Mike Costa is based on the actor who first played him, Wayne Cilento, although the "I Can Do That" story is from the childhood of Sammy Williams, who played Paul in the original cast.
Mike has worked with Zach before, and has an agressive
relationship with both him and most people he meets. During his number, he is determined to show Zach and the others that he is the *best* dancer at the audition--and he does. This mirrors real life in that Michael Bennett and Wayne Cilento would "battle" to show technical
supremacy during rehearsals. Wayne had a similar dance style and body type to Michael, so it's not surprising that Michael named him the "best" dancer. When the actors were split into different companies after the first year of the show, dance captains would say "Your leg is too high." Wayne would say "Hell, no, I *am* Mike Costa, and I'm supposed
to do it that way!
As mentioned before, the story of "I can do That" is from another dancer, but here is some background on Wayne which can be incorporated to Mike's story: Wayne went to school in suburban New York. "I always liked Open House dancing. I
always danced with the black people. Just regular social dancing." He auditioned for the school musical, and the choreographer saw his natural talent, and encouraged him to take classes. He said, "Okay fine. But I am *not* wearing tights."
In junior college he took jazz and modern classes, and wore shorts, pretending to be an athlete. Then the choreographer from HS took him to see his first Broadway show. He said "I couldn't beleive it. They're really doing that for a living? She
said 'yes.' I said 'Okay fine. That's it!'"
From there, he transferred to a college that had a dance curriculum. he realized that he had a lot of catching up to do. Still, he told the dance department head "You want me to dance? No tights. I will not wear tights...I think it was a week later, I had every get up on my body you could possibly think of.
I had modern drag, ballet drag, jazz drag. I had outfits for days. I took two ballet classes a day, three modern classes, and a repertory class. I was dead. I just danced from morning to night." So, if you add that Mike had taken tap early on, you could incorporate this for your background for Mike.
Mike is only 24, but he is an experienced performer, having worked with Zach before as well as being friends with Bobby, Sheila, Connie, Greg, and others. He also knows Maggie and Don having done a show with them before. he might not be as friendly
to some of the newer auditioners, trying to intimidate that. However, Mike is still likable, so it's not like he's trying to scare them or anything.
Mike is also used to lots of teasing, as is illustrated by his lines in the Montage. (They called me 'Stinky'for three years, Stop picking your nose, Your brother's going to medical school, and you're dropping out to be a chorus boy-Nothing!) This would
make him a tougher kind of personality--it would affect someone like Mark or Paul a lot differently than it does Mike.
Mark is third from the right, and wore a blue polo and dark dance pants (tights!) This is different than the logo picture which had him in an early costume design. Mike is supposed to be married as well, despite the fact that Maggie and Connie tell him he's a sex
maniac. It could just be that he's the typical male pig and talks about sex a lot, not neccessarily that he sleeps around. Who knows?
Wayne continued to perform and also successfully choreographed. He looks back at ACl as "real special."
