Shelley M. Shier is a Canadian-American entrepreneur, art consultant, curator, music and theatrical producer.
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Shelley M. Shier is a Canadian-American entrepreneur, art consultant, curator, music and theatrical producer.
Her mother, Rosaline Cutler Shier Sonshine, remains socially active, primarily in various charities and as an award winning sponsor of law enforcement initiative in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Her father, Harry Shier was a noted Canadian industrialist (OSF) and investor with strong ties to the entertainment industry. Shier lived in Toronto, but also Miami and New York City. Her extended family, includes her stepfather, Harry Sonshine, an industrialist and sports figure, her stepmother, Roni Chesler Shier, and her step grandfather, Lou Chesler, an entrepreneur active in real estate development (Freeport), and entertainment (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts). Shier attended Branksome Hall in Toronto and later studied for four years with Stella Adler in New York City. She became a US citizen in 2005.
Shier left Canada to study with Stella Adler in New York (1976-1980) and graduated from the Conservatory of Acting at City Center. At the same time she was a company member of The Soho Artist's Theater for five years. During this time she supported herself working for New York City art galleries and with private clients at Sotheby's and Christie's.
In 1983, Shier formed HOSS, Inc. a production company that over the next twenty five years produced hundreds of music festivals (The Floating Jazz Festival, [1] The Blues Cruise), concerts (Tony Bennett, Tommy Tune, Debbie Reynolds), and theatrical productions ( Sweet Charity , I Do! I Do! , Hair , Jesus Christ Superstar ) throughout the world.
In the mid-1990s Shier produced and toured, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in conjunction with the original Broadway director, Tom O'Horgan. In following years, working with Gwen Verdon and Grover Dale and the Bob Fosse Estate, she presented Sweet Charity and A Tribute to Bob Fosse. Simultaneously, she produced I Do, I Do and A Tribute To Marge and Gower Champion, working with the legendary Marge Champion. In 1996 she produced a series of special events for the Barcelona Olympics. In 1998 she formed Broadway Bound, Inc. and the following year established a theatrical company aboard the legendary ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2. [2] [3] [4] Over the next six years she produced, wrote and toured six new shows. Her production of Enter The Guardsman [3] [5] was produced simultaneously on the QE2 and New York's Vineyard Theater. [6] [7]
In 2006, Shier expanded Broadway Bound, creating Broadway Bound Fine Arts and Entertainment to include a Fine Arts Division to orchestrate the acquisition of a wide range of art works, paintings, sculpture, and photography, for indoor and outdoor installations. These installations include large-scale projects in public places, intimate exhibitions, as well as artwork for residential spaces and premium hotels worldwide. Among Shier's recent projects is the creation and development of the Pride of Canada Carousel, a multimillion-dollar fine art carousel commissioned by the Remington Group, that is the artistic centerpiece of Downtown Markham, a new city, outside Toronto, Ontario. [8] The Pride of Canada Carousel opened to great critical acclaim on Canada Day, July 1, 2016. On December 13, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited The Pride of Canada Carousel in Downtown Markham as part of the Christmas event festivities. [9] Shier is also developing ground breaking interior and exterior art installations worldwide. The Toronto Marriott Markham Hotel is her latest project, and features an extensive collection of public art. Shier continues to work closely with a number of visual artists and has been instrumental in arranging exhibitions for them in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Dallas, Toronto and Oslo.
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When not developing large-scale art projects, photography exhibits, musical, theatrical and film productions, or integrating new artistic properties, Shier devotes much of her time to charitable causes, including special events for Save The Children, The Jazz Gallery and The Jazz Foundation of America. A Black Belt in karate, in addition to teaching karate and kickboxing, she is also an accomplished equestrian. Shelley is a member of Music On The Inside, Harmony and Hope in Criminal Justice, The Blues Foundation, and The National Alliance of Musical Theater.
