Doctor Odyssey, Ryan Murphy’s sublime network procedural that is both a nonstop parade of medical emergencies and also a great way to fully power down your brain, seems to have a running joke about its acclaimed musical-theater star Phillipa Soo. “I want to perform,” Soo’s character, Avery, a nurse practitioner aboard the ultraluxury cruise ship, tells her colleagues in a recent wedding-themed episode, coming very close to winking directly at the camera. It seems all but inevitable that Soo, a two-time Grammy winner who originated the role of Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton, is going to sing on Doctor Odyssey. At this point, it is not a question of if but when.
For Soo, who coyly tells me she has “no idea” if she’s going to sing on the show, the edenic decks of the Odyssey are somewhat new territory. Her most well-known roles have tilted toward the politically weighty: Six years after passing on her Hamilton role, she played a suffragist in the Off Broadway production of Shaina Taub’s Suffs. She’s carved out time for the classics — Camelot, Into the Woods, Guys and Dolls — while also making the jump to TV, landing roles in Smash, 2021’s Dopesick, and 2022’s Shining Girls. This year, she released Piper Chen Sings, a children’s book she wrote with her sister-in-law, and lent her voice to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s concept album based on the 1979 cult classic movie Warriors. None of it quite matches the tone of a show whose pilot has Soo’s character treating a broken penis and a shrimp-buffet overdose.
Though realism isn’t necessarily a priority on Doctor Odyssey, Soo has been relying on the show’s medical consult and texting her father, who’s a doctor, to help pronounce some of the more complicated terms. As for the cruise-life aspect, she’s feeling her way through. “I’m still learning about how things work on the high seas,” she says.
For me, the melodrama of Doctor Odyssey’s plot points sometimes scratches a similar itch to over-the-top musical-theater productions. Did you ever feel parallels with your theater background while filming?
I often say that TV sets feel like tech week in theater, which is when you’ve finished the rehearsal process and you get your costumes and sets and real props and lighting and you’re in the real space for the first time, and you’re working through it very slowly to try to make this cohesive piece. There’s constantly moving parts, new people, new sets, the hours are very long, and you’re really figuring it out as you go. So in that respect, it did feel similar.
Have you found there are different rules or etiquette working on theater versus TV sets?
My No. 1 thing is be on time, be kind, and know your material. That goes for both of those. I really just want to have fun making the thing we want to make at the end of the day, so just showing up prepared, knowing what I’m gonna be doing, and being there when I’m gonna need to be there, is the very start of all that.
Your character, Avery, first came aboard the Odyssey because she wanted to see the world. What’s your No. 1 traveling rule?
I always try to bring less than I think I need. It can be really freeing to travel light. If you can, pack everything in a carry-on.
Have you ever traveled too light?
No! I always think, Oh God, is this gonna be enough? And I always end up bringing too much.
You and your husband, Steven Pasquale, are both stage and screen actors, and you guys have co-starred together in a production of Guys and Dolls. What’s a good rule of thumb for couples who work in the same field?
We loved it and had an amazing experience. I learned so much about him that I didn’t know. I felt closer to him. So much of that joy comes from really loving what we do and getting along with each other. It doesn’t necessarily work for everyone to work with your spouse, but we love it and we have the best time. If we can work together again and again, we could.
The most recent development for the show’s main love triangle was a threesome that the Doctor Odyssey fandom dubbed the “Ody3.” Do you think they practiced good threesome etiquette?
At the end of the day, I was really, really proud of the storytelling. I feel like they have a new perspective on life and the things that are important to us, and it’s led them to discover a level of appreciation for each other. I think we landed in a great place to tell that story and give these three characters a relationship that feels truthful and human.
You wrote a picture book this year and were featured on a concept album. Is there one rule you’ve found is true no matter what art form you’re working on?
Be curious. The process of making anything is asking questions and learning something about yourself and the world that you wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t put yourself in a room with a bunch of people and thrown your ideas around.
Writing can be a very lonely process, but having a writing partner and working with our editor and illustrator, I came to find there were so many similarities in the creative process — that exciting feeling you get when you hit on something that makes sense feels the same as working on a TV show or a production and realize you’re on the right track.
What advice would you give for approaching a new art form?
Do the thing that scares you. I hadn’t written for anyone besides myself before, and it ended up informing my acting because it gave me a different perspective and a lot of confidence. I got to create something from scratch.
On Doctor Odyssey, there’s a lot of talk about creating a perfect experience for one’s guests. What’s your No. 1 rule for hosting a really good dinner party?
Prepping so you don’t have to work during the party. I’ve hosted a couple times when I was a young adult and I was cooking in the kitchen the whole time. I’ve done a lot of work over the years to make sure I get everything prepped and really nice so it can be fun and casual. Also, as people arrive, I put them to task putting out crudités platters and mixing up dressings. I try to include people in the process of getting everything ready, otherwise you feel like you’re alone and stressed in the kitchen the whole time.
How about when you’re going out to eat — what’s your No. 1 rule when you’re ordering food?
Be kind to your waiters.
What’s the first thing you do in a social setting when the conversation loses steam?
I love to point it out. I’ll be, like, “Ah, wow, I love that moment that just happened, wasn’t that great?” I like leaning into the weird moments.
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