San Diegan Nico DeJesus shines on Broadway in Alicia Keys’ Tony-winning musical ‘Hell’s Kitchen’

It isn’t everyday a Broadway performer throws the ceremonial first pitch at a Padres home game, but on July 5, hometown dancer Nico DeJesus did just that.

DeJesus is a lifelong San Diego Padres fan who also happens to be a performer and dance captain on the Broadway hit “Hell’s Kitchen” and is often spotted in Midtown Manhattan repping Padres gear.

“I’m a huge baseball fan,” DeJesus said by phone from New York City. “I was talking about it with my family, and it’s San Diego, that’s our team. When they introduced me as, ‘From San Diego, Nico DeJesus from Broadway’s “Hell’s Kitchen,”‘ it was really cool.”

“Hell’s Kitchen” was created by 17-time Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys. The lyrics and songs in the Tony-winning musical were inspired by Keys’ life growing up in New York City.

Directed by Tony Award-winner Michael Greif, who was the artistic director of the La Jolla Playhouse in the 1990s, “Hell’s Kitchen” opened on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre on April 20, 2024. Having been attached since the show’s early development workshops, DeJesus was elevated from the ensemble to take on a dance captain position roughly six months into the show’s run.

The role of dance captain has increased responsibilities in addition to a regular dance track. It requires extra time, dedication and patience to preserve the choreographer’s vision after rehearsals have ended.

Tony-nominated choreographer Camille A. Brown recognized this skill in DeJesus as a dancer, having worked together on a personal project earlier in his career.

“I started working with him back in 2016-2017 for a project I was doing with my company, Camille A. Brown & Dancers,” Brown said in an email.

“I am so thrilled that Nico is an original cast member of ‘Hell’s Kitchen.’ He is also an amazing dance captain that truly cares for my work,” she added.

Unable to make the “Hell’s Kitchen” in-person audition while on a break in San Diego, DeJesus sent a tape and was “lucky and blessed enough” to be cast, DeJesus said.

Dream come true

He completed two sets of workshops for “Hell’s Kitchen” that ran simultaneously with “& Juliet,” until his contract with the latter ended in 2023. That allowed him to focus primarily on “Hell’s Kitchen.”

“I was doing ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and then running back to go to ‘& Juliet’ at night, and then running back to ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ — it was crazy,” DeJesus said. “As I was doing that, there was something about ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ … I was feeling very creatively fulfilled while I was at rehearsals. It’s kind of what you wish for as an actor, to be running from one huge show to another. It’s true.”

Last year, DeJesus performed with the company at the 77th annual Tony Awards, where “Hell’s Kitchen” garnered 13 nominations, including a best musical nod for the production and a best choreographer nod for Brown.

“The dancing is through the roof. You can’t believe it, Camille Brown smashed this. It’s unbelievable,” Alicia Keys said on “Good Morning America” last month while showcasing the show and its newest star, Christopher Jackson.

The Grammy- and Emmy-winning Jackson is most recognized for his work as George Washington in “Hamilton,” for which he was also nominated for a Tony. Marking his return to Broadway in “Hell’s Kitchen” as Davis, the actor has found a mentee in DeJesus, who says the two have bonded, talking sports and family life.

“Now we have Chris Jackson — he’s my new best friend over at ‘Hell’s Kitchen,’” DeJesus said. “We found that we both really love sports. I was up in his dressing room talking about the Padres, talking about sports, talking about everything. It’s been really nice to ask him questions about life, and he’s been guiding me towards managing the industry and also growing up and being a man in the industry.”

Giving back

DeJesus, 35, recognizes the importance of mentorship and has taken the opportunity to teach dance classes all over the country, from New York to San Diego.

Before his days on Broadway, DeJesus grew up in Encanto and trained at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts and credits his teacher, Donald Robinson, for his discipline and training, a passion he hopes to pay forward to younger generations of dancers.

“I credit a lot of the training that he did for me at a SCPA to the person that I am today,” DeJesus said. “I would be dying in the studio, out of breath, hot, and then he would shut the doors on us and say, ‘Let’s do that whole dance again.’

“I do that eight times a week on Broadway. I kill myself on stage eight times a week, but the training that he gave me in San Diego prepared me for that.”

It takes a village to raise a child destined for Broadway, and support for the arts started early in the DeJesus household. Brenda DeJesus made sure to give her son all the opportunities she could as a young artist. They even built a dance studio in their home in Encanto and included other budding artists from the community, she said.

“A lot of times, these talented kids have no rehearsal space after hours,” she said. “So our house is the house that the kids would go to, whether it was dance or musicians — that was the place they could go to.”

After high school in San Diego, DeJesus received his undergraduate degree from UCLA in World Arts and Culture with a dance emphasis. He had his big break when he was cast in the national Broadway tour of Disney’s “Newsies,” as “Romeo” in 2014, before making it to Broadway. He followed that up with stints on and off-Broadway, touring with “Pretty Woman: The Musical” before being cast in “& Juliet” in 2020.

Working multiple shows at once has been a regular part of the career DeJesus has built and a testament to his work ethic and professionalism.

In a rare opportunity to break from “Hell’s Kitchen,” DeJesus can be seen in his principal role debut as Graffiti Pete as part of the Broadway at Music Circus production of “In the Heights.” Presented by the UC Davis Health Pavilion, this theatre in-the-round, limited, special performance will run Aug. 1 to 7. After its final curtain, DeJesus will return once again to Broadway and “Hell’s Kitchen.”

Of his upcoming Northern California show, he said: “I’m so excited to perform in that California air again and just pop off for my state. I haven’t done it in a minute, so I’m really going for it when I do it for ‘In the Heights.’”