The Jets and the Sharks will soon be fighting on the Wharton Center’s stage, Nov. 8-13, in the Tony-award winning musical “West Side Story.”
“This show itself is just so epic and so gripping that while watching it I was on the edge of my seat the entire time,” said Nathan Keen, who plays Big Deal in the national tour. “It’s probably my dream show.”
Luckily for Keen this is one of a few dream shows that he’s gotten to perform in.
At the ripe age of 23 Keen has a rather impressive résumé, having starred in national tours of “Beauty and the Beast,” “Ragtime” and “Les Miserables,” and that was all before entering middle school, something that many performers can only dream of.
“I saw a production of the Nutcracker at the Fox Theatre in Detroit and told my mom I wanted to do that. She said ‘What, you want to be on the stage?’ and I said ‘No, I want to do that,’ I wanted to dance,” said Keen.
With that he was bitten with the bug and it began.
At three and a half Keen started dancing and did his first show around five, setting him up for his first national tour, “Beauty and the Beast,” which cast a local child in every city that it went to.
Keen saw the audition at his dance studio and figured might as well try it.
“I got very, very lucky and managed to book it,” said Keen. “I did that for the three month run in Detroit and was introduced to a woman that would become my agent.”
Keen then did a yearlong stint as Gavroche in “Les Miserables,” which included a six-week run on Broadway, an amazing experience for Keen, who at the time didn’t realize how cool and unusual it was to be nine and on Broadway.
After that he was part of the original company’s national tour of “Ragtime,” playing Little Boy, which lasted 14 months, by which point Keen wanted to take a break and go home, being able to set foot in a classroom for the first time in four years.
“I stayed in the arts but just didn’t want to leave home. I just wanted that normal home life,” said Keen. “I couldn’t get away from it though, I still loved performing.”
During this break is when Keen really threw himself into dancing, after getting some advice.
“When I got off ‘Ragtime’ the dance captain told me to learn how to dance and you will work forever,” said Keen. “Without learning how to dance I defiantly wouldn’t be here right now.”
This then leads back to “West Side Story,” the first show that he’s done since completing his Musical Theatre degree with a concentration in Dance from Otterbein University, located in Ohio.
“As a male dancer there really isn’t a better show out there for us and it’s just such a wonderful piece of theatre,” he said. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
Keen’s character, Big Deal, is considered a rocket man in the Jets gang, meaning he’s a second tier member, while also being a joker with a dark side, adding a layer to the show that hasn’t always been there.
The way it has been done is to make it very real and much more gritty, with characters that have had very tough lives.
The show is getting away from the happy-go-lucky ness and bubble gum aspect that is so often associated with West Side, said Keen, whose been able to find the darkness within himself that he wasn’t sure was always there.
“One thing I found doing this show for a year is that I don’t like to go there but there is a part of me that is that dark and violent,” said Keen. “It’s scary to touch on it but it is a great experience to be able to realize that I can go there for this character and make it real for myself.”
Not only is Keen able to add this part successfully to the character but it has helped make him a calmer and more centered person because of this release, getting to spend two and a half hours dancing anything that’s bothering him out, leaving it all on the stage, but taking his passion for it wherever he goes.
“There’s nothing like the highs that I get from performing the way it makes you feel,” said Keen. “I guess it was kind of inevitable, it was like I might want to do something else bit it’s not gonna happen I’m not gonna be happy not performing. It was like I almost didn’t have a choice.”
