Fiyero a three year dream, says Mills

Wicked star Rob Mills has revealed that landing the role of Fiyero was a three-year dream that started when he first heard the cast recording while appearing in an arena production of Grease in 2005.“

I listened to it and I went ‘that’s me – I’m that guy’,” Mills said.“I listened to the songs over and over again and absolutely loved it. I remember ringing my manager the next day and said I desperately wanted an audition. I’ve been in love with the show for three years and wanted to do the role from the day I first heard the recording.”

Inexperienced in musical theatre he may be but Mills, a finalist on reality television program Australian Idol, has been doing all he can to play “catch up”, including taking a recent trip to Los Angeles to see the show. There, he just happened to be in the audience with Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. Mills admits to being a little star struck, and even asked the legendary musical theatre mainstay to sign his programme.“After seeing it in London with Adam Garcia using an English accent, I just really wanted to see it again under American terms and be even more inspired than I am already, because it had been so long since I’d seen it,” Mills said.“I also got to go on a backstage tour which gave me a grasp of the extraordinary amount of people involved in getting it on stage each day and how it all works.”

While he has been left to fight off the stigma of Australian Idol by some musical theatre fans, the American creative team were completely wowed by Mills in the audition room. And now that he’s got a taste for it, the young charmer wants to keep following a career in theatre.“

Now that this door has opened, it’s all I want to do – I’m rapt about settling down with it for at least a year,” he said.“

Wicked is the most exciting thing I’ve ever done in my life and it’s a life changing thing for me. Idol came along and I sort of just went with it, but with this it is full steam ahead – I’ve been working so hard on it."

Wicked opens at Melbourne's Regent Theatre on July 12. Bookings: 132 849.

Aussietheatre.com