‘The Pitt’ Star Isa Briones Has Had Enough of Fans Yelling TV References at Her During ‘Just In Time’ Broadway Run

Isa Briones is a woman with a message, and that message is simple: Broadway is not a fan convention. The actress, best known to audiences as Dr. Trinity Santos on the smash HBO drama ‘The Pitt’, took to Instagram on Saturday to firmly call out theatergoers who have been shouting references to her television role while she performs onstage.

Briones is currently playing Connie Francis in the Broadway jukebox musical ‘Just in Time’, performing at the Circle in the Square Theatre. The production follows the life of legendary singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, and Briones joined the cast on April 1, taking over the role from Gracie Lawrence. The show is a long way from a hospital emergency room, which makes the behavior she described all the more jarring.

In her Instagram Story, Briones did not mince words. The post called out audience members who had been shouting the phrase “when are you going to finish your charts” at her just before she launched into her performance of “Who’s Sorry Now?” referencing a running thread on ‘The Pitt’ in which her character Dr. Santos is frequently scolded for her reluctance to document patient conditions.

She went further in a follow-up message, writing that Broadway audience members are not “a kid at Disneyland” and reminding them that they are “an adult man at a Broadway show” who should act accordingly, adding that performers should not be addressed as their on-screen characters while they are onstage.

This marks Briones’s return to Broadway after making her stage debut in 2024 as Eurydice in ‘Hadestown’, and she is no stranger to performing in front of live audiences, with credits that include the first national touring company of ‘Hamilton’. Her current run as Connie Francis is expected to continue through September 6, when the production is scheduled to close.

The irony of the situation is not lost on fans of the show. On ‘The Pitt’, the charting joke is baked into the DNA of Dr. Santos’s arc, with the character regularly getting called out by supervisors for avoiding her paperwork.

The season finale even gave Briones a musical moment of her own, as Santos and Dr. Mel King perform a karaoke duet of Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know” during the closing credits. So in a way, audiences already knew she could sing. They just needed to save the appreciation for after the curtain call.

‘The Pitt’ has become one of the most talked-about dramas in HBO’s recent history, with its first season earning 13 Emmy nominations and taking home five, including best drama series, best actor for Noah Wyle, and best supporting actress for Katherine LaNasa. The show’s second season is widely expected to be a major contender at the upcoming Emmy Awards. That level of cultural heat is clearly following Briones offstage, which is exactly the problem she is asking fans to leave at the door.

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