Julie Shannon

Composer. Lyricist. Pianist. Singer. Humanist. Teacher. Mentor. Friend.

Taking the Measure of Julie Shannon

When Julie’s life was cut short on September 12, 2012 by a rare form of cancer, which she had battled with grace and grit for three years, her closest collab-orators planned a memorial concert of her songs. Held in Chicago in December 2012 at the historic Mercury Theatre, on the set of one of Julie’s shows, the evening attracted a packed house of fans and friends (Julie was really good at long-term friend- ships) from 15 states. Julie’s praises—and her words and music from several musicals and a variety of pop songs—were sung beautifully by 30 of the leading musical theatre stars in Chicago, several with Broadway credits; by Julie’s mentor, Sheldon Harnick, one of the few music theatre writers ever to win not only a Tony and Grammy Award but also a Pulitzer Prize; by a former deputy chief of staff in the White House; by the President of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO; and by the Governor of Illinois, who presented a formal proclamation naming the day of the concert Julie Shannon Geller Day in Illinois and citing Julie as a beloved, prolific theatre writer and a “woman with a servant’s heart.”

Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof, She Loves Me, Fiorello! and other classics, reflected on his nearly 30 year friendship with Julie. He said three words seem to capture what he saw in Julie over the decades: “purity, generosity, dedication.”

Her musical The Christmas Schooner (set in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois) is the longest running holiday musical in Chicago history, where it is an annual tradition for many families and is beloved for its deft combination of humor, tragedy and hope. Schooner has been hailed by the lead critic at the Chi- cago Tribune as the number one holiday musical to see in the entire Chicago region (including Broadway tour- ing shows); is licensed for worldwide stage production by Music Theatre International (which licenses many major Broadway musicals, including those by Bock and Harnick, Stephen Sondheim and many others); has received more than 130 productions around the nation and in England, where the BBC called it “theatre at its best”; and has won several theatre awards in various cities.