Newswise — Box office sensation “Wicked” is off to a record-breaking start among Broadway-based movies. Its success, currently to the tune of nearly $456 million grossed worldwide, is another boon to programs like the Florida State University Music Theatre Program.
Lauren Haughton Gillis, assistant professor, music theatre, is an international director and choreographer who has played a large role in producing, directing and choreographing Broadway shows. As a performer, she appeared in “Wicked” on Broadway. Her experience in the realm of theatre is extensive.
Haughton Gillis’ areas of teaching include music theatre dance, acting the song, music theatre workshop, movement, tap, ballet and jazz dance. Her research areas involve direction, choreography, musical theatre swing and understudy pedagogy.
The movie adaptation of “Wicked” has become the biggest U.S. and global opening for a movie based on a Broadway musical. It is the highest-grossing Broadway adaptation at the U.S. box office and continues bringing popularity to its musical version as well as other theatre versions built around the 1995 novel “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West” by Gregory Maguire.
The phenomenon is viewed as another boost to the theatre industry. Housed in the FSU College of Fine Arts, the Music Theatre Program is a joint program offered through the College of Music and the School of Theatre. It is a highly competitive program that prepares talented students from around the country for professional careers in theatre, music, dance and more.
As part of its highly touted curriculum, graduating seniors have the opportunity to participate in the Senior Showcase each spring in New York City. These students get the chance to perform during the showcase for directors, talent agents and casting directors from all over the United States.
Haughton Gillis is available to discuss the impact of “Wicked” on FSU’s Music Theatre Program as well as its industry-wide success. She can be contacted at [email protected].
Quotes from Lauren Haughton Gillis:
With the record-breaking success of “Wicked” in the box office, how does that provide a boost to music theatre programs like FSU’s that focus on guiding the next wave of performers?
“The worldwide success that the “Wicked” movie is having and the audience that the musical will now be able to reach is incredible. As our society moves closer and closer toward dependency on computers for everything, I believe the need for live events and human gathering will become ever more important. Ever since “Hamilton” came on the Broadway scene and now with “Wicked” in movie theaters, I’m really feeling like we are in a platinum age of musical theatre. The level of talent is at an all-time high and young people need training to compete. The FSU Music Theatre program has a very good reputation and I’m excited to help it continue to grow. Guiding the musical theatre artists of tomorrow brings me supreme joy and is my life’s purpose. I’m thrilled to be in Tallahassee as the new BFA Music Theatre Director.”
What are the most important aspects of executing a Broadway show/movie as complex as “Wicked?”
“The most important aspect of creating a musical is collaboration. It takes an enormous team to execute the storytelling involved in a Broadway musical. The audience sees the cast on stage but years before that product can be enjoyed, the book writer and composer create from scratch. Then a team is assembled meaning a producer, director, choreographer, music director and a host of designers. Then actors, singers and dancers audition, and a cast is assembled. A Broadway show usually has various readings and workshops and if those are successful, you’ll get a regional theater production which could become a Broadway show one day. It takes rewrites and tough conversations and finding the magic that everyone works for.”
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