Singers across Massachusetts will get a rare shot at joining one of Broadway's biggest hits when an open call audition for Wicked lands at Boston Center for the Arts on October 17. The casting notice, seeking Equity singers for possible future replacements in principal and chorus roles, applies to both the Broadway production and the national touring company.
The call is happening at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, located at 527 Tremont Street, according to 1420 WBSM. Sign-in begins at 10:30 a.m., and candidates must arrive before 1 p.m. to be considered, though they're asked not to show up earlier than the 10:30 a.m. start. Per the same report, the audition is being run by The Telsey Office, the casting agency seeking singers ages 18 and older who move well and have fantastic voices with wide vocal ranges, open to any ethnicity and any gender.
What to Bring, and What to Sing
Candidates are asked to prepare 16 bars of a contemporary musical theater song sung a cappella to show their range, the outlet notes, with sheet music recommended in case performers are asked to sing with piano accompaniment instead. That 16-bar format is standard across musical theater open calls, typically lasting just 30 to 45 seconds so casting directors can quickly assess vocal range, technique, and style under tight time constraints, according to Broadway Vocal Coach. Hopefuls must also bring a photo and resume stapled together, per the WBSM report.
The Calderwood Pavilion itself carries its own local history. The venue opened in October 2004 as a joint venture with The Huntington Theatre Company, marking the first new professional theater facility built in Boston in more than 75 years, according to the Huntington Theatre Company. The 35,000-square-foot complex has since become a major hub for South End arts groups.
A Show With Massive Reach
Wicked first opened on Broadway in 2004 and went on to win three Tony Awards, per the same WBSM account, which describes the musical as telling the story of what happened in the land of Oz from a different angle, beginning long before Dorothy arrives. The stage show is based on a book, and a two-part film version of Wicked is based on that stage show. The first film opened in 2024 and became an instant cult classic, the outlet reports, going on to earn 10 Academy Award nominations and win two.
All U.S. stage casting for Wicked has run through The Telsey Office since the show's pre-Broadway tryout over two decades ago, with founder Bernie Telsey's team also casting the Universal Pictures film adaptations, according to Boxoffice Pro. The musical has since grown into the second highest-grossing Broadway production in history behind The Lion King, generating more than $1.88 billion at the Broadway box office alone, with global grosses topping $5 billion across all productions, per Wikipedia.
Wicked has also become one of the longest-running shows on Broadway, officially surpassing Cats to become the fourth-longest-running production in Broadway history when it played its 7,486th performance at the Gershwin Theatre in April 2023, according to the New York Theatre Guide. Beyond Broadway, the production has been staged in more than 100 cities across 16 countries, translated into six languages, and seen by more than 65 million audience members worldwide, per the Wicked Official Site.
Massachusetts Roots of an Oz Reimagining
The story's local ties run deeper than this single audition. Gregory Maguire, author of the 1995 novel that reimagined L. Frank Baum's Oz characters and inspired the musical, pursued his graduate education in the Boston area and has lived in Concord, Massachusetts for decades, according to CBS Boston. Hoodline previously covered a Wicked tour stop tied to a live concert celebrating the film's score, part of a broader national wave of interest in the franchise.
Performers who land a role would be joining a production with a long history of major regional engagements. Wicked completed a nearly four-year sit-down run in Chicago that grossed over $125 million, making it the longest-running Broadway musical in that city's theater history, according to Theatre in Chicago, with similar multi-year sit-down productions also held in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
For performers weighing whether to attend, union status may factor into the equation. Actors' Equity Association permanently opened its membership eligibility rules in February 2023, allowing any stage performer with documented professional experience to join the union, according to Actors' Equity Association. Equity Chorus Calls follow specific sign-in and priority procedures that can differ for union members versus non-members attending the same audition.
