‘It’s a canon event’: Theatre kids credit the ‘Tenor Theory’ for Ariana Grande’s theatrical new beau

Anyone who did theatre in their childhood can attest to the power of the showmance. Something about spending every afternoon with some of the most talented people in your community really gets the heart fluttering. Nearly every high school theatre department has had their fair share of kids falling in love solely because they’re spending too much time together. If TikTok’s theory is true, though, apparently the same thing happened to Ariana Grande on the set of Wicked.

Right on the heels of the pop superstar announcing her divorce from Dalton Gomez, many tabloids started reporting that Grande is dating her Wicked co-star Ethan Slater. Considering the fact that Slater, at the time of the rumors, was still married to his high school sweetheart, it’s not a good look for either party involved. But TikTok user @mollyrrusso is claiming that the reason the two got together is because of those undeniable showmance emotions.

Though she acknowledges the drama surrounding the relationship, Molly also points out that looking at it from a theatre kid perspective, it’s not entirely surprising. For those outside the theatre community, Slater made his Broadway debut back in 2017 in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical as the titular sponge. Earning a Tony nomination for his work, he quickly became a big name in the theatre community, appearing in an Off-Broadway revival of Steven Sodenheim’s Assassins in 2021.

As Molly shows, people looking up Slater after hearing this news are going to be entirely confused why Grande is dating a man whose best known for playing SpongeBob. But for those who did high school theatre, everything about this relationship makes perfect sense. “This is just a classic showmance,” Molly says. More importantly, Molly also points out that Slater is a tenor, which in the world of theatre, are the most likely suspects to be pulled into a showmance as that’s seen as extremely attractive.

Unsurprisingly, the comments are full of people echoing Molly’s sentiments. One commentor agreed with Molly, saying: “‘He’s a tenor’ was such a factual statement.” Another brought up Grande being a soprano, adding: “She’s a soprano and he’s a teno this is like the most canon event for theatre kids jdksksks.” Someone even reminded us how Grande got famous in the first place, mentioning “Girlie is a theatre gal and was on Nickelodeon.” For us former theatre kids though, probably the comment that sums up our feelings on this relationship best reads: “Something about those damn musical theatre tenors.”