Aydin Eyikan On His Broadway Breakout in The Music Man
From World of Dance to Iowa in 1912, Aydin Eyikan can do it all
By Isabella Capponi
Most 18 year olds come out of high school looking forward to starting their freshman year at a college. For 19 year old Aydin Eyikan, his first fall out of high school was spent on Broadway. Just to clarify, if he wanted to attend school he could have gone to Juilliard, but turned them down to be in The Music Man starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. He is not new to the spotlight however, in 2019 he was on the television show World of Dance. Since then he trained in New York and worked to make a name for himself in the dance community and now the broadway world as well.
Aydin Eyikan sat down with Exhibit A to talk about his experience working in The Music Man and how hard work, training, and passion can lead anyone to success.
Talk a little bit about your dance journey; When you started and how you got where you are today?
“I started dancing when I was 7 in Fairfield, Connecticut and I was obsessed with the show, So You Think You Can Dance. My whole family would watch it and I would dance around the living room like an idiot, and then eventually my mom realized that there was a hip hop class at our Fairfield Public Library open to kids in our town. I loved it so much! Then I found Flash Pointe Dance Studio in Fairfield and danced there for almost 10 years. They had such amazing training. When I was 15 I needed to start making connections and get training from different people so I started dancing in New York City, downtown at Kanyok Arts Initiative. It was more ballet and had classes with people in the industry. I danced there for three years and then booked Music Man. It was a long journey but here we are!”
Did you know anything about the show before your audition?
I actually…and this is a terrible answer…but I really didn't. Growing up, I was so die hard dance, I didn't know many musicals other than like Chicago, or Wicked.
What was the audition process like?
My audition process was actually kind of a roller coaster of insanity. I auditioned for the lab in May of 2019 . I did the lab that October and it was like a month long. They had told us all (about 25 of us in this workshop) like none of you have the job, this is really just a workshop, it doesn't actually secure the job for anybody. The only people we knew had the job were Hugh and Sutton. Afterwards, a month went by and we didn't hear anything. By December I was begging to have some sort of information and they told me ‘We're not gonna bring you along into the show’ . I let myself be disappointed for 24 hours and then I was over it. Around the same time, my friend Kayla was starting to audition for the show and they kept bringing her back. One night in January she calls me and says ‘Oh my God I just got the email im going to the final callback tomorrow’ and I was like ‘thats so amazing, congrats’ Literally I hang up the facetime and I see that I have an email and its from casting asking me to come to the final callback tomorrow. So I went with Kayla and we both ended up booking it!
Have you seen any other Broadway shows recently?
Recently, I saw MJ which was phenomenal. Miles just won best actor, he's MJ in the show, and he’s amazing. Also, recently, I saw Wicked. I’d never seen it before! I went with Emma Crow who plays Nina in the show. I saw Dear Evan Hansen, and Jordan Fisher, who is a friend, got me and a couple other people tickets to come see him. But then it was the craziness of Omicron and he ended up not doing the show. I ended up seeing the standby who was amazing .
How do you prepare to embody your character before you go on stage?
The good news about this show is that it's very much that - I can just bring myself to it. I’m a 1912 teenager in Iowa, so it's basically me but with a lot less colors. We all are very snobby, we are the annoying families in Iowa in 1912.
In the first number we don’t even move. We stand still with our arms crossed and the drop goes up and that right away you feel like you're in. In the first song we literally don't move the entire song. It was brilliant of our choreographer to do that.
What are some of your dream roles you wish to play in the future?
First of all I wanna be in Moulin Rouge, let me just say that right off the bat. I’m really interested in TV & Film. I am obsessed with the teenage heartthrob character archetype. Like Spider-Man, that vibe. I wanna do that. It is where I am in my life, I feel that’s very much where I wanna go. So it’s not as much of a specific role as it is just the type of characters that I want to play.
What is your favorite scene in The Music Man?
I think my favorite scene is Trouble. We do ‘Ya Got Trouble’ which Hugh sings. I think it's my favorite because we all as a cast are on stage together. We do this dance that's kind of minimal but very much gets the point across. It's the second number I do, and it's right at the top of the show. It gets people so excited. When people think of Music Man they have a couple die hard songs that people who know the show are like YES this what im here for. Number one is probably 76 Trombones, and then My White Night, which Sutton sings, and then Ya Got Trouble. Those are like the title songs of the show that everybody knows. For me, just being a part of Trouble is so much fun, and the way that it's crafted is really awesome.
How does your role feel differently from when you first started vs now?
This is my first show, in general, I had never done theater before. It has been a journey discovering how to keep it fresh and exciting. Eight shows a week, now in our seventh month of shows, it can be so hard to not feel stuck. Everytime that overture plays I'm like , didn't we just do this? As a competition dancer growing up, you never did something more than that many times. We are on show number 230 or something, not including 46 previews that we did before that. It's kind of wild to think like we just did that 300 times. The real answer is it's the other people on stage that bring you back into the realness of what you're doing. That’s why it's so important to have a cast that you love and get along with. It has to feel like a family because you keep eachother up, you support each other. You make it possible to do the same thing 8 times a week.
Who, on set, do you look up to the most?
I have to say Hugh. He is truly the nicest human being I've ever met. When I say that I'm not exaggerating. The story that I always tell, which is the perfect example of the kind of person he is. First day of rehearsal, October 28th we showed up and had a big meeting with everybody. They handed out these name sheets, a packet of everybody's headshot and name. The next day, we walk in and Hugh is standing in the doorway and as we all came in he knew every single person's name. If that isn't the perfect example of the kind of person he is then I don't know what is.
What is your typical work day like?
If it's not a Wednesday or Saturday, which is two shows, then it's very much chill, I can do whatever I want during the day. Which I normally fill with classes or other jobs teaching. If it's a matinee day it's basically like waking up, eating something, maybe going to the gym, and then go straight to the theater.
What are three words you would use to describe your experience working on The Music Man?
Educational, Thrilling, and Inspiring.
What advice would you give to young kids who want to be in your position?
Everybody’s path is completely different. When you grow up in a very structured society; everybody goes to school and learns math and science, etc. I was very lucky to have parents who saw what I had and encouraged me to do what I wanted. I used to sit in geometry and think to myself this is the biggest waste of time ever. I looked at my sister who is 14 and I looked at her summer math packet on the table, I opened it and actually couldn't answer a single question. My point being, they try to make you feel you need to know exactly what everyone else does and everybody needs to go to college. But actually, you can figure out what you wanna do and if that doesn't involve what everybody else is doing that's ok. You need to stay strong and committed to what you believe your path is. Nobody knows what you should do as much as you do.