I auditioned for my current role in Wicked about 9 or 10 times. Honestly, I lost count after about the 8th time. But it was over the course of a few years. I was first introduced to Wicked during my senior year of high school when it first opened on Broadway. I had seen clips on You Tube and heard about the production, but it wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of college that I decided to audition. I will never forget my first audition. I went into the waiting room and there were about 100 other guys practicing some strange combination.

My program inserts!

In my head I was thinking to myself that there was no way that these guys already knew the combination. To my surprise, they did know it, because the combination that you dance at the audition never changes. So they had all done their homework. I walked into the room and attempted to learn the ballet/modern based choreography but just couldn’t get it. The combination was counted so weirdly with a combination of 5, 6 and 7 counts. It all had my head spinning. I quickly was cut, but I had the best time of my life. The great thing about the Wicked audition is that they have a live drummer in the room. That was my first experience with that type of audition but having a drummer just makes it feel more like a performance and you sort of let your inhibitions go a little more and just really relish in the fact that you’re getting to dance this awesome choreography to some really rocking music.

Well, I got cut and walked out of the audition a little sad but determined to do my homework and go in there and NOT get cut the next time. I went home that night and videotaped myself doing the choreography so I would be able to remember it and reference it before the next required open call for the show in 6 months and I had also seen the show for the first time and became even more hooked and obsessed with working hard to make my dream become a reality. The next audition I went in with greater knowledge about the show and it’s style and gave it my all. This time I managed to get kept around to learn the second combination. I was so ecstatic but I still didn’t have the job in the bag. I was just happy to have made it a little further!

McQueen in costume from the OzDust Ballroom scene from Wicked

Over the course of the next three years the casting directors got to know me better, I grew as a dancer, young adult and artist and they called me in to be seen for the ‘track’ that I play in the show on several different occasions. Although I would often make it down to the final cut, I was not offered the role, but I didn’t get discouraged. I believed and stayed faithful that it just wasn’t my time and continued pressing forward in my pursuits of not only dancing in Wicked, but other shows as well. Eventually, after college, I started working and only went in to audition if it happened that I was not working on another show that conflicted with the audition.

Overall, the audition was a little intense the first few times but after a while you just get the hang of it. You dance about two or three different sections of a long combination and do some partnering with either the female dance captains or sometimes the female auditioners. Then the last thing you do is sing for the artistic team. The last time I went in to be seen for the part was just before Thanksgiving and I declared that if this job was truly for me, then I would be offered the role. If not, I couldn’t let it get me down and just had to keep working on other projects and finding other shows/parts that I am right for.

The Ensemble of the 1st National Tour of Wicked!

I choose to believe that if I am not cast in a particular show, it’s not a reflection on my talent or potential as a dancer, but rather, the casting directors and artistic team didn’t feel I was ready or just didn’t think I was ‘right’ for their show. At the end of the day, being cast in Broadway productions is a waiting game. You just have to keep working hard, be consistent with who you are and represent that fully each time you go into the audition room.  It is our jobs as young artists to do out best to just enjoy the experiences of auditioning and not take things personally. After each of those nine auditions, I walked out of the audition room each time with my head held high believing that I had done my best and represented myself to the fullest. At the end of the day, that’s all you can do and that is all that matters.

Tonight, I will celebrate my 150^th performance in the national touring company of Wicked! Each performance continues to be a surreal experience.

Dream big! Dreams do come true!

-Jeremy McQueen