6 August, 1998 : Marietta native Shuler Hensley is man of the moment in London theater. As Jud Fry, the brooding, villainous hired hand of "Oklahoma!", the 30-year-old Westminster graduate has earned some of the biggest raves from London critics for the Royal National Theatre production. He also got to join the cast in singing "Happy Birthday" to the 98-year-old Queen Mother, Elizabeth, when she paid a backstage visit. Iris Hensley, his mom, is an arts professional herself - she directs the Marietta-based Georgia Ballet Company - but when she watched her son on opening night she reverted to the role of pure mom. "I didn't like to see him lose the girl", Iris declared. "I kept thinking, 'Why don't you love my son?' and 'Why does he need all that dirt and stubble on his face?', which are typical mother reactions!"

14 August, 1998 : London Debut : When Shuler Hensley was a student at the University of Georgia in the mid-1980's, his old music teacher at Westminster, Frank Boggs, sent him a cassette tape from London of a song from a new musical there called "The Phantom of the Opera" Little did Hensley know, as he performed that song "Music of the Night" for a student project (improvising some of his own lyrics along the way!) that a decade later he'd be playing the Phantom for real, in Hamburg, Germany. And just as unforeseeable was the fact that Hensley's Phantom would catch the eye of London-based Trevor Nunn, arguably the most powerful theater director on the planet ("Cats", "Les Miserables"), who then cast the Marietta native in his Royal National Theatre production of "Oklahoma!" As Jud, the sinister but wounded hired hand, Hensley has received what he calls "startling" personal notices in the production's rave reviews. "Trevor had us read the show's source play "Green Grow the Lilacs" first, then we rehearsed the musical without singing, as if it were a play", says Shuler, 30, from the London apartment he shares with his British-born, yoga instructor wife. "That may be the key to the truthfulness of this production." "Also," Hensley continued, "the production restores Jud's song 'Lonely Room' that's rarely included in productions of the show." (Actor's Express likewise got terrific dramatic results by restoring the song in its 1997 mounting.) "It's a lost Rodgers and Hammerstein gem of a song, and Jud is truly one of the lost roles. The song is the audience's only chance to see the human side of this man longing to be loved." The production appears to be a shoo-in for a transfer to New York, possibly by way of Los Angeles, and Shuler is eager to perform back on home soil.

17 February, 1999 : Shuler Hensley, the 31-year-old Marietta native who made one of the most acclaimed London debuts in memory last year in "Oklahoma!", has won an Olivier Award - top honor of the London stage - as Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his role as the villainous Jud Fry. Frank Boggs, Hensley's music teacher and choral conductor at the Westminster Schools, says his former student combines a "wonderful voice" with "grace as a dancer". Boggs recalls Hensley's days at Westminster : "Here was this big hunk of a football and baseball player, and he was almost the only guy in the chorus who didn't have two left feet! It was his mother's training."

28 February, 1999 : Smile! : When Marietta native Shuler Hensley heard his name announced as the winner of an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (Oklahoma!) at recent ceremonies in London, he was somewhat distracted. "I was sitting behind Kevin Spacey (who won for Best Actor in a Play for "The Iceman Cometh")," Hensley says by phone from his London home, "and I figured the cameras would be pointed at him a lot, so I made sure that I was always smiling for the other nominees and not looking goofy! When I heard my name called, I must have looked a bit shocked!" Hensley, 31, reports that one of his biggest thrills was being congratulated by fellow Yank Spacey. Ironically, Actors Equity cleared Spacey to re-create his "Iceman" role on Broadway,  beginning March 29, but the union blocked a similar transfer of the mostly British "Oklahoma!" because of its policy of demanding that foreign productions offer roles to Americans. Hensley hasn't given up hope that the problem will be resolved before his London run ends June 26. In the meantime he's enjoying his award, a bronze bust of Laurence Olivier as Hamlet. "Much nicer, I'm told, than the salad bowl type thing they used to hand out!"

 

18 July, 1999 : The Royal National Theatre, over Waterloo Bridge from the Strand, lacks charm (a concrete fortress, 1970s-style) but its productions are often London's best. Shuler Hensley of the recent "Oklahoma!" says RNT's cafes and river-view verandas are tops for people-watching: "Look! Ian McKellen!," cries the Marietta-bred thespian, re-enacting a recent sighting. "I am not worthy!"

29 March, 2000 : From an article about Stephanie Michels, a Marietta girl appearing in "Contact" (her first New York show) and who trained as a ballerina at the Georgia Ballet : "Iris Hensley of Georgia Ballet was a great teacher", Stephanie recalls, "much to my body's pain!" The teacher's son, Shuler Hensley, danced with a preteen Stephanie at Georgia Ballet and is heartily amused to hear from his New York friends that she has bloomed into a sex goddess. "The most provocative thing I saw Steph do," Shuler recalls, "was slide down a banister in 'The Nutcracker'!"

  Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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