Inside Broadway Series

Shuler Hensley

INSIDE BROADWAY is a new cabaret series at the MACC, hosted by Dr. Andrew Kurtz and pianist Julie Bearden Carver, that gets up close and personal with Broadway performers. Join us for an intimate evening of storytelling, secrets, and song.

Shuler Hensley is a Tony Award-winning (Best Actor in a Musical, Oklahoma!, 2002) performer with an extensive Broadway career, including productions of Les Misérables, Oklahoma!, Tarzan, Young Frankenstein, No Man’s Land, Waiting for Godot, The Ferryman, and The Music Man. Shuler’s Off-Broadway credits include Sweet Charity (with costar Sutton Foster), The Great American Trailer Park Musical, The Whale, and Assassins. His film and television credits include Oklahoma! (1999, starring Hugh Jackman), Van Helsing (2004), The Legend of Zorro (2005), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Greatest Showman (2017), and Dexter: New Blood.

Notably, in 1996, Shuler went to Hamburg, Germany, to perform the title role in The Phantom of the Opera – in German! In 1998, Shuler was cast as Jud Fry for London’s National Theatre production of Oklahoma! The revival was a huge success, and Hensley received the Olivier Award. He continued to play the role when the show transferred to the West End (1999), the only American native in the cast, and then to Broadway (2002–03), where he won the Tony, Drama Desk Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for the same role.

Fun Fact: The Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards are also known as the Shuler Hensley Awards, named in his honor, as Shuler was born in Atlanta and grew up in Marietta, GA.