For Andy Mientus, it’s good to be in ‘Wicked’
Andy Mientus believes in girl power.
“I love a power-woman show,” says the actor, 30. “Musical theater is the medium of the powerful woman. We have all these diva roles — huge, complex parts for women.”
Mientus is on the road with the latest tour of Broadway juggernaut “Wicked,” which opens an 18-day engagement tonight at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center.
That show, a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” features two powerful female characters at its core — Glinda and Elphaba, later Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West.
To television audiences, Mientus is best known for his work on another woman-driven show, “Smash.” He played Kyle, an aspiring theater writer.
“Smash,” a melodramatic look at the inner workings of Broadway that aired from 2012-2013, came in the nick of time for Mientus. He had just decided to leave New York for good and bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, where actor Michael Arden — now his husband — had found him work.
He got the call for “Smash” while waiting to claim his luggage at Los Angeles International Airport. “I had $54 in my bank account — and that was all I had,” he recalls. “I had to borrow money to make it to my first paycheck from ‘Smash.’ ”
The TV show got him noticed, and the work hasn’t stopped since.
“It took being on TV in a show about Broadway to make it to Broadway,” he laughs.
Mientus had worked before “Smash,” most notably on the 2008-2010 national tour of “Spring Awakening.” But after the show, he landed lead roles in highprofile shows such as the 2014-2015 Broadway revival of “Les Miserables” and the critically acclaimed Deaf West Theatre version of “Spring Awakening.”
In “Wicked,” he plays Boq — a character connected to a key figure in “The Wizard of Oz.” The musical, which debuted in 2003, is more relevant than ever, Mientus says, given the current political climate.
“It’s really about how authoritarianism can come to pass, how fascism happens,” he says. “It deals with rumor and false news and scapegoating.”
He sees audiences reacting to the show in a new way.
“People who see it, and who don’t understand how Broadway works, are asking, ‘Have you updated the script since the election?’ ” he says. “But the play is saying what it has always said. If people see parallels to reality, they need to look more closely at what’s happening.”
He acknowledges his luck in landing projects with passionate admirers. “Les Miz,” “Spring Awakening” and “Wicked” are well-known for their obsessive devotees.
“Somehow, every show I do comes with this fan base attached,” Mientus says. “I’ve been really fortunate.”