1 month ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Jon Jon Briones had nan champion vantage constituent to watch his daughter, Isa, make her Broadway debut. He wasn’t sitting successful nan beforehand statement aliases hovering backstage. He was beside her.
Father and girl stepped into nan philharmonic “Hadestown” past month, he playing Hermes and she Eurydice. It was nan first clip they’ve shared a stage, and nan tears came easy astatine curtain call.
“There’s conscionable this pinch-me moment. I can’t judge I get to do this pinch a philharmonic theatre fable but besides that fable is my begetter and besides telling a beautiful, beautiful story,” says Isa Briones.
Jon Jon Briones and his daughter, Isa Briones, onstage. (Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade/DKC/O&M via AP)
Her dad, arsenic expected, has besides recovered it emotional.
“When we were rehearsing, I was crying watching Isa, and I would miss my cues because I was watching her,” he says pinch a laugh. “I’ve besides learned to look relaxed for nan formed because if 1 of their leads is nervous, that’s not good. But I mislaid it astatine curtain call. I mislaid it.”
The elder Briones made his ain Broadway debut arsenic nan Engineer successful nan 2017 revival of “Miss Saigon,” a domiciled he played successful a 2014 West End production, earning an Olivier Award nomination. He was successful nan ensemble of nan original 1989 London production.
Isa Briones, whose TV credits see “Star Trek: Picard” and “Goosebumps,” appeared successful nan dual shape roles of Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds successful nan philharmonic “Hamilton” connected tour.
“In nan past fewer days, particularly correct earlier we went on, I took a measurement backmost and I was like, ‘Oh, right, it’s your Broadway debut. This is nan point you’ve dreamed astir since you were a kid,’” Isa says. “The point that I grew up watching my dada do, now I get to do it pinch him and that’s really special.”
The brace were tantalizingly adjacent to moving together erstwhile Jon Jon appeared successful “Star Trek: Picard,” but his girl wasn’t successful that episode. They yet did it erstwhile dada had a recurring domiciled successful “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” and Isa played his girl for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment.
Now they’re beforehand and halfway successful hellhole together successful “Hadestown,” nan 2019 Tony Award-winning philharmonic astir nan underworld, which intertwines nan myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone. Hermes serves arsenic nan narrator.
“I’m conscionable truthful happy to beryllium doing theatre again,” says Isa, 25. “I deliberation we’ve some been distant from theatre for a bully magnitude of time, and it’s been awesome doing different things — doing TV and and movie — but we’ve some talked astir really theatre is really nan point that replenishes our soul.”
Their father-daughter enslaved has only deepened their relationship to nan “Hadestown” musical, successful which Hermes tells nan doomed emotion communicative of Eurydice. “It really has raised nan stakes for me,” says Jon Jon. “The personification that I emotion is progressive successful this.”
All of nan Briones family are actors, including mom, Megan Johnson Briones, and younger brother, Teo. Megan and Jon Jon really met while performing successful “Miss Saigon.”
Jon Jon warned his woman to bring plentifulness of tissues erstwhile she came to spot he and Isa make their Broadway bows. That turned retired to beryllium a bully call.
“She was sobbing. Like convulsive sobbing,” says Isa. ”The show conscionable leaves you successful shambles already. But past you person your hubby and your daughter, and that’s conscionable cruel.”
Teo Briones was besides proud. “He saw maine from crossed nan thoroughfare and ran up to maine and tackled maine pinch a hug and was crying into my shoulder. You don’t ever get that from your 19-year-old brother,” Isa says.
The life of a young character tin beryllium hard, but some Isa and Teo person chosen nan way of their parents.
“I deliberation my woman and I are relying connected nan measurement we raised them,” says Jon Jon. “We guided them. We showed them what we do and really to grip ourselves successful beforehand of group pinch grace and humility and gratitude. They’ve seen really to worth nan work. Not nan glamor of it all, but nan activity itself.”
The Briones aren’t nan first parent-child pairing who person appeared successful nan aforesaid Broadway show together. Laurie Metcalf co-starred pinch her girl Zoe Perry successful “The Other Place” successful 2013, and Debbie Reynolds starred successful nan 1973 revival of “Irene” pinch her daughter, Carrie Fisher.
Both Isa and Jon Jon dedicated their Broadway milestone to Megan, who has made a batch of sacrifices to her ain career. “She keeps our family going,” says Isa. Adds dad: “We beryllium her.”
In 1 way, Isa says she’s made her Broadway debut pinch her mother.
“I consciousness very fortunate that aggregate group person travel up to maine and said, ‘You person your mom’s voice’ and ‘I deliberation you sound precisely for illustration your mom,’ and I’m very grateful for that because she has a beautiful voice,” Isa says. “To cognize that I person some of them successful maine is really, really affecting.”
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Mark Kennedy is astatine http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
