This man is a living LEGEND!! His professional career began in *1969* in a Chicago production of Ragni and Rado's "Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical", met his husband Chico Kasinoir when De Shields directed a production of Kasinoir's "The Adventures of Rhubarb: The Rock and Roll Rabbit" in 1985, made his Broadway debut in 1973 as Xander in Stuart Gordon's "Warp!", and then in Paul Jabara's "Rachel Lily Rosenbloom (And Don't You Ever Forget It), and went on to originate the title role in Charlie Smalls and William F. Brown's "The Wiz" in 1975, choreographed two Bette Midler musicals and later went on to perform in "Ain't Misbehavin'" in 1978 which he received a Drama Desk nomination for because of his performance. In 1981 he performed in the musical revue "Stardust: The Mitchell Parrish Story", and in 1984 he wrote, choreographed, and directed his own musical "André De Shields' Haarlem Nocturne", then returned to the 1988 revival of "Ain't Misbehavin'," followed by his performance of his role as The Jester in "Play On!" in 1997 for which he received another Drama Desk nomination, as well as a Tony nomination! He then went on to originate the role of Noah "Horse" T. Simmons in the musical adaptation of "The Full Monty" in 2000. He's also been in many non-musical plays such as, "Death of a Salesman", "The Man Who Came to Dinner", "Dusyanta: A Tale of Kalidasa", "The Gospel According to James", and "Waiting for Godot"! It was not until 2019 that De Shields *finally* won the Tony Award for "Best Featured Actor in a Musical" for the role he originated as Hermes in "Hadestown"!! De Shields has also made appearances in TV shows such as "Another World", "C*sby", "Sex and the City", "Lipstick Jungle", PBS' "Great Performances - Alice in Wonderland (1983)", "Law & Order", and "Law & Order: SVU", and received a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement for his performance in the 1982 NBC broadcast of "Ain't Misbehavin", and appeared in the Moonlight Diner scene for the "Sunday" musical sequence in 2021's movie musical "tick, tick...BOOM!" directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, and De Shields also starred as Anton Ego for the benefit concert presentation of "Ratatouille the (TikTok) Musical". Oh, and let's not forget that Mr. De Shields has done all this as a long-time survivor of HIV!! He was diagnosed with HIV early on in the AIDS Crisis after discovering swollen lymph nodes as he was shaving while getting ready for a Los Angeles performance on "Ain't Misbehavin" 's 1980 National Tour, and was formally diagnosed in 1991! This man has been living with HIV for over 40 years, lost two partners to AIDS-related illnesses (his "long-term partner", ie his husband of 17 years, Chico Kasinoir died in June 1992 of AIDS-related lymphoma, and then shortly after that, his boyfriend of two years named John died in 1995 of AIDS-related meningitis), and *still* managed to live a robust life!! No words can truly describe just how phenomenal a human being Mr. André De Shields is!! He deserves all the flowers and adoration he recieves! 💖 💐💐💐💖
Yes and yes 🙌 👏 😊 And that's what I want to tell , Legend is the first thing that is designed for describing the people who are the surviving and survivor's in their lives . ,na and unless we all will realize that the real life's 💯 percent of dammn hard hurdles . That's a great story to hear and be proud to have a great person who is a great Legend of the whole world and the whole universe 😊
The Hadestown alumn that they showed on camera, you can tell that they were ecstatic. Right off the bat Patrick Paige is looking so enormously proud cheering André to the stage. Amber Grey watching proudly. Eva Noblezada is already in tears, and Anaïs Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin close to tears and just radiating in awe. And André de Shields, in a class of his own, carrying the torch lit from the sparks that they and everyone else generated with the prouction.
1. Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming. 2. Slowly is the fastest way to get where you want to be. 3. The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next - so keep climbing.
“Surround yourself with people who’s eyes light up when you enter the room.” - Ever since hearing him say this I have been paying attention to this and all I can say is he is 100% right in this. Give those people your energy as they are the ones who deserve it and with it you’ll find greater joy.
Beautiful!! My parents took us to see “Ain’t Misbehaving” in San Francisco (80’s?) where he sang the viper song. And he was amazing!! Much deserved!!👏🏽👏🏽
i got here because a Polish girl shared this wonderful speech with me. Magda, if you are seeing this, thank you for leaving this mark in my life!! ❤️❤️❤️
Largest attendance in Broadway history and just a few months after this, biggest slump ever because of the damn pandemic and now Broadway is struggling. This is such a sad turn of events.