Jazz dance is a performance [dance] and style that in the United States arose in the mid 20th century. Jazz dance may allude to vernacular jazz or to Broadway or dramatic jazz. The two types expand on African-American vernacular styles of dance that arose with jazz music. Vernacular jazz dance incorporates ragtime moves, Charleston, Lindy hop and mambo. Popular vernacular jazz dance performers include The Whitman Sisters, Florence Mills, Ethel Waters, Al and Leon, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller, Dawn Hampton, and Katherine Dunham. Dramatic jazz dance performed on the show stage was promoted by Jack Cole, Bob Fosse, Eugene Louis Faccuito, and Gus Giordano.
Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon was an American actress and dancer. She won four Tony Awards for her musical comedy performances, and served as an uncredited choreographer's assistant and specialty dance coach for theater and film. Verdon was a critically acclaimed performer on Broadway in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, having originated many roles in musicals, including the title character in Sweet Charity and Roxie Hart in Chicago. She is also strongly identified with her second husband, director–choreographer Bob Fosse, remembered as the dancer–collaborator–muse for whom he choreographed much of his work and as the guardian of his legacy after his death.
Robert Louis Fosse was an American dancer, musical-theatre choreographer, actor, theatre director, and filmmaker. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals The Pajama Game (1954), Damn Yankees (1955), How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1961), Sweet Charity (1966), Pippin (1972), and Chicago (1975). His films include Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret (1972), Lenny (1975), and All That Jazz (1979).
A carousel, roundabout, hurdy-gurdy, or merry-go-round, is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The "seats" are traditionally in the form of rows of wooden horses or other animals mounted on posts, many of which are moved up and down by gears to simulate galloping, to the accompaniment of looped circus music. This leads to one of the alternative American names, the galloper. Other popular names are jumper, horseabout, horse tornado and flying horses.
Sweet Charity is a musical with music by Cy Coleman, lyrics by Dorothy Fields and book by Neil Simon. It was directed and choreographed for Broadway by Bob Fosse starring his wife and muse Gwen Verdon alongside John McMartin. It is based on the screenplay for the 1957 Italian film Nights of Cabiria. However, whereas Federico Fellini's black-and-white film concerns the romantic ups-and-downs of an ever-hopeful prostitute, in the musical the central character is a dancer-for-hire at a Times Square dance hall. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1966, where it was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning the Tony Award for Best Choreography. The production also ran in the West End as well as having revivals and international productions.
Paula Alma Kelly was an American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer in films, television and theatre. Kelly's career began during the mid–1960s in theatre, making her Broadway debut as Mrs. Veloz in the 1964 musical Something More!, alongside Barbara Cook. Kelly's other Broadway credits include The Dozens (1969), Paul Sills' Story Theatre (1971), Ovid's Metamorphoses (1971), and Sophisticated Ladies (1981), based on the music of Duke Ellington, appearing with Gregory Hines and Phyllis Hyman.
Donna McKechnie is an American musical theater dancer, singer, actress, and choreographer. She is known for her professional and personal relationship with choreographer Michael Bennett, with whom she collaborated on her most noted role, the character of Cassie in the musical A Chorus Line. She earned the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for this performance in 1976. She is also known for playing Amanda Harris/Olivia Corey on the Gothic soap opera, Dark Shadows from 1969 to 1970.
Ann Reinking was an American dancer, actress, choreographer and singer. She worked extensively in musical theater, starring in Broadway productions such as Coco (1969), Over Here! (1974), Goodtime Charley (1975), Chicago (1977), Dancin' (1978), and Sweet Charity (1986).
Joyce Wieland was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist. Wieland found success as a painter when she began her career in Toronto in the 1950s. In 1962, Wieland moved to New York City and expanded her career as an artist by including new materials and mixed media work. During that time, she also rose to prominence as an experimental filmmaker and soon, institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York were showing her films. In 1971, Wieland's True Patriot Love exhibition was the first solo exhibition by a living Canadian female artist at the National Gallery of Canada. In 1982, Wieland received the honour of the Order of Canada and in 1987, she was awarded the Toronto Arts Foundation's Visual Arts Award. She was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Fosse is a three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. The musical was conceived by Richard Maltby Jr., Chet Walker, and Ann Reinking.
