appeared on stage, together with within the Hamilton nationwide tour and East West Players’ Next to Normal. Briones mentioned she was drawn to play Francis, a famed Fifties and ‘60s ballad singer, as a result of it permits her to mimic the vocal fashion of that period. It additionally balances nicely with the extra severe content material of The Pitt. 

“It’s nice to do something that really just feels like joy for two hours,” mentioned Briones, shortly after her first rehearsal for Just In Time Tuesday. 

The function additionally suits into her objective of constant to maneuver between theater and tv all through her profession, which has additionally included roles on the Disney+ collection Goosebump and the Paramount+ collection Star Trek: Picard.

“The Pitt is very theatrical in how we shoot it and how we rehearse it. So being a theater person going into The Pitt felt very natural, and to keep bouncing back and forth between The Pitt and theater, which has been kind of my vibe for the last year-and-a-half, has just felt quite natural,” she mentioned. 

In the second season of HBO medical drama, the traces are additional blurred when Briones’ character sings a Filipino lullaby to an toddler affected person — an concept she mentioned got here from the writers and concerned consulting her father, Broadway actor Jon Jon Briones, for assist choosing the appropriate music.

“The Pitt is very good at playing to people’s strengths and skills, and since they knew that I could sing, they were like, ‘Alright, let’s do it,’” she mentioned. 

Briones had a extra attempting take a look at whereas capturing episode 9 within the second season of The Pitt, which got here out March 5, when she started to really feel abdomen ache and finally needed to endure an appendectomy. She nonetheless shot scenes for the episode pre- and post-surgery. “We shut down for two days. But then when we came back, everyone came to me and was like, ‘Honestly, thank you for having appendicitis, because we needed two days,’” she mentioned. 

Briones joins Just In Time a few 12 months into its well-sold run, taking up the function of Francis from Sarah Hyland. For her second time on Broadway, Briones mentioned she feels “really ready,” and ready for the calls for of an eight-show week, primarily based on her expertise as Eurydice in Hadestown. 

She mentioned, “I think I learned a lot from doing it. It was such an incredible experience, and I loved it. But I also can now look back and be like, ‘Oh, I know what I can do better now.’”