Latest / The BSB Podcast / Exclusive Interview: Keely Beirne of 'Gotta Dance!'

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Exclusive Interview: Keely Beirne of 'Gotta Dance!' · The BSB Podcast

• 0:00
  Keely Beirne is bringing the heat and got to dance eight times a week and today she's joining us to talk about this incredible production.
• 0:05
  Thank you so much for joining me today.
• 0:07
  my god, I'm happy to be here.
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  We are so excited.
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  This show is so incredible.
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  It such an incredible energy.
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  What is it like for you to bring this show that is just featuring the best of dance um to stage?
• 0:20
  um Well, first and foremost, it's an honor.
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  um These are some of the most iconic dance numbers of all time.
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  Things I grew up watching, especially movie musicals like bringing Sid Cherese, Gene Kelly, and also like the best musicals on Broadway, West Side Story is one of my favorite
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  musicals of all time.
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  So to recreate it and also bring new life and hopefully educate.
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  some of the new generation.
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  I know like my nieces came, they're five and seven.
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  They've never seen, some of these are heard, some of these numbers before.
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  So it's really cool that they got to experience it for the first time.
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  I love that.
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  these are obviously these are shows that I grew up.
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  I grew up on movie musicals with my mom, my grandma.
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  Like you mentioned all those names.
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  I'm like, yes, all of them.
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  So iconic, so fantastic.
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  But it's always so interesting to think of the younger generation not knowing who these people are like Gene Kelly.
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  Right?
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  Oh my gosh.
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  I was like, you don't, what do mean you don't know the girl in the green dress from singing in the rain?
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  But they're learning it now.
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  So, literally now, literally than ever.
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  absolutely right.
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  Like as long as they're learning about culture at some point.
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  Right, right.
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  So what drew you to wanting to be a part of this production?
• 1:43
  well, I love dance.
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  Dance is my first love.
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  I kind of navigated into musical theater Broadway a little late later, because I always started in dance class um and then started adding the singing and the acting.
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  And then I went to school for musical theater.
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  So I like added the layers.
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  But dance has always been my first love.
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  And some of the pieces in our show, like at my dance studio.
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  I remember seeing the show posters like along the wall.
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  I'm like, it just from a little girl and now having that visual and then recreating and performing it as an adult is just, it's so cool.
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  It feels full circle.
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  It is very full circle.
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  I do have to say that I thought it was so cool that I actually got to see you in Moulin Rouge.
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  And it's such an incredible show.
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  like, so when I saw your name come up, I was like, oh my gosh, like, it's so cool to be able to talk about that.
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  But it's cool that you get to go back to your, your love of dance, you know, where that really began.
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  I mean, I guess Moulin Rouge is very dance heavy too, but like this, that love of dance.
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  yeah.
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  But it's cool to kind of go back and have this be almost like this is the show that's showcasing the dance specifically.
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  Yeah, highlighting amazing, incredible talent.
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  It's so cool.
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  So what was kind of your journey into dancing and acting and being a triple threat?
• 3:08
  Oh, well, thank you.
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  um I started, yeah, I started in dance.
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  I think the first dance class I took, I was probably five and it was like a ballet tap combo class.
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  um And then I, I mean, I played sports.
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  I also played soccer growing up, but it became like, which one are we going to choose?
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  Soccer or dance?
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  And I, dance won.
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  It won.
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  It won my heart.
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  stole my heart.
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  And I think
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  It wasn't until I did West Side Story was the first musical I've ever performed in at my high school.
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  And that's I was like, wait a second.
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  I like, you can do all three at the same time.
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  And then I started focusing more into that land and realizing, I can go to school for musical theater.
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  Like I can get a degree.
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  I can really like focus in and be on Broadway as in a career for real.
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  um But I think West Side Story was that.
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  the first like dip my toes in and now I just dove right in at first.
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  I mean, that's such a great show to kind of start off on too.
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  mean, that's one of my absolute favorites is West Side Story.
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  I grew up like, it was like sound of music, singing, and then my mom was like, have you ever heard of West Side Story?
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  And that it's so, it's dance heavy, obviously, but it's also just so beautiful of a story.
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  like, for you to be like, this is figuring it out with that show, be like, I can do all three.
• 4:37
  That's awesome.
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  and in high school I remember, I mean, I was just starting out, I didn't really know, I hadn't trained that much, especially vocally.
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  So I do remember auditioning for Anita, didn't get it in high school.
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  But then I ended up touring internationally with it later in life, and I was like, this is really filling that hole that I'd wished I'd done.
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  Like I was like, wait, I made it, I did it.
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  And that was a really special time.
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  Yeah, it's like one of my favorite roles of all time.
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  So I mean, it's, again, iconic.
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  All of these roles are talking about iconic.
