Karaoke With Isa Briones Is Not for the Weak

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Isa Briones needs a little coaxing – and some sake – before she’ll perform her karaoke trick. We’re at Sing Sing on the Lower East Side around 6 p.m., which both of us agree is an unusually early hour for karaoke. After I demonstrate my willingness to participate by singing Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” (a reliably good choice), Briones takes over. She has a powerful, flexible voice, a quick wit, and a true passion for ABBA, like any karaoke pro. “I felt my best ever singing ‘Chiquitita’ with my friends,” she says. “There’s a video of us all circling around, just repeating ‘Chiquitita!’ It really highlights the power of female friendship.”

She has a remarkable talent: she’s taught herself to sing “The Winner Takes It All” exactly like Meryl Streep in the movie Mamma Mia! She claims she can recreate the entire performance, mirroring every nuance. When the song starts, she explains she imagines Pierce Brosnan is performing with her, then flawlessly adopts Streep’s vocal style and posture. It’s a meticulously crafted impersonation, complete with subtle details like pretending to adjust and run with a scarf during the instrumental break. Afterwards, she playfully declares it “the performance of a generation,” especially praising her rendition of the line, “I don’t wanna talk.”

Tonight, actress Briones is enjoying a rare moment of rest. She’s currently finishing up the second season of her role as the determined Trinity Santos on HBO Max’s The Pitt, and also performing in Just in Time, the popular Broadway musical about singer Bobby Darin, where she plays Connie Francis. These two jobs are very different for Briones. Just in Time is a bright and cheerful show, and her character, Connie Francis, is a romantic interest early in the story – a role she describes as needing a lot of energy in a short amount of time. In contrast, The Pitt requires long filming days in a realistic, but stressful, hospital setting, playing a character who is intense and often clashes with others. In the first season, her character, Trinity Santos, had a conflict with a fellow doctor, Langdon, which was designed to surprise viewers – it turned out he was the one acting wrongly, while she was justified in her actions.

The second season of the show focuses on a particularly difficult day for Santos, who struggles with routine tasks and continues to clash with Langdon, who has recently completed rehab. Santos often sees her colleagues as rivals and unintentionally creates friction. According to creator and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill, he identifies strongly with the character, finding it surprising when viewers disliked her, describing her simply as sarcastic. As he worked with actress Roxanne Briones for the new season, Gemmill realized opportunities to develop Santos’s personality based on Briones’s own strengths. Like Santos, Briones, 27, is confident, but also insightful and emotionally intelligent. This season, viewers will see Santos display vulnerability in her relationship with a doctor, connect with her colleagues as friends, and sing a traditional Filipino lullaby to a baby. Gemmill came up with the idea for the lullaby scene after learning about Briones’s musical abilities, and she chose the specific song, suggested by her father. Gemmill felt the scene worked well because it revealed a softer side to the usually tough Santos.

Before heading to karaoke, Briones suggested we grab hot pot at Shabu-Tatsu in the East Village. She arrived with a bag of thrifted clothes and cheerfully helped us navigate the menu. Briones used to live in the neighborhood while performing in Hadestown in 2024 and is enjoying revisiting her favorite spots. Later that evening, she had to get ready for a play premiere at the nearby Public Theater. “I just realized where we should have done this interview!” she exclaimed. “Marie’s Crisis.” She explained that after not getting a job once, she went to the piano bar and sang her heart out. “Being surrounded by older gay men belting out Cabaret was the most wonderful and therapeutic experience.”

Director Alex Timbers cast Isa Briones as Connie Francis in Just in Time because of her natural energy and stage presence. The role of Bobby Darin is now played by Matthew Morrison, after Jonathan Groff, and Briones has enjoyed seeing former Glee co-stars of Morrison in the audience – a fun connection considering she had a Glee-themed 11th birthday party where she dressed as Brittany Pierce. When I saw Briones perform in April, the audience clearly responded to her, becoming especially excited whenever she began a song. A clip of her powerfully performing Connie Francis’s hit “Who’s Sorry Now” has been widely praised online. Timbers explains that the role requires a certain effortless charm, and Briones brings a unique blend of energy and wit to it.

Growing up in a theater family definitely shaped who I am, and how I approach things – I’m pretty direct, and I know what I want! My parents, Jon Jon Briones and Megan Johnson, actually met doing Miss Saigon – they were in the ensemble for a German production. I was born in London in ’99, right when my dad joined the West End run. He eventually took over the role of the Engineer, which was a big deal because it was originally played by white actors – he brought a real authenticity to the part. Miss Saigon was kind of a lifeline for our family, honestly. My dad struggled to find work as a Filipino actor in New York in the late 90s, but he kept going back to the show for years, and we were basically on tour for the first nine years of my life! We finally settled in LA when I was nine, and my parents juggled TV and theater work – my dad even did massage therapy to make ends meet. I learned so much just hanging out backstage after shows, listening to the cast talk about what worked and what didn’t. It wasn’t long before I knew I wanted to be part of it all too.

