Jekyll & Hyde's Teal Wicks on Falling Wicked Hard for Rent

Valentine’s Day is a yearly celebration of love—so what better way to mark the holiday than by asking stage stars to reminisce about the musical that sparked their love of theater? Read on for a treasure trove of musical memories and inspirational stories from your favorite Broadway actors.

Teal Wicks (Emma Carew in the forthcoming Broadway revival of Jekyll & Hyde)

The musical that sparked my love of theater:
I was obsessed with the movie Annie when I was a kid, but Rent was the show that got me extra excited about musical theater. It just clicked with me and made me realize I could fulfill my dreams of being on the stage as well as my dreams of being a rock star! I didn't realize musicals could have rock music and be edgy until I discovered Rent.

My introduced to this musical was:
The first time I even heard of the show was when I had to learn "Seasons of Love" for a community theater show called The Best of Broadway. That summer I went to this amazing arts camp, CSSSA at Cal Arts academy, where one of the students lent me her Rent album and I became obsessed with it.

The most memorable production I’ve seen of the musical is:
For Christmas my sophomore year of high school, my mom took me to NYC. It was the first time I had ever been to New York and it was my first time seeing Rent. I was pretty much crying the whole time. This was before YouTube and whatnot, so I only knew what the show looked like from the cast album. Just seeing the theater and set alone was amazing, and then finally seeing the whole story come to life on stage—it was perfection!

The closest I came to performing in this musical was:
I was in New York on a college trip and saw an open call for Rent. I thought, "What the hell!" and went to it. I can't remember what company it was for, probably one of the tours (for dramatic effect, let’s pretend it was Broadway) but it was my first NYC audition ever and I made it to the final callback for Maureen. I was excited and totally freaked out, since I really had no idea what I was doing. I didn't get it, which was probably for the best since I would have had to leave school. BUT...I did sing the solo in "Seasons of Love" at a school concert, so there ya go!

The last time I listened to the cast recording was:
A really long time ago. It's time to put it back in rotation.

The most romantic song from the show is:
It's a tie between "Without You" and Collins’ reprise of "I'll Cover You"— that one always makes me cry.

My dream cast of a Broadway revival would star:
My one-woman-show version, in which I play all the roles...Haha! I don't know, some pretty amazing folks have done it, so I'm down for whoever!

Click here for other theater stars' Showmance stories.