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  And even the other shows you've done, Aladdin, Frozen, like you have been a part of some really huge shows that just are crowd pleasers, but also like iconic.
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  It just keeps coming to mind.
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  Yeah, and all pretty dance-heavy shows, I'd say, yeah.
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  So of the shows that are kind of a part of this revue of Gotta Dance, which ones do you feel like, because I know there's some that people are gonna know, what are the ones that
• 5:38
  really stand out to you that really defined this production of Gotta Dance?
• 5:44
  um Definitely, we're gonna say West Side Story a million times, but West Side Story for sure, because that's something that jumps out to people.
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  But a chorus line, I think as well, is like the dancer musical.
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  Like if you think of what musical really is celebrating and all the storytelling of the life of a dancer in a show and auditioning and what that process like and how.
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  how hard it is, what I did for love, all that stuff.
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  So I feel like ending the show with a chorus line just feels like the perfect way to wrap up what we're doing.
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  um I don't know, yeah, yeah, for Broadway dancers or just dancers in general.
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  um I love American in Paris as well though.
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  Like, it's so stunning and it like takes my breath away every time.
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  um
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  Doing Manson Trio from Pippin feels super iconic.
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  um I watched that VHS, like the Ben Vereen VHS, all the time as a child, essentially.
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  I didn't even know if I had learned it before, like if I'd taken a class or if I learned it in college.
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  I couldn't remember and I'd asked some of my friends I went to college with, I was like, did we learn this in school?
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  They're like, no, we never learned that one.
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  was like, so I've just watched that VHS that many times that it kind of was like osmosis into my body.
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  Yeah.
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  I was like, wow, I was really kind of obsessed with this when I was little.
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  So that's cool.
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  I, that is awesome.
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  And then that's another full circle moment for you then getting to bring that back and do a number from that.
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  That has to be so cool.
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  yeah.
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  Very honored.
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  oh I admitted to Drew just a few minutes ago that I'm such a bad theater gay that I've never seen a chorus line before.
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  I only learned about it when I read Kelly Bishop's uh biography.
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  So I'm like, I need to see this.
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  Okay.
• 7:55
  My sisters did a production, like community theater production, but I was so young that I wasn't allowed to go because it was like inappropriate.
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  I was probably five, you know, and they are cursing mildly.
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  I think it would have gone over my head and I just would have been excited about all the dancing that's happening.
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  But I just, will always think about how I...
• 8:17
  wasn't able to see it like the first time that I could have seen it.
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  So then I made it a point like the 2009 revival, every little step that documentary, which Jessica Lee Golden is a part of, like it's so cool to me.
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  That's like history.
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  I Drew told me that I have to watch some of the original production.
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  And so now have a list of things I have to watch about this.
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  yeah.
• 8:42
  Is there a number that is specifically challenging you feel to bring to the stage for Gotta Dance?
• 8:48
  Oh, I mean, in all of them in their own way are challenging because one, you know, it's big shoes to fill these iconic numbers.
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  But as far as like stamina and challenge, I would probably say the swing number from swing because it's a different dance style that I hadn't done before.
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  It's very aerobic cardio or jumping.
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  There's lots of
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  really specific partnering and it's fast paced.
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  So it's like, we're going, we're flipping.
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  It's, I think that's my most challenging, but it's also the most rewarding and I do have a lot of fun.
• 9:31
  Like I come off stage, my cheeks hurt cause I'm like smiling and she's in so hard.
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  So that one.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  Satisfying.
• 9:44
  You actually did it on television recently, right?
• 9:47
  I did the shimmy.
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  Oh, that's another, well that's another, like, the shimmy is deceptively hard, because it's also cardio.
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  She's shaking the whole time.
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  that, like, it looks easy.
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  And then when I actually performed it, for real, I was like, wait a second, wait a second.
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  Make it look easy, but it's actually a cardio dance challenge.
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  I was gonna say, don't put me down for that, it's a full workout.
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  can see it.
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  You guys did a wonderful job.
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  It is a full workout, and this show is two hours long.
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  That's a lot of time.
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  yeah.
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  It's just nonstop dance and like all the biggest 11 o'clock numbers.
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  Like it's not just, you know, there's no acting scenes.
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  Yeah, we're just moving right through.
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  do you keep that energy up for so long?
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  Because that is, it has to be probably its own mental workout.
• 10:41
  Yes, but the energy of the cast is so infectious that we kind of feed off of each other.
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  Like even today, um we have some understudies on.
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  We're all in the wings cheering each other on.
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  So it's like, it feels like we have cheerleading squad, all the energy is being thrown onto the stage and it's all thing like dance is what we all love to do.
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  So I know, I know it's hard and I, by the end of the day, yes, tired, fatigue, all that, but
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  It's the same, like, it's worth it, it's satisfying, like, because the material's so good, it, like, fuels your soul in a way that you're like, you know what, it's worth it.
