What do founder of the first NYC orphanage Eliza Hamilton, quirky Parisienne Amelie Poulin, and Chinese goddess of the moon Chang’e have in common? Not much.
When you listen to Broadway singer and actress Phillipa Soo, she is undoubtedly all three of the leading ladies she has played in one body: a devoted advocate, an admirer of life, and an incontestable pop goddess.
Coming from a household with parents involved in both performing arts and the medical field, a young Soo was encouraged to pursue her singing and acting goals while at the same time highly valuing a university education. Just weeks after graduating from Juilliard in 2015, Soo wasted no time running from audition to audition before landing her first off-Broadway role as Natasha Rostova in Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812.
Sitting in the audience during her debut performance was Lin Manuel Miranda, playwright/composer/lyricist/lead of the artfully distinguished musical Hamilton. Soo’s solo of “No One Else” expressing her wistful longing for her on-stage lover Andrey Bolonsky while he is off in war demonstrated the power of Soo’s voice to stir up an audience’s emotions.
Soo’s live performance at Barnes & Noble of “No One Else” from “Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812”
Soo didn’t have the wintry backdrop and cold lighting in her live performance of “No One Else” at Barnes and Noble, but her sweet yet resolute voice never fails to have a glowing effect, rendering her surroundings sunless and irrelevant. Her docile voice so effortlessly swings from a soft, sweet carol to an intense forte projection causing the audience to feel every emotion in her character’s body: sorrow to frustration, nostalgia to exasperation, and muted hope to passionate anticipation.
Miranda recognized Soo’s potent vocals, and after making his praise Tweet-official, “@PhillipaSoo is a star,” Miranda invited her for a table reading of his new musical, casting her as Eliza Hamilton, the loving and dedicated wife of short-lived founding father Alexander Hamilton.
Soo, like most of us, was unfamiliar with Eliza’s character when she was first introduced to it. It was a quick Google search, but Eliza’s benevolence and resilience were enough to convince her to commit to the character. Signing on to this particular role came with a rare responsibility, however, especially for a fledgling actress to the Broadway industry: originating the part. Soo jumped at this opportunity, and her collaboration with Miranda turned out to be the perfect partnership.
Wielding creative control over her roles was exciting. In a 2017 interview, Soo tells the New York Times, “I get to see a writer’s process, which is really special, especially having gone to Juilliard where a lot of the things we were doing were by playwrights who were deceased, so to have a live playwright in the room is such a treat. There’s no map for you to follow and take your journey. You are Lewis and Clark. You are the mapmaker.”
And truly a mapmaker she is, on and off stage. Soo is a modern day Eliza, standing up for her beliefs and using her contagious spirit and passion to be an influential leader. During the three impending weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Soo and her husband, actor Steven Pasquale, posted a series of self-composed duets on their Instagram accounts motivating various states to register to vote and head to the polls. The couple used their impeccably intertwined vocals and improv lyrics to excite their followers.
Soo’s participation in the NYCLU Sing Out event, however, was the epitome of the compelling influence of her voice, and her pure devotion and indubitable care for her country and fans shine through.
Soo’s monumental Zoom performance of “Democracy” from “Soft Power” featured on her Instagram page
The power and force in her vocals are dipped in elegance. Even the least ideal format of performing, Zoom, cannot tarnish her range of dynamic and vocal finesse.
After two years of being a part of the global takeover of Hamilton, Soo jumps right into another opening – carefree, wide-eyed Amelie Poulin from the 2001 French indie film Amelie. This role also required of her to conceive her own creative decisions of the character, though this time around, Soo was very familiar with Amelie.
“That movie was like my religion, as a young woman who was not necessarily introverted, but certainly a very quirky person,” she said. Growing up watching Amelie, Soo admired the Parisienne’s knack for doing good for those around her and leaving small but meaningful goodies for people, and Soo carries a part of Amelie in both her personal and professional world.
The plot of Amelie centers around the title character’s inability to express herself and find her purpose in life. During the character development process with Amelie’s composer/lyricist Daniel Messe, Soo turned to what she knew how to do best to give Amelie the voice she had been looking for – singing. The musical’s most famous number “Times Are Hard for Dreamers,” is plainly the result of Soo’s trial and error improvised vocal warm-ups. The process of character origination, however enjoyable, is quite an arduous and pressuring task. Having done so for her first two Broadway roles, Soo remains grateful for these extraordinary opportunities to breathe life into her characters.
It also worked to Soo’s advantage that creativity and artistry naturally flow from her inclination to try new things and cherish little joys in life. For Soo, it’s all about “allowing yourself to enjoy being a human in the world,” and if that means dabbling in “transcendental meditation,” or finally trying that medicinal mushroom coffee, or beatboxing into a megaphone with your fellow Schuyler sister, then by all means.
Outside Richard Rogers Theater, Soo beatboxes for co-star Renee Elise Goldberry as she performs a Schuyler sister rendition of “Right Hand Man” from “Hamilton”
Soo’s virtuosity isn’t limited to Broadway numbers.
This past October, Soo debuted in her first Netflix animation Over the Moon, where she plays the brokenhearted Chinese moon goddess Chang’e waiting to be reunited with her lover Houyi.
This was Soo’s first time in voicing an animated character and getting in touch with speaking Mandarin (Soo is the only family member who does not speak the language). But most notably, Soo recalls the most fabulous part of her Chang’e experience as being an inspiration for young Asian-American girls in the same way she looked up to Lea Salonga, Filipina singer and actress who also rose to stardom through Broadway and film.
There have always been severely limited roles for Asian women in theater/opera. Within the few lead roles that were available, such as in Miss Saigon, Madame Butterfly, and The King and I, the female characters were degraded to a simple portrayal of a weak, “oriental” damsel in distress. While the roles are still few, new movies like Over the Moon are restoring power in female Asian representation in art and film. Soo mentions her feeling of pride in being a part of this full-Asian cast and giving this mythological goddess a new image of an independent woman finding new ways to care for herself and forming uplifting and empowering support systems with other female characters.
Soo’s performance in the Over the Moon was in fact “ultraluminary,” (as her character sings in the animation), probably due to the fact that the film portrays Chang’e as someone totally unexpected: a superior Mando-pop star with dance moves inspired by famous K-pop group Blackpink. Audiences are also exposed to Soo’s never-before-heard pop vocals. Her vocal range is just as extraordinary, but it sure is different than her previous grief-stricken ballads from Hamilton and dainty musical theater numbers from Amelie.
Soo guest stars in a Skivvies concert, belting a pop/R&B/rap mash-up of Beyonce, Next, and Juvenile
While Soo’s role in Over the Moon marked her first time receiving public acclaim in the pop-genre performance, Soo has indeed had her share of mainstream covers and genres other than musical theater. During her period of stardom in 2015 with Hamilton, Soo was invited for a concert with the Skivvies, a duo band known for their musically (and physically) stripped-down musical arrangements.
Soo manifests her vocal versatility in this collaboration, busting out in explosive, soulful vocals, grooving to early-2000’s R&B and hip-hop rhythms, and ending with her signature Phillipa-esque harmonization.
As Soo once said, “My job as an actor is also that of a detective, archaeologist, and mystery-solver.” And yes, she truly has done so, from delving into a deep Google investigation of Eliza Hamilton, excavating her childhood memories of Amelie Poulin, and enlightening the world with the true star quality of Chang’e.