From the emergency division to the stage.
Isa Briones, who stars in “The Pitt” as resident Dr. Trinity Santos, joined the Broadway manufacturing of “Simply in Time,” a jukebox musical concerning the lifetime of Bobby Darin, on April 1. She performs Connie Francis, a pop singer who Darin received his begin as a songwriter for. Additionally they had a romance earlier than he married Sandra Dee in 1960.
Francis rose to fame for her 1957 cowl of “Who’s Sorry Now?,” initially launched in 1923.
Briones belts out her rendition of Francis’ spin on the ’50s observe on stage eight exhibits every week in “Simply in Time,” presently enjoying at Broadway’s Circle within the Sq. Theatre.
“Theater is simply form of the place I come from. Theater looks like residence,” Briones tells TODAY.com. “I feel anytime I do TV for a protracted stretch of time I all the time really feel the pull to return to my roots.”
In an unique clip from the recording sales space shared with TODAY.com, Briones nails its rousing and passionate refrain.
She says within the context of the present, this music comes after a “actually tragic second,” the place her character has to say goodbye to somebody she loves resulting from her father’s management over her life.
“It is this tragedy of circumstance and the time she lived in and and it is saying goodbye whenever you actually do not wish to,” Briones says. “It is such a robust launch in within the present.”
Briones says her aim in enjoying the function of Connie Francis is to bridge the hole between the music of the Nineteen Fifties and ’60s to now.
“It is a steadiness the place we’re bringing music from a distinct time, and in addition telling a narrative of a distinct time that I feel quite a lot of youthful folks could not know. They could know a few of her songs, like, I really feel like folks know ‘Silly Cupid’ or on TikTok, ‘Fairly Little Child’ turned such a giant factor just lately,” Briones says. “So folks know this music, however they do not actually the place it comes from.”
“We’re not impersonators,” she provides. “We’re simply telling tales from then, now, and as finest as we are able to and with our personal flaires.”
Briones, presently performing reverse “Glee” star Matthew Morrison as Bobby Darin, took over for Sarah Hyland. The function of Connie Francis in “Simply in Time” was originated by Gracie Lawrence, who earned a Tony nomination for finest featured actress in a musical for the efficiency.
Briones, the daughter of Broadway actor Jon Jon Briones, isn’t any stranger to the stage. Isa Briones has carried out in a Los Angeles manufacturing of “Subsequent to Regular,” starred as Peggy Schuyler/Maria Reynolds within the U.S. nationwide tour of “Hamilton” and made her Broadway debut as Eurydice in “Hadestown” in 2024.
“While you begin a present, typically it takes a second to really feel snug and like, actually have enjoyable when you’re doing it, since you’re so nervous and also you’re entering into the groove of issues,” Briones says. “However everybody who I used to be working with was like, ‘Oh my God. After your first present, it already appears such as you’re having enjoyable with it.'”
“It is such a present, particularly once I’m normally doing ‘The Pitt,’ which is much more traumatizing materials,” she provides with fun.
In 2025, Briones was launched as Dr. Santos on the hit HBO Max drama. In Season 1, Santos, brash and aggressive, accurately accused senior resident Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball) of stealing medication from the hospital on her first day of labor. To date in Season 2, Santos has particularly appeared to battle via the Fourth of July shift, consistently behind on charting, anxious about her romantic scenario with Dr. Yolanda Garcia (Alexandra Metz), and resentful that Dr. Langdon was allowed again to the Pitt.
Briones says there’s similarities between filming “The Pitt” and performing theater.
“We are going to shoot typically, like, six pages right through, spanning all through all the emergency room,” she says. “We rehearse it so many instances earlier than cameras even get within the room. After which once we do it, it looks like we’re simply doing mini-plays on a regular basis.”
Briones’ Broadway flip in “Simply in Time” begins simply weeks earlier than “The Pitt” airs its Season 2 finale on April 16.
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