Briones scrolled through YouTube, searching for a video from early in her career—a commercial for a toy similar to a Furby, where she enthusiastically proclaimed it had “hands!” She recalls feeling frustrated that other girls in the commercial had more lines. By 17, she’d switched from arts high school to homeschooling and then gotten a part in a local production of Next to Normal. Since then, she says, her career has been constantly moving forward, even with some challenges. She moved to New York in 2017 and spent nine months auditioning for Hamilton while working at Balthazar restaurant. She faced frustrating rejection—being told she was too young, only to be called back later and told the same thing. Eventually, she landed a role in the show’s national tour. She also appeared in Star Trek: Picard and Goosebumps, but remembers one audition she didn’t get: the part of Nini in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. While waiting in the audition room, she witnessed Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett meet, and remembers thinking one of them would definitely get the role on Disney+, saying to herself, “It’s gonna be one of us, baby girl.”

Gemmill quickly decided he wanted actress Briones for the role in The Pitt, but the studio worried audiences might not like her after seeing her play Santos. Gemmill argued that’s simply how the character was meant to be portrayed. Briones recalls auditioning while still performing in Hadestown and initially being told she’d gotten the part, only to have an executive question the decision and ask her to film another, more intense scene. She was frustrated, saying, “It felt like the offer was taken back.” Gemmill then wrote a new scene for her – one that made it into the show – where her character confronts someone who abused a child. She gave a powerful performance, and then received a final call confirming she had the role. “I’d already gone through all the emotions – excitement and disappointment,” Briones said playfully.

Since its release, The Pitt has become surprisingly popular – a major success for any show in recent years, especially a dark medical drama. It was a big hit on HBO Max, winning several Emmy Awards, including Best Drama, and is expected to be a strong contender again this season. You might be surprised to learn that people of all ages – even your parents and younger relatives – are watching it. Initially, actress Ana de Armas Briones found the strong reactions to her character amusing, even enjoying how people openly confronted their own prejudices as the first season aired. However, she’s now finding it harder to deal with the continued negativity.

In the second season of The Pitt, viewers see scars on Santos’s thighs, and a scene where she takes a scalpel suggests she’s dealing with self-harm. Actress Briones collaborated with the show’s writers as they developed this storyline, providing feedback on early versions of the script. She’s happy that the depiction resonated with some viewers and that Santos’s scars weren’t presented in a sexual way. However, having personally experienced mental health challenges, she finds it difficult to connect with people who continue to dislike Santos even after learning about her struggles. “It’s hard when it’s your face representing the character and it touches on things you’ve lived through,” she explains. “I used to be more understanding, but if you’re still harshly judging her and not Langdon, I think that reveals a bias against women.”

Actress Briones describes a push and pull between enjoying the enthusiastic fan response to her work and needing to protect herself when online discussions become negative or chaotic. The show The Pitt now has a fanbase that frequently disagrees with the show’s direction or argues amongst themselves, creating a lot of online noise surrounding the second season. Briones explains she has to be careful about how much she engages with this online activity, though she still enjoys a good meme. Returning to Broadway with Just in Time, she’s noticing a much bigger level of celebrity than she experienced during Hadestown. The intimate nature of the theater means she’s closer to the audience, and she recently had to address disruptive behavior on Instagram. She points out that while she understands a child might act out, she was bothered by an older audience member shouting praise using the wrong name. “If you’re going to be disrespectful, at least know who I am,” she says.

Briones has been getting support from her fellow cast members of The Pitt, with three of them – including Ball and Sepideh Moafi – appearing in New York shows this spring. It’s a reminder of when TV stars would often perform in plays during breaks from filming. Briones jokingly says she’s always admired Laurie Metcalf, drawing a parallel to her own work. Even the Pitt actors not currently on stage are in town, and several attended the premiere of Ball’s play, Becky Shaw, including Supriya Ganesh, who plays Dr. Mohan and is leaving the series. Ganesh and Briones have become close friends. While Briones doesn’t want to discuss the reasons behind Ganesh’s departure, she’s sad to see her go, feeling that Dr. Mohan’s character had a lot more potential.

The season finale of The Pitt brought together Briones’s character’s music and television worlds. A post-credits scene shows Santos enjoying a karaoke night with her co-resident, Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden), where they belted out Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” – a song suggested by Gemmill. Briones initially hesitated about having Santos sing again so soon after a previous performance, but ultimately found the fake karaoke scene in a studio bar to be a welcome, lighthearted moment. “The show can get intense,” she explained, “so it was nice to just have fun while filming something for once.”

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2026-04-17 18:18