Shuler Hensley recalls Broadway during 9/11 as he directs ‘Les Miserables’ at City Springs 

Behind the doors of an unassuming office building, City Springs Theatre Artistic Director Shuler Hensley asks an actor what color he hears during his solo. 

Hensley is directing an early rehearsal for the company’s upcoming Les Miserables and envisions a unique palette to light leading characters in their key moments. Rather than assign the colors himself, he solicits the actors’ input. 

Though Hensley is directing this musical for the first time, his history with the show runs deep. 

A Marietta native, he made his Broadway debut in Les Miserables as Inspector Javert, on the heels of an Olivier Award-winning turn as Jud Fry in Oklahoma! in the West End. While awaiting its Broadway transfer, which would result in a Tony Award for him as well, producer Cameron Mackintosh cast Hensley as the militant French antagonist. 

Just before concluding his Les Miserables run, Hensley found himself in the middle of a watershed moment both for our country and for Broadway. On September 11 and September 12, 2001, Broadway’s lights went completely dark in the wake of tragedy. In characteristic “the show must go on” fashion, and at the behest of a mayor who deemed live theater essential to morale, Broadway companies resumed performances on the 13th. 

Hensley experienced firsthand what it was like to be part of escapist entertainment, though he had some doubts about the value of his work.

“I was struggling with [thinking], ‘Does what I do really matter in this kind of world?’” he shares. Though attendance was sparse, seemingly every audience member came to the stage door after the performance. “And all they said was, ‘Thank you for giving us a place to go and to get away from this situation we’re in, even if it’s for three hours.’”

To this day, Hensley says the experience has made him believe in the value of live theater and its power to uplift and bring people together. These memories are especially potent because City Springs’ production opens on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. 

As he revisits the musical for the first time since his own Broadway run, one might expect Hensley’s pedigree to make him an exacting director. But the director believes in bringing actors into the creative process. 

“There are directors who have a vision, and they feel like they need to micromanage everything,” he says. On the contrary, he adds, “You have to have a level of trust in the rehearsal room. And, if anything, that would be my biggest goal: that the actors are able to trust that I’m there to go through this with them and not sit there and tell them how to do it or what to think.”

With an extensive acting career under his belt, Hensley “fell into” directing a few years ago, and his methodology has been heavily influenced by a memorable conversation with the legendary Trevor Nunn. 

“Nunn directed my Oklahoma!, but he also directed the original Les Mis,” he explains. While working on Oklahoma!, Hensley once asked Nunn what makes a good director. “And he told me, ‘I think 95% of it is casting. If you get the right singers and the right performers, then you have the freedom to discover it together.’” 

Hensley’s experience on stage is a sort of secret weapon as well.

“I’m still an actor first and foremost, but I think what’s good about that is I get what [the actors are] going through,” he says. “[I think to myself], if I were doing this show, what would I really enjoy most about the process? And for me, it would be the feeling that I’m included in the discovery of the show.” 

True to his word, Hensley could be seen in the rehearsal room with Jean Valjean actor Jacob Keith Watson, asking not only about color preferences but his opinion on his character’s motivations. Watson had clearly contemplated Valjean at length already — even reading Victor Hugo’s novel for inspiration — and was keen to brainstorm with his director.

Since the rights have not been available for local theaters to put on Les Miserables, City Springs’ production will be Atlanta’s first in about a decade, and Hensley is eager for a new audience to encounter the rich musical.

“Les Mis has been seen by something like over 160 million people over its time,” he says. “But I [told the cast], ‘At every show here in Atlanta, there will be at least one person in that audience who’s never seen it — at least; probably more. So you would be the first time they get to discover this in a live theater. And it is true that when they see something that’s magic, it does transform whoever’s watching it.”

Where and When

Les Miserables is on stage at The Byers Theatre September 11 through September 27. Tickets range from $95 to $255.
1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs.

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Sally Fuller is a theater nerd and journalist with a passion for telling people’s stories. Her work has appeared in Encore Atlanta, City Lifestyle magazine and The AJC, among others. When not writing, she works at her dream job of mothering her mini-me, alongside the best husband and father in the world.