PHOTO COURTESY OF LUCAS CHILCZUK

 

NEW YORK (AP) —The newest winner of TV’s So You Think You Can Dance is ready for his Broadway close-up.

Ricky Ubeda, a 19-year-old from Miami, won the Fox TV contest show in September and will join the ensemble of Broadway’s On the Town at the Lyric Theatre starting Friday.

“I’m super-pumped,” said Ubeda last week from frozen Fargo, North Dakota, where his tour with the other Season 11 finalists has ended. “Anything warmer than here,” he joked. “It’s in the negatives.”

Ubeda has seen rehearsals of On the Town and called it “huge,” “amazing” and “some of the hardest dancing on Broadway.”

In addition to a $250,000 prize and the dance title, Ubeda won a part in show,” he said.

On the Town, which was made into a 1949 film starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, features the songs New York, New York and Lonely Town. In the show, three sailors on leave jump around the city looking for love.

It’s been a crazy few months for Ubeda, who graduated high school in May, won the TV contest he’s been watching since
he was a child, went out on tour, and now will be living alone for the first time in New York with a job on Broadway.

“To get an amazing part on Broadway after winning a show like that is just something I couldn’t have dreamed of. I’m definitely grateful for the whole experience,” he said. “It’s going to be a big experience for me.”