SU’s FYP goes viral for Legally Blonde Promo
SU’s FYP goes viral for ‘Legally Blonde’ Promo
The student theater organization includes theater kids and TikTok stars — it’s no wonder their social media has amassed over a million views.
Does FYP stand for First Year Players or “For You Page?” With the student-run organization’s recent virality on TikTok, it might be tough to tell.
FYP will be showcasing Legally Blonde in Goldstein Auditorium for their annual musical this Thursday through Saturday. As part of the show’s promotional efforts, the organization’s public relations team has taken to TikTok. One video has gone viral, currently amassing 1.4 million views on the platform.
The video was modeled after a well-circulated trend: one by one, cast members sing a snippet of a song to their director, whose back is turned. The director then guesses who each singer is, highlighting a director’s skill of voice-recognition and familiarity with each cast members’ sound.
@fypsyracuse Legally Blonde opens in week! you don’t want to miss them sing!! #syracuseuniversity #firstyearplayers #syracuse #fyp #legallyblonde #theater #legallyblonde #legallyblondethemusical #ellewoods ♬ original sound – First Year Players
“Our PR team works in overdrive,” said Emma LeVaca, co-producer of this year’s production.
LeVaca’s statement is not far off; FYP’s other promotional videos for the show have also done numbers. The account’s feed is sprinkled with views that end in capital “K’s” — 56.2K, 18K, 14.2K. One video, currently at 49,500 views, really leans into this year’s production: the show’s cast dancing to an iconic sound bite from Legally Blonde (2001), with Reese Witherspoon’s voice saying, “You’re breaking up with me, because I’m too … blonde?” played over the track of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.”
@fypsyracuse You heard her!! More info on our Instagram (link in bio)💗🐕👩⚖️ #fyp #firstyearplayers #syracuse #syracuseuniversity #theatre #theater #college #university #musicals #legallyblonde #legallyblondethemusical ♬ original sound – jess⁶
The mass of views speaks to the FYP social media team’s success. The comments, however, speak to the success of one particular cast member.
“is that THE tori gill” — @mia.font
“tik tok famous regina george????” — @martenlinnan
“Is that jimmy nominee tori gill?” — @kennedykovach
“THE TORI GILL ON FYP..?” — @golf_js
So, who is THE Tori Gill?
You might know SU freshman Vittoria “Tori” Gill as Elle Woods, the female lead in this year’s FYP production. In many ways, Gill embodies the character in real life; she’s a political science major with pink nails and a powerhouse voice. This role is not entirely new for her either; as a “little 10-year-old with a tooth gap and a blonde wig,” Gill starred as Elle in Legally Blonde JR, so the current casting is a “full circle moment” for her.
You also might know her as one of the 2024 nominees for the National High School Musical Theatre Awards, also known as the Jimmy Awards, for her performance as Velma Kelly in Chicago. Along with Velma, she has played a few different leads: Ariel in her high school’s production of The Little Mermaid and Cosette in Les Miserables.
But you also might know her as the viral Regina George, meaning this isn’t Gill’s first cameo on a wide audience’s For You Page. As a senior in high school, a friend posted a video of her singing “World Burn” — a track on the Mean Girls musical known for its hard-to-hit vocal peaks. The video is currently at 5.5 million views on the Music Academy of WNY’s TikTok.
“Now, everywhere I go, there’s some weird mark on me of Regina, but it’s cool,” Gill said with a laugh.
Going viral on TikTok typically leads to an inevitable flood of unsolicited commentary. Though Gill initially felt self-conscious about this abrupt spotlight, she witnessed a majority of positive feedback from the masses, even receiving some heartfelt DMs from people commending her performance. The million-eye pressure of virality has since subsided for Gill.
“You’ll never know when you’re gonna randomly have a viral video. And now it’s just a funny little thing that I can pull out of my back pocket. Yeah, if someone’s like, ‘What’s your fun fact?’ I’ll be like, ‘I went famous on TikTok for playing a mean girl.’”
Gill is not the only member of FYP who has gone viral on TikTok. Spencer Howard, FYP’s assistant director of public relations, is currently at 24.5 million views for his video saying “Pumpkin” at Bird Library; and Isabella Thier, FYP’s assistant music director, has garnered 1.1 million followers as “jaw surgery girl” under the username @bella.the.rat.
With such a star-studded organization, it’s almost no wonder that FYP’s TikTok went viral. The organization is like a petri dish of micro-celebrities, both in front of the curtain and behind it. Views and TikTok virality — though a useful promotional tool — are not at the heart of this organization. It’s the community the organization builds; the social media love they are receiving seems to be merely a product of the vivid love FYP members have for each other.
“The hype and the comments on the video are hysterical. People are fangirling over our cast, which is amazing because they’re all so talented and great,” LeVaca said. “And I think it’s a great way for people to familiarize themselves with the people in FYP and put our name out there. Like, ‘Hey, I wonder what’s the lore with FYP?’”
The “lore” starts with the fact that FYP has been an on-campus theater organization for 30 years. Made up of around 200 students, there’s one common denominator: none of them are theater majors.
Of course, a fair amount of FYP members are high school “theater kids” who are not quite ready to exit stage left. But some members have never been involved in a theater production before. The program also holds a student body with a diverse range of fields, from architecture to marketing — even students majoring in aerospace engineering are included in the mix.
Regardless of their theater background or what building in the school they attend the most classes in, FYP unites them on another front: they want to create something together. This passion and essence of community is not uncommon for a theater-centric crew. Though Gill moved around a lot as a kid, from Los Angeles to D.C. to Buffalo, she always found “home” in the theater.
“The people that you meet in theater are the people we’ll be friends with for the rest of your life, because they just kind of get you,” said Gill. “Everybody in theater is like, looking for the same thing. You want to find that community that also is weird and freaky, and wants to just be authentically themselves. And I think you find that in FYP.”
Want to see the show? Tickets are available on the Syracuse University Student Box Office My Tickets Portal hosted by MyProVenue, or at the link in FYP’s Instagram bio.