Interview: Is Tony Nominee Bryce Pinkham the Broadway King of Murder Shows?

Is Bryce Pinkham the Broadway king of 'murder' shows? The super-talented star was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and recently starred in Little Shop of Horrors Off-Broadway, while rehearsing for Ohio State Murders, which is now playing at the James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Pinkham about his time rehearsing Ohio State Murders during the day and performing in Little Shop of Horrors at night, working alongside Audra McDonald and Kenny Leon, his love of true crime, and much more.

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You have gone from Little Shop of Horrors, to Ohio State Murders, and you were Tony nominated for A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. Are you the Broadway king of murder shows?

I guess it's slightly unsettling in some way! [laughs] But also it makes sense in a weird way, I would want to be in each one of these shows, and I've been very lucky and privileged to be able to be a part of three very different, distinct productions, all with a similar theme [laughs].

What have you learned from playing all of these characters? They're quite different, but the throughline is interesting.

I think it's interesting from an audience perspective that these are three very different styles, pieces, but they all have murder in them in some form or another, and I think the fact that we're interested in seeing that says something about us. I actually love watching true crime documentaries, it's one of my favorite pastimes, because it's always a good story, but there is no acting involved. Of course, I like my shows, but I like a good documentary because then I don't feel like I'm at work doing acting research. So, I love true crime, and I think there's something fascinating about murder, and there's something that can be made funny about it. One of the ways that we deal with our humanity is through comedy. So, Gentleman's Guide, and Little Shop, it's not like they're asking us to consider what it would be like to take another human being's life, they're really sort of using it as a comic device. But, the fact that we can laugh at it says something about us!

In Ohio State Murders, it's a very, very different use of a story, it's a tragic story, and I think that people who came to Little Shop when I was there, and then within a few weeks came and saw Ohio State, they were sort of like, "Woah, that's very different," and a big change. And I was sort of feeling that while I was doing double duty, rehearsing Ohio State in the mornings, and then performing Little Shop at night. And I was actually really grateful to be able to go down to Skid Row and laugh it off. It is important but difficult territory to inhabit in Adrienne Kennedy's Ohio State Murders. I think as a performer, but also as a theatre-goer, I want both in my Broadway experience. I want to be able to go and encounter the difficult parts of humanity, and then I also want to go and escape the difficult parts of humanity and laugh it off. So, the fact that I got to do both of those in the same day felt really special.

Doing double duty like that for a period of time, most people don't take that on. It's definitely a privilege, but that's wild that you did that for a while.

It was wild. And you can ask my castmates at Little Shop, I would come in the second and third week of that double duty and they'd be like, "Dude, are you okay?" [laughs], "Are you going to make it?" I remember I had to say to them- in Little Shop, all the actors share two dressing rooms- and at a certain point I had to announce to the dressing room, "Hey everybody, I'm normally a lot more fun than this!" But I sort of had to be quiet in my corner to save it all for the stage.

The double duty thing is definitely difficult, but I looked at it as, we spent so much time during the pandemic wanting to be on stage, and wanting to work, and missing what we do, so when the opportunity came up, and the dates fit together perfectly, I knew it was going to be hard on me, but I also knew that I couldn't turn it down. We all missed it so much, and Little Shop was my first production back in New York City since 2019 -I finished The Great Society at Lincoln Center Theater- and my first musical in a long time in New York. I just missed it, and I couldn't turn down the opportunity. Especially that show, and getting to play that part, deliciously ridiculous, and doing it with Rob [McClure] and Lena [Hall], I just felt that I couldn't say no. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess!

Ohio State Murders, it's the Broadway debut of playwright Adrienne Kennedy, how does that feel to be a part of?

It feels incredibly profound. She is a lauded playwright who never really got her chance on Broadway. For various reasons, her work was never properly introduced to the Broadway audience, and people who know and love her plays have always felt that that was not right, and that she deserves those flowers, as Audra says. The fact that I'm a part of the group that gets to give her those flowers, but also gets to bring her story to a wider audience and introduce a whole body of work to a wider audience, is really special, and I think part of what the theatre community has said it's committed to doing, centering black voices and centering black women. So, I feel privileged and honored to be a part of that.

She's 91 years old, and she is having her Broadway debut. That just gives you goosebumps. How could you not want to be a part of that and want to support that? She's been communicating directly with Audra, they talk almost every day, and she emails with Kenny Leon, the director, as well. Audra came in to rehearsal the other day and told us that Adrienne has been so emboldened, so high-spirited over the course of knowing that we were bringing her words to a Broadway stage. So, it's special on a personal level, but I also think it's special on an industry-wide level, and a structural level as well. I feel really grateful to be a part of that.

You mentioned Audra and Kenny, how has it been working with them, and this company?

It's been a, not to make a Broadway pun, but it's been a real masterclass, and it has been mostly just sitting in a rehearsal room in proximity to greatness, and getting to watch Audra and Kenny go after this play, and try and understand it, try and reveal it, both to us and to the audience, try to craft it in a respectful way. You cannot deny the absolute top-shelf royalty that is Audra McDonald, and so, just getting to watch her work, I'd pay a Broadway ticket to get to watch her work. And I don't have to pay, all I have to do is say some lines back to her! And, of course, if you don't know this about Audra, you should, she's the hardest-working, most humble queen of the theatre you could ever want. She sets such a great example, and such a high bar, that those are the rooms you want to be in, with a star who doesn't behave like one, who cares only for the work and for the playwright she's trying to serve.

And Kenny, I just did a musical with Kenny earlier this year at the Alliance Theatre, Trading Places, so we had our introduction to each other there. I think that he's such a visionary, and he's such an unapologetic version of himself in the room, he really brings all his life experiences into the room in an unapologetic way that is really refreshing, and yet has great heart. I think Kenny leads with his heart. He works on plays in his dreams, he'll come into the rehearsal the next day and say, "I had a dream last night in which you did this, can you try that?" And then we'll try it and he'll be like, "Oh, no, no definitely don't do that!" [laughs] Or sometimes he'll be like, "Oh my gosh, that's it, I want to do that!" "I want to keep that." "I want to try that." He's an inspired artist, and so, any time you put an inspired artist with a performer at the top of her profession together it's fun to watch and learn from. So, it's been incredible.

Give yourself some credit, Bryce, you're at the top of your game too! What would you like to say to people who are going to come see the show?

I'd like to say that this is a story of a black woman in the 1950s who is recounting her experience at a predominantly white institution, and her personal experience with institutionalized racism. But as well, it's a mystery, a true crime drama unfolds over the course of the 75 minutes of the play, and I can feel audiences leaning in, wanting to know all the details in the same way that I love leaning in to the true crime documentaries. So there is an aspect of coming to bear witness to the difficult experiences of black women, both in the 1950s and today.

But also, there is an element of entertainment, and drama, and suspense that I think people are really enjoying. And if you've never seen Audra McDonald perform live, you have to do it, if you care about theatre, you have to see Audra McDonald perform live! It's a right of passage to be a true theatre fan. So, if that's not enough to get people in, then I don't know what else to say!

And maybe next time we'll talk about a play that doesn't have murder in it! I'm doing the Chess concert for the Entertainment Community Fund, and I'm happy to report that there is no murder, at least at my hands, in Chess!