Jesse L. Martin Swore He Wouldn't Sing On The Irrational... Then Little Shop Of Horrors Came Along
You can take the man off Broadway, but you can't take the Broadway outta the man.
Case in point: During Season 1 of The Irrational, we quizzed star/producer Jesse L. Martin about whether his character, Dr. Alec Mercer, would eventually sing on the procedural — and he was pretty firmly against the idea. "Singing is such a big part of my life. I still do it every single day of my life," he said at the time. "But, it doesn't mean it's apropos for every single character I play."
Fast-forward to this week's episode... which finds Alec and Rose going undercover with a community theater troupe as they investigate a murder among the cast of Little Shop of Horrors. Alec sings the part of Audrey II, a bloodthirsty venus flytrap; Rose, played by Karen David, steps into the role of Audrey, an employee at the flower shop were Audrey II is housed.
Both actors are known for their gorgeous singing voices. David is a singer/songwriter who played Princess Isabella on ABC's musical series Galavant. Martin, a member of the original Broadway cast of Rent, has worked singing into his roles on The X-Files and The Flash. So when I talked to both Martin and David about the Broadway-themed hour, naturally, I knew where to start. (And don't worry: We also tackled that big Rose bombshell that leads into next week's season finale, as well.)
TVLINE | Jesse, I'm going to start with you, and it's personal: You told me last season, "No, I don't really want to sing in this show."
JESSE L. MARTIN | [Laughing] I remember telling you that.
TVLINE | Yes. So, please account for yourself right now, thank you very much.
MARTIN | [Laughing] OK, OK, I will. So, when I said that to you, I was absolutely sure that that was never, ever going to happen, and guess what happened?
TVLINE | Quick follow-up: Have you heard your singing voice? Of course they would want it in the show.
MARTIN | Thank you for that. But that being said, it doesn't mean that every role I ever play, I show up singing. That was my idea when I first started playing Alec Mercer in The Irrational. I was like, "No, I know Jesse L. Martin is that guy, but Alec's not that guy. He's a teacher, he's an intellect, he's a scientist. There's no world where he does that.
Arika [Lisanne Mittman] our show's creator and our headwriter and our showrunner, she was smart. I don't know if she had, like, a premonition as to what was going to come, but she did write in the Alec bio that back in the day that when he was in college, he was in an a capella singing group — which I conveniently ignored [Laughs] because I said, as I said to you, I'm never going to sing as this guy. So, there we have it.
On cue, a full season later, me and Karen David here are having a whole conversation about potential scenarios where we're both working together to solve a crime, one of them being — because we both have such an affinity for theater and love being in that space — it was like, "Wouldn't it be great if like, we ended up in a case that involved a local theater company and we both end up having to go undercover as actors? Wouldn't that be awesome?" And of course, I was thinking, and I'm pretty sure Karen was thinking at the same time, that it would be more along the lines of something like Shakespeare that we both have an affinity for. No part of me ever thought musical.
We mentioned this to Arika and, before you know it, she took it up very seriously. Then she comes to me out of nowhere and she said, "How do you really feel about singing?" And I'm like, "You know how I feel about singing, but if it were ever to happen, it would have to be handcrafted so it was an entire mistake that I ended up in a space where Alec is singing."
Now, there is no a better character than Rose to get me in that space where I end up doing something I only do not feel comfortable doing. They played on that in the story, they played on that in the script. So it made it a lot more palatable and a whole lot more fun to actually end up being that guy that sings.
TVLINE | Karen, obviously you're no stranger, either, to singing on TV, thanks to Galavant. Did you have any relationship to Little Shop prior to the episode?
KAREN DAVID | Coming from Jolly Old England, being in drama college, we have a list of things that we dream of being in, and Little Shop is always on that list. I never had the opportunity to play Audrey II. It was such a pleasant surprise, and I love that it was a wonderful surprise for Rose that she just has to think on her feet really quickly, but this is something that she just relishes and lives for. Nobody find out about Rose, that she went to drama college. Of course she did! [Laughs]
...Having the chance to go on stage, and then also be on stage with the love of her life, you know, with Alec, was so wonderful. I just love how seriously she takes the whole thing, and for me that scene with Jesse where she's coaching him... that everything's going to be OK, was so much fun. I gave Jesse a heads-up that I was going to tap into all my fond memories of drama college back in England and bring those crazy trust exercises... We have such great writers on our show, and to create and achieve all the feels in that one scene of Alec being petrified and not sure about what to do, and Rose being supportive, but also taking things way too seriously and being deeply passionate about all things theater. And then seeing the vulnerability between the two, and all of that achieved in one scene is so magical. As an actor, I live for moments like that.
TVLINE | I could talk musical theater with you two all day, but I want to make sure that we deal with the bombshell at the end of this episode: Rose has a husband?! Jesse, did Alec have any sense that he exists?
MARTIN | No, not at all. But you know, what is typical of Alec and Rose's relationship is surprises... What it does is immediately challenge our actual relationship. Some of the things that come up are things that Alec really never had to deal with before, like the idea of jealousy. Like, being jealous that someone else has her heart, has her brain, like someone else gets to share all what's great about Rose, other than me. And I'd only gotten to the point where I thought I was worthy of being in her company, and the idea that there's somebody else in her company? I'm trying to be so careful not to give away things!
It's my favorite part about what we have, because some of the things that come up, particularly with Rose, are so extreme that we have to fight real hard to get to normalcy... Most people start with normalcy and look for extremes. We're going the opposite direction. So, I think that's why it works. It doesn't sound like it should work. [Laughs] It's irrational.
TVLINE | Karen, what can you tease about the relationship Rose has with her husband?
DAVID | Well, obviously there's a reason for everything. There's an explanation for everything. You know, I must admit when I read the ending of this episode, the first thing that came to my mind I was like, "Oh, no!" [Laughs] I love that we're, bit by bit, getting to know Rose more. She is very mysterious, and I love that in this finale episode, we are pulling Alec more into Rose's world... When I read it I thought, "Oh, everyone's going to be so mad at Rose!" I was like, I don't blame them, but if we've learned anything with Rose, there's always a reason and an explanation. But the question is: Are these two going to be able to get again navigate through this challenge?
TVLINE | I have to wrap. Mr. Martin, if you lied to me about anything in this interview, I'm coming back to you next season. and we're going to have at it again
MARTIN | [Laughs] I'll be glad to be checked by you.