Marjorie Redmond was an American actress and singer.
Give a Girl a Break is a 1953 musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, starring Debbie Reynolds and the dance team of Marge and Gower Champion. A young Bob Fosse has a featured role. As Martin Gottfried wrote in his book, All His Jazz: The Life and Death of Bob Fosse, "There were residual elements of the big project it had once been, a score by Burton Lane and Ira Gershwin [their only collaboration], for instance, direction by Stanley Donen and musical supervision by Saul Chaplin. The screenwriters, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, were estimable too, although in this instance they had written a slender story involving three unknown actresses competing for a Broadway role that becomes available when the star walks out."
Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School is a public, bilingual English and French-immersion secondary school in Markham, Ontario. It was named in honour of the 15th Prime Minister of Canada, the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Linda Pauline Griffiths was a Canadian actress and playwright best known for writing and starring in the one woman play Maggie and Pierre, in which she portrayed both Pierre Trudeau and his then-estranged wife, Margaret. Among her cinematic work, she is best known for her acclaimed, starring role in Lianna.
Dancin' is a musical revue produced on Broadway in 1978, directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, who won a Tony Award for the choreography. The show is a tribute to the art of dance, and the music is a collection of mostly American songs, many with a dance theme, from a wide variety of styles, from operetta to jazz to classical to marches to pop.
Sweet Charity is a 1969 American musical comedy-drama film directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse in his feature directorial debut, written by Peter Stone, and featuring music by Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields.
The American Dance Machine was a theatrical dance company created by Lee Theodore, which played on Broadway at the Century Theatre, opening Jun 14, 1978 and in total running 199 performances. It was duplicated with a second cast for the American Dance Festival at Duke University in 1978. The show was a "Living Archive" of Broadway theatre dance; great theatre dances saved from oblivion. Films were made of the performances to preserve original Broadway choreography and can be found at the Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts in New York City. Broadway legend Gwen Verdon appeared a film version of the show in 1981 for Showtime. Choreographers included: Agnes De Mille, Jack Cole, Joe Layton, Michael Kidd, Ron Field, Bob Fosse, Onna White and Peter Gennaro. Featured dancers and guest artists included Janet Eilber, Carol Estey, Harold Cromer, Liza Gennaro, Patti Mariano, Nancy Chismar and Donald Young.
Valarie Pettiford is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the broadway production Fosse. She is also known for her role as "Big Dee Dee" Thorne on the UPN television sitcom Half & Half.
Kathryn Doby is a Hungarian dancer, actress, choreographer, who worked as assistant and dance captain for Bob Fosse. She made her Broadway debut in the ensemble of Fosse's Sweet Charity at its premiere in January 1966 at the Palace Theatre in Times Square. Aside from her performance in the musical Gregory (1970), her work on Broadway continued with Fosse as a Player and Dance Captain in Pippin (1972) and as an assistant to Mr. Fosse for Chicago (1975) and Dancin' (1978). Her film credits include The Night They Raided Minsky's – “Minsky Girl” (1968), The Handmaid's Tale (film) – Aunt Elizabeth (1990), and again worked with Fosse as a dancer in Sweet Charity (1969), Cabaret – Kit Kat Dancer (1972), and All That Jazz – Kathryn (1979).
If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway — An Evening of Love Duets is a show conceived and directed by American-Canadian singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, which premiered on June 14, 2014 during Luminato in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The concert featured men singing classic love songs to one another, and included a full orchestra and performances by Wainwright and special guests Boy George, David Byrne, Josh Groban and Steven Page. Countertenor Brennan Hall, Brent Carver, Glen Hansard, Ezra Koenig and Andrew Rannells also appeared. The program featured songs written by gay men, including Noël Coward, Lorenz Hart, Jerry Herman and Cole Porter.