Tanner A. B. Quirk ’29 on Artistry, Applause, and Arabesques

Tanner A. B. Quirk ’29 may not be the only Harvard student to have received a HomePod when he turned 15. But he might be the only one to have received it from Academy Award nominee Hugh Jackman. Quirk made his Broadway debut in the 2022 revival of Meredith Willson’s classic musical “The Music Man,” starring Jackman and Tony winner Sutton Foster, and he celebrated his birthday on the third day of rehearsals.

Like many great artists, Quirk started as a shy child.

“I had no after-school activities, all my siblings did. Because I was always very against that, I always didn’t want to do anything after school,” Quirk said in an interview with The Crimson.

At the age of seven, his parents signed him up for gymnastics, and he quickly became a competitive gymnast. Dancing at the School of American Ballet started soon after. In both places, he met fellow students who were already pursuing professional careers in the arts.

“A lot of kids at my ballet school were also pursuing theater,” Quirk said. “Someone was actually a Matilda on Broadway, and she kind of helped me get in touch and audition for ‘Matilda.’ And she knew other people. It was just this big open call. I think I almost didn’t do it — I think I got there and started crying. But I was the person who wanted to do it, and my mom was like, ‘Tanner, you really don’t have to do this. You can go back,’” Quirk said.

It’s a good thing he mustered up the confidence, though, because that audition proved fateful in the trajectory of his life. After months of callbacks, a surprise awaited him.

“Finally, one day, I came home and my parents were just like, ‘You’re going to Canada!’” Quirk said.

Just two years after he started with gymnastics, he traded one craft for another as he was cast in the 2016 production of “Matilda” at Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre. Quirk still hangs on to the fake ears that he wore as Eric — one of Miss Trunchbull’s many victims — as a memento. While Quirk relished his time onstage, other challenges presented themselves.

“It was just a little hard to be away from home for me to be honest,” Quirk said.

Having conquered the musical theater world, Quirk soon moved on to ballet stardom, claiming the coveted role of the Prince in New York City Ballet’s annual production of “The Nutcracker.”

Quirk, who is Asian-American, was part of a record-breaking diverse cast of “The Nutcracker.” His co-star, Charlotte Nebres, was the first Black dancer to play the young heroine Marie. As a result, the production was the subject of massive media coverage. Ultimately, Quirk’s performance in “The Nutcracker” opened several doors for him.

“Warren Carlyle, the choreographer, told me towards the end of the run of ‘The Music Man’ that he saw me as the Prince in ‘The Nutcracker’ and he said ‘That’s the one I want. I want him in the show,’” Quirk said.

Quirk gave his final performance as the Prince in the 2019-2020 holiday season, and he soon embarked on a rigorous audition process for “The Music Man.”

“The dance call for ‘The Music Man’ was super hard. It was like, ‘Triple pirouette’ and it had to be triple pirouette. He was very adamant about that,” Quirk said. “Because I had all this ballet training, I was able to pull it off.”

Quirk’s talent clearly impressed the creative team, as he was chosen from among the ensemble to have a feature in the show-stopping production number “Marian the Librarian.”

“I remember that people would say that I had the ‘best arabesque on Broadway,’” Quirk said.

Once “The Music Man” opened, an average day for Quirk saw him waking up at 8 a.m. for school and attending class until 1 p.m. — at which point he would travel to the School of American Ballet for a three-hour class and then quickly eat dinner before speeding over to the Winter Garden Theater for an evening performance.

“My parents were really helpful in that way, at being good stage parents and making sure I was fed and had the energy to do everything,” Quirk said.

At the end of the standard six-month contract for Broadway child actors, Quirk got some disappointing news.

“We got this really ominous email that was like, ‘Come in tomorrow morning, in the mezzanine of the Winter Garden Theatre to talk about your future with the show and your contract,’” Quirk said.

When he got there, disappointing news awaited him.

“The producer was already crying, like he was already in tears as he told me, ‘Unfortunately, we’re not going to be extending your contract.’”

This would be a devastating blow for any performer, but it was uniquely difficult for a teenager making his Broadway debut.

“‘The Music Man’ was my entire life. It was my entire world. So the thought of not being a part of it was kind of unfathomable. So I literally broke down during the show — during the performance that night,” Quirk said.

As soon as Quirk’s contract ended, he enrolled in a summer intensive at Boston Ballet. However, he had to leave during the penultimate week of that program to join his fellow original cast members to record the cast album for “The Music Man.”

During the recording session, he had a private lunch with Hugh Jackman, where Quirk recalled that he learned a lot about “what true success means.” Jackman’s advice wasn’t the only revelation for Quirk on that fateful day.

“While I was there, I got a call from my mom, and she was like ‘The producer saw you. They saw how happy you were to be back with the rest of the cast and they asked you to come back on as a swing,’” Quirk said.

Quirk was re-hired as a vacation swing for “The Music Man,” which meant that he would learn eight ensemble tracks — sometimes, with only a few days’ notice — and come to the theater only when needed. This arrangement allowed him to devote more time to his school life and studying at the School of American Ballet.

Sometimes, however, those two worlds were in conflict: He remembers a moment when his teachers, who were displeased that he returned to “The Music Man,” sat him down and explicitly forced him to choose between “Broadway or ballet.”

After “The Music Man” closed, Quirk did devote most of his time to dance.

“That’s just an awkward age. People don’t really perform, just because, at that point, they might as well hire a real adult,” Quirk said.

When it came time to choose a college, though, Quirk knew he was ready for a change.

“I feel like I saw so many cool theater kids who I’d known growing up in the world of ‘Matilda’ who were here at Harvard. And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s so cool that they went from doing that and now they’re a Harvard student,” Quirk said.

His energy — as his career has shown — is boundless, and the Harvard arts scene is a lucky beneficiary. In Quirk’s first year, he has graced the stage of the Loeb Drama Center in the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club production of the musical “Merrily We Roll Along” — his non-professional musical theater debut — as well as Harvard Ballet Company’s productions of “Nocturne” and “Interlude.”

Quirk is committed to exploring new artistic avenues within theater, which includes taking on more responsibility behind the scenes.

“This semester, I’m kind of delving into choreography, which is a new side of musical theater and dance that I’ve never explored. I’m so excited to do that and see where that takes me,” Quirk said.

Reflecting on his journey, Quirk admits that it was the promise of feeling “special” that led him to pursue the arts. However, as he’s grown, he’s reframed his perspective: “It’s about the art you’re creating.”

— In his column “Broadway Babies,” Charles E. Kirsch ’29 profiles Harvard students who previously worked as professional performers, chronicling their inspiring journeys from dressing rooms to dorms. He can be reached at [email protected].