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Hensley to star in "Cheer the Brave"
April 23, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - Shuler Hensley, one of the stars of the forthcoming Universal blockbuster movie VAN HELSING, has announced his involvement with the film CHEER THE BRAVE.
A
native of Marietta, Hensley will play Coach Ed Murphy in CHEER THE BRAVE,
which tells of the story of the University of West Georgia cheerleaders
who overcame a tragic van accident to win a national championship. Hensley
will also serve as a producer on the film, which will be shot in Carrollton
and on the West Georgia campus.
Hensley has become an international talent on both stage and screen. After attending the University of Georgia and earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in vocal performance at the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Hensley performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg, Germany.
When producer Cameron Mackintosh and theatrical director Trevor Nunn decided to revive Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s classic musical Oklahoma! in London in 1998, they selected Hensley to play the tortured, brooding farmhand Jud Fry.
Susan Stroman, the legendary choreographer who reimagined the dance sequences in Oklahoma!, said, “When Shuler walked into the room, we knew we had our Jud.”
Critics agreed, including Charles Spencer of the London Daily Telegraph, who proclaimed, “I have never seen better acting in a musical. Shuler Hensley takes the audience into a heart of lonely darkness as Jud Fry.” This performance garnered Hensley the coveted Olivier Award as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical.
After making his Broadway debut as Inspector Javert in the long-running smash Les Miserables, Hensley returned to the role of Jud in Oklahoma! when the production was transferred from London. Once again, Hensley’s performance mesmerized audiences and critics alike, and he took home the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and coveted Tony Awards.
One of the people who saw Hensley’s performance as Jud was film director Stephen Sommers, who resurrected and reimagined one of Universal’s famed horror classic in the worldwide hits The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, starring Brendan Fraser.
Sommers immediately offered Hensley the role of Frankenstein’s monster in his latest writing and directing project, VAN HELSING, opposite Hensley’s co-star in the London production of Oklahoma!, Hugh Jackman. In VAN HELSING, Jackman plays the title character, the notorious 19th-century monster hunter Gabriel Van Helsing. He is sent to Transylvania to battle legendary monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman. The $150 million movie opens nationwide on May 7.
Hensley, whose late mother Iris Hensley was the founder and artistic director of the Georgia Ballet, has always had show business in his blood. He made his performance debut at age four in The Nutcracker, directed by his mother. At age nine, he became a member of the Atlanta Boys’ Choir, one of the most renowned choirs in the United States.
Hensley has also been driven by a lifelong passion for sports due to the influence of his father, Sam Hensley, Sr., who was an All-American and Captain of the 1952 National Championship team under Coach Bobby Dodd at Georgia Tech. Hensley earned a baseball scholarship at UGA before deciding to devote himself full-time to his acting career.
Hensley has performed extensively throughout the U.S., amassing an impressive list of musical theater credits. In addition to Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, and Oklahoma!, Hensley has performed leading roles in Don Giovanni, La Boheme, The Magic Flute, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Most Happy Fella, and Sweeney Todd.
He has also appeared as a guest soloist in numerous concerts, including Happy End at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, The American Songbook Tribute to Frank Loesser at Lincoln Center, and Julliard’s recent Richard Rodgers 100th birthday celebration featuring Julie Andrews, Glenn Close, Bernadette Peters, Christopher Plummer, and Elaine Stritch.
Hensley’s television appearances include a recurring role on NBC-TV’s Ed and featured role as sportscaster Keith Jackson in the TNT movie Monday Night Mayhem, about the origins of Monday Night Football. Hensley also appeared in a guest-starring role on NBC’s popular series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He also had a guest-starring role in the pilot of a new television series, The Jury. Hensley’s feature film credits include the romantic comedy Someone Like You, also starring Hugh Jackman along with Ashley Judd, and the multiple award-winning independent film The Bread, My Sweet.
In Cheer the Brave, Hensley will be teaming as a producer with his brother, Sam Hensley, Jr., who is also writing the screenplay, and Carrollton resident Richard Mix. As West Georgia Athletic Director Ed Murphy, Hensley will be playing the pivotal role of the man who convinced Sherry Cooney to take over the West Georgia cheerleading squad after the coach and two cheerleaders were killed in a van accident in the summer of 1997.
After occasionally butting heads over the direction the squad should go, Murphy and Cooney developed a mutual respect and appreciation. Not long after, the squad, including many of the cheerleaders seriously injured in the wreck, qualified for national competition for the first time. In 2001, West Georgia won the nationals and is the three-time defending champions.
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