TikTok has become one of the most prominent forms of social media in recent years, but now it has ventured into the world of West End musicals by collaborating with the UK production of Dear Evan Hansen.
Written by Steven Levenson, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Dear Evan Hansen is a multi-award-winning musical that has had multiple successful runs on both the West End and Broadway. There have been multiple star-studded and talented casts, but for the upcoming UK run the producers and director, Adam Penford, have decided to take an original approach to find young talent. They have partnered with TikTok to “provide a platform for those who love the musical.” The aim is to get people auditioning who otherwise may have not been given the chance.
The opportunity was open to anyone in the UK or Ireland aged eighteen or over. They had to upload a self-tape of themselves to TikTok singing a song from the musical with the hashtag #youwillbefound. The videos came in floods, reaching 15,000 uploads by the 11 February deadline. Since then, people have continued to upload using the hashtag to document their journey, with some even being invited to the professional London auditions. Auditions are continuing and it is yet to be confirmed that anyone that auditioned through this new-age method will actually be part of the UK tour in September 2024.
But could TikTok really be reinventing the way West End musicals are casting new talent? Traditionally it is difficult for young people to break into the world of musical theatre without representation or professional drama school training. TikTok has started to pave the way for fresh and new talent to make it onto the scene. Due to the wide-spread nature of social media it has opened doors for many people that are usually under-represented in the industry. One of the purposes of auditioning this way is that it should solely be reliant on talent, while other factors such as: training, agents or prior professional credits are removed. Ideally, this would create a level playing field for each and every person auditioning. Many young people jumped at this once in a lifetime opportunity because it seemed too good to be true. But is it?
Skepticism was soon spreading through TikTok and other forms of social media around the legitimacy of this form of auditioning. Many influencers on the site have suggested that the hashtag could have been started as a marketing tactic for the production and is less about finding authentic new talent for the show. First, given the sheer number of auditions that were uploading in a matter of weeks it is unlikely that all of them were viewed and given the “equal chance” that was marketed as part of the opportunity.
Other influencers have suggested that it might be a numbers game and that social media and following could have played a role in who got asked to audition and who didn’t. This is what’s called “Star Casting” and can be a common practice in the industry, where a person’s fame or following can help them secure a role even if they are not necessarily right for the part. Lastly, the opportunity was initially marketed as an “audition” but as people keep updating their journeys, it has been made clear that the TikTok self-tapes were purely for the chance to get invited the in-person auditions that were already being held in London. It can be argued that TikTok has just added an extra step to the same West End auditioning process.
However, this is not the first time TikTok has impacted the musical theatre landscape. Multiple TikTok influencers have managed to go from their social media accounts to the stage. For example, Hannah Lowther began her TikTok account back in 2020 when her account centred around her retail job and her aspirations to follow her dream of being of the West End. Since then, Lowther has gone from strength to strength: her TikTok account now has almost one million followers and has performed in musicals such as Heathers, SpongeBob the Musical and she is currently an alternate in the cast of Six on the West End. While TikTok may have played a role in projecting Lowther’s career, she began her acting career as a child and has trained Italia Conti and the London School of Musical Theatre.
Overall, it is clear that TikTok has began to impact the world of theatre, though traditional training and auditioning still currently holds precedent over TikTok by itself. Social media has become a great tool for kickstarting a career in different industries, but the talent, training and initiative is still important in building a foundation to get in to the musical theatre industry.
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