F. Michael Haynie on Becoming Boq in Wicked and Making Music on Screen in Not Fade Away

Age & Hometown: 26; Macon, GA

Current Role: A Broadway debut as Boq, the Munchkin torn between Glinda and Nessarose in Wicked.

Music Man: Broadway newcomer Haynie—known to friends as "F"—grew up surrounded by music as the son of a theater director and a drama teacher. “I play trumpet, trombone, tuba, baritone and French horn,” he ticks off, “and I learned guitar and taught myself piano.” While attending NYU, he honed in on musical theater as a way to “combine my passion for music with a love of acting and playing characters.” To feed his creativity, Haynie posts self-made music videos to a You Tube channel appropriately dubbed “Songs in the Key of F.”

Double the Fun: Before joining Wicked, Haynie appeared in the off-Broadway return of Carrie and debut of Dogfight. “I loved the process of creating,” he says of both musicals. “The lines we said, the dances we did and the costumes we wore were all informed by the cast.” Speaking of lines, Haynie reports with a laugh that one he improvised is preserved for posterity on the Carrie cast recording: “At one point I said, ‘Everyone smile and say penis!’ and [director] Stafford [Arima] liked it. I was like, ‘Really? That’s my contribution?’ Some girl tweeted at me that it’s her favorite part of the album.”

The Book of Boq: By the time Dogfight director Joe Mantello asked Haynie to join Wicked, the young actor had seen his best friend Alex Brighman play Boq four times. “This is the first Broadway show a lot of people see, so we have a huge responsibility,” he reflects. “The coolest thing is that Wicked seems so fresh; you would never know it’s nine years old.” Meanwhile, Haynie will make his big-screen debut in the Christmas release Not Fade Away, in which he plays keyboards and bass with a group of guys starting a band in the 1960s. Steve Van Zandt coordinated the music, reuniting with Sopranos writer/director David Chase and star James Gandolfini. “David wanted real musicians, so he took a chance on a bunch of young actors,” Haynie says. “The entire process was awesome.”