Brian Hilbrand's interest in musicals started when we watched Sound of Music, and his mom and her parents were musical. He started school musicals in lower elementary/ middle school, and then I saw my first community production in 7th grade when Lion Heart Productions did “The Sound Music”. He was cast into the community production of “Oliver!” in the fall of 2001, and he did a run of shows after including “The King and I”, “Music Man”, and “Guys and Doll’s”, well writing the theatre column "Arts at Heart" for his High School newsletter. He took a small hiatus from theatre to attend college for radio broadcasting/ telecommunications where he did a lot of singing in public as well as hosting karaoke on campus to fill in that void.
After college, he returned to acting for Lion Heart theatre for “Wizard of Oz” in Fall of 2011, “Annie”, “Shrek the Musical”, “Fiddler on The Roof”, and “Mary Poppins”. He has also assisted with many productions for Lion Heart off stage and backstage as a stagehand, rigging person (well being in the production), an animal handler, child wrangler, and stage manager for kids theatre, since he loves to stay busy between his times on stage. All of his past experiences around the stage, have led him to stage-manage for his other love outside the theatre, “Moose Fest” an all-day country music concert for which he has done for 5 years (2015-2019) the last year.
Brian also LOVES to attend Broadway Grand Rapids tours, Grand Rapids Symphony events, special community "arts" events, in addition to community productions, and write on them. By doing so he hopes to bring attention to the awesome shows we are blessed to have locally at the community level to professionals. If you would like to have your show considered for local coverage, please send me the info for the show and a way to get in contact with you. To keep up on where I will be for BWW, and my other appearances in West Michigan, head on over and give my Media FB page a BIG “Like” and follow me there as well.
LEARN MORE ABOUT Brian Hilbrand
First Show:
I saw the National Tour of Oliver! freshman year of High School with Braodway Grand Rapids. This also was the first community theatre show I was in 8th grade the year before.Favorite Show:
Well Oliver! is always going to hold a special place with me, for the reasons I stated, Sound of Music is the musical I grew up watching, and have been blessed to see in multiple theaters, and versions since then, it was also the first show I saw my community theatre do the year before Oliver!, and gave the initial interest. Since then I have seen so many great shows Lion King is definitely on the top list of Tours along with SOM (Sound of Music), Phantom, and Oliver! will always stick out.Favorite Stories:
- Interview: Brodie Donougher A REAL LIFE BILLY ELLIOT STORY! - So there are MULTIPLE reasons this will forever be a favorite of mine! I have actually been involved the past few years in our local Professional Opera Company's productions. This past year Opera Grand Rapids presented Aida, and brought in Company dancers from Grand Rapids Ballet. I had name recognition of one of there dancers, and figured it was from my work with the tours or my general knowledge of broadway. I did my research and found it to be that individual Brodie, was a former West End Billy Elliot, and the last boy to play the role Billy 36. So my wheels were spinning and knew there was a story! When I had the opportunity to do this it was actually a HUGE opportunity to interview a former West End actor and ballet phenonminan. Brodie has quite a fan base, and I was so happy and lucky when this story was able to be crossposted to everywhere he's performed, and actually the BWW UK site host the article! Which was exciting as I got coverage in BWW West End! UPDATE to the article that didn't see this happening, but he went back to UK and was back on the West End in "The Snowman",. and currently on tour in Austria in "Das Phantom" an International tour of Phantom of the Opera in German!
- Interview: Sandi Patty Brings Her CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS Tour to Grand Rapids along with Grand Rapids Symphony! - This was another special interview, since I grew up with the music of Sandy Patty in church and on local radio WFUR.
- BWW Interview: Jeff Foxworthy at LaughFest. You Don't Need To Be A Red Neck To Enjoy This Comedic Show! - Jeff Foxworthy is another National level interview, and I was lucky to book a studio through my friends in Muskegon Radio, and have a Live Recording to accompany the interview.
BWW Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Invites You to Come and Be Part of Their World!
November 17, 2018
November 17, 2018
Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, one of the largest and oldest community theaters in the nation, is proud to present Disney's The Little Mermaid, which opens this weekend and runs through December 16th in Grand Rapids.
BWW Review: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Opera Grand Rapids, Makes For a Magical Journey!
October 31, 2018
October 31, 2018
A little over a week ago I attended my first opera, Opera Grand Rapids' production of The Magic Flute, a fairy tale with the traditional fairytale themes of love and of good versus evil. The show starts with Prince Tamino, played by Dennis Shuman, alone in the woods fleeing a deadly serpent. He faints but is saved by three ladies played by Jessica Dold, Christine Amon, and Diane Schoff who were all very entertaining in their roles and had the audience laughing throughout the show.
BWW Review: NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS at Grand Rapids Symphony Brings Halloween Classic to Life to Celebrate 25th Anniversary of Film!
October 23, 2018
October 23, 2018
The Halloween classic Nightmare Before Christmas made its appearance a few weeks ahead of the holiday this past Saturday night in Grand Rapids to kick off the Grand Rapids Symphonicboom Series. The score was brought to life by the symphony located right on stage under the screen who played the music from the movie from played beginning to end for the audience to enjoy as they watched the film live
BWW Review: FINDING NEVERLAND at Broadway Grand Rapids is a Magical Journey!
October 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
Broadway Grand Rapids is proud to present Finding Neverland as it opens the season of bringing Broadway tours into Grand Rapids. This has become a staple for the Grand Rapids area even attracting audience members from surrounding states, when before if you wanted to see shows of that caliber you would have to venture into Chicago or even all the way to New York City. It has been an honor to have Broadway Grand Rapids right here in our back yard. Finding Neverland follows the story of play writer J.M. Barrie, played by Jeff Sullivan, as he struggles to come up with a new play concept after all his thoughts keep coming back to his previous works, with only minor things changed, making them the same 'old' story. This is when he goes to the park and with out realizing it right away meets Sylvia, played by Ruby Gibbs, whose husband has just passed away and her four sons, Peter (Seth Erdley), George (Paul Schoeller), Jack (Josiah Smother), and Michael (Brody Bett), in the park.
BWW Previews: THE MAGIC FLUTE at Opera Grand Rapids Kicks Off a Fresh New Season!
October 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
A couple weekends ago, September 28th, I was fortunate enough to attend the season kick off for the 51st season of Opera Grand Rapids. They had performances from nine local Artist and a surprise from one of the vocally trained members of the office staff, who if you follow our twitter @BWW_Detroit, was featured in a short clip of her performance of 'He's Got the Whole World in His Hands'.
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