• 11:24
  You know, that was worth it.
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  Sure.
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  I feel like after a long day of therapy, after eight or ten clients, you're like, I did good stuff, I did good work here.
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  You feel rewarded even though you're exhausted.
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  You're like, I'm ready for bed.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  So you're also an educator.
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  So what is it like to share your craft with others in this like academic way instead of like just the artistic way?
• 11:47
  oh I love it.
• 11:49
  I mean, I was fortunate enough, I'm from New Jersey, so I was pretty close proximity to New York.
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  There were some people from my high school, because it was a performing arts high school, and my dance studio, who ended up training and succeeding on Broadway.
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  So then they would come back and teach.
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  And it just, it's so inspiring.
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  like, I would like to pass that on.
• 12:16
  Yeah, and my dance teacher growing up had always instilled in us, it forward.
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  So we always think pay it forward, pay it forward.
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  So coming back, I go back to my studio all the time.
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  I'll go to any studio if I'm available to come back and teach.
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  And a lot of original choreography I like to teach so that it's like, I don't know, just like passing the baton down.
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  Plus
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  Their questions are so genuine, so curious.
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  I'm like, wow, I've actually come to a place in my life where I have advice to give.
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  Like I have experienced so many things and so many shows.
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  I'm like, yeah, I might as well share all these stories and advice, whatever I can.
• 12:59
  And like that young energy too, when they're excited about it, know, that like, and that almost makes you excited again.
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  Yeah, for real.
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  And sometimes they take it for granted.
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  You're like, oh, because you do the show eight times a week and it just becomes like kind of so normal normalized instead of like the glamorized part of it where these kids are
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  like, my God, you are in Aladdin.
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  And I'm like, yeah, it was.
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  And it seems like normal to say.
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  But I'm like, wait, that is really cool, actually.
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  You know what?
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  That is really cool.
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  I love how I'm realizing that I'm also the same energy of these kids.
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  Because when I saw you in Aladdin, I was like, she was in Aladdin.
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  Because it is super cool from the outside, know?
• 13:39
  But I can see for you, it would be like, I've done this eight times a week.
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  You're still rewarding, but it's also a job, you know?
• 13:45
  Yeah, yeah, so it's good to teach.
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  reignites something in my soul.
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  Good reminder.
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  And you're also a hype girl.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  What, can you tell the people what a hype girl is?
• 14:02
  Sure Well, here it really started in the pandemic because I was doing some social media managing and helping people with photo shoots and styling and stuff like that because I've
• 14:12
  always felt if I've gone and taken like a headshot session alone and I don't have anybody there, I'm like, it just feels like the picture is sterile.
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  So I'm like, I wanna be the person there who, what looks good on you.
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  Does my hair, can I fix this?
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  Posing, just, know, someone there to be supportive.
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  So cool.
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  It's like a form of therapy.
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  Yeah, everyone should feel celebrated.
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  I love that.
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  think that there's not enough of that energy in life.
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  And it sounds like you have such an energy in life no matter what you're doing.
• 14:44
  Be it Gotta Dance, be it Hype Girl, be it Educator, that you just, you want to do it all and you want to share that energy that you have and that passion and that's so beautiful.
• 14:53
  Like that's really beautiful to You don't really see that all the time.
• 14:55
  Thanks.
• 14:57
  So one final question then for you, it's just what are you hoping Undecent's take away from this production of Gotta Dance?
• 15:02
  Oh, well, I hope they leave feeling joyful.
• 15:06
  um It's the best part, like an escape, right?
• 15:10
  There's so much going on in the world.
• 15:14
  They could just sit there for 95 minutes and escape and have a good time and watch dance and like hoot and holler and...
• 15:21
  Even if it's young dancers, feel inspired to get back into class, to watch the movies, to see the source material, whatever it is.
• 15:28
  Just, I hope it all ends with an explosion of joy, because that's all it is.
• 15:32
  I mean, it's not that deep.
• 15:34
  We're singing and dancing.
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  We're trying to put on a good show.
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  Trying to put smiles on people's faces, so.
• 15:39
  And know, it's, escapism, you're so, it was right, so important right now.
• 15:43
  Just like to have a little bit of time where you can smile and just enjoy something and feel the energy.
• 15:48
  And the show definitely has the energy.
• 15:51
  So I think that's the beautiful part of this show and what Gotta Dance is bringing to people.
• 15:56
  Yeah.
• 15:57
  So thank you so much for your time.
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  It's been such a pleasure talking with you.
• 16:00
  And again, we are so excited for this production.
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  We hope people show up and show out.
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  But thanks for talking with us about it.
• 16:06
  Of course, it was awesome.
• 16:08
  So nice to meet you.
• 16:10
  So, Gotta Dance is currently running at stage 42 in NYC, so get your tickets now and we'll see you at the show.