Robbie Fairchild

About Robbie Fairchild
ROBBIE FAIRCHILD (co-director, co-choreographer, co-writer, William Shakespeare) is an acclaimed actor and dancer whose career spans Broadway, the West End, film, and television. He now stars in Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino’s ÉTOILE on Amazon Prime Video, alongside Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Fairchild made his Tony-nominated Broadway debut in 2015 as Jerry Mulligan in An American in Paris, earning Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Theatre World, National Dance, and Astaire Awards, plus Evening Standard and Drama League nominations, and later reprised the role in London’s West End. From 2009–2017, he was a Principal Dancer with the New York City Ballet dancing Balanchine, Robbin’s, Wheeldon, Ratmansky, Justin Peck, McGregor. Other stage credits include The Artist, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, A Chorus Line, and Kiss Me, Kate. Screen credits include Tom Hooper’s Cats, Netflix’s Soundtrack, Fox’s Mixtape, Julie’s Greenroom, The Chaperone, NY Philharmonic’s Carousel, NY Export: Opus Jazz, and Dancing With The Stars.

CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON, OBE (Creative Consultant) trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined The Royal Ballet in 1991. In 1993, he joined New York City Ballet and was promoted to Soloist in 1998. He was named NYCB’s first Resident Choreographer in July 2001. Since then, Mr. Wheeldon has created and staged productions for many of the world’s major ballet companies: San Francisco Ballet, The Bolshoi Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, and Hamburg Ballet among others.

In 2007, Mr. Wheeldon founded Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company and was appointed an Associate Artist for Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. Mr. Wheeldon now serves as Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet. He has created many works for the company, including the full-length Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, both of which were co-productions with The National Ballet of Canada.

In 2012, his ballet Cinderella premiered at Het Nationale Ballet and is making its way to audiences worldwide. For the Metropolitan Opera, he choreographed Dance of the Hour for Ponchielli’s La Gioconda (2006) and Richard Eyre’s production of Carmen (2012) as well as ballet sequences for the feature film Center Stage (2000) and the musical Sweet SmellofSuccess on Broadway (2002).

Mr. Wheeldon created a special excerpt for the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, and in April 2016, he was the Artistic Director for the Fashion Forward exhibition in Paris at La Musee Arts et Decoratif.

In 2014, Mr. Wheeldon directed and choreographed the Broadway musical version of AnAmerican in Paris, which had productions in Paris, New York, and London and has toured extensively through America, China, Japan and Australia. The Joffrey Ballet presented the world premiere in 2016 of The Nutcracker reimagined by Mr. Wheeldon and in 2017 he directed and choreographed Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon starring Kelli O’Hara and Patrick Wilson at New York City Center. 2019 saw the premiere of Corybantic Games at The Royal Ballet and a re-staged version of Cinderella for the English National Ballet at Royal Albert Hall. Like Waterfor Chocolate, a full-length ballet for The Royal Ballet had its premiere in June 2022 and its American premiere with American Ballet Theater in 2023.

Oscar© is his latest full-length ballet for The Australian Ballet which had its premiere in September 2024.

Most recently he directed and choreographed MJ The Musical which opened on Broadway in February 2022, winning four Tony Awards, including Best Choreography award for him. In 2024 MJ The Musical opened in London’s West End earning him the Olivier Award for Best Theatre Choreographer.  It is also touring throughout America, in Hamburg, and began is Australian tour in Sydney in March 2025.

Among Mr. Wheeldon’s other awards are another Tony Award for Best Choreography for AnAmerica in Paris, 2 Tony Nominations for Best Director, an Outer Critics Award for Best Choreography and Direction for An American inParis, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, the American Choreography Award, the Dance Magazine Award, South Bank Show Award, multiple London Critics’ Circle Awards, and the Léonide Massine Prize for new choreography. Mr. Wheeldon’s productions of Cinderella and The Winter’s Tale received the Benois de la Danse, and he is an Olivier Award winner for his ballet Aeternum for The Royal Ballet and Polyphonia for Morphoses.

In 2016, Mr. Wheeldon was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and was made an Honorary Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

RICK ELICE (book writer) On Broadway: Jersey Boys (Best Musical, 2006 Tony Award, 2007 Grammy Award and 2009 Olivier Award); The Addams Family; Peter and the Starcatcher (winner of five 2012 Tony Awards);andThe Cher Show (winner of two 2019 Tony Awards).  In the pipeline: The Princess Bride and Smash, co-written with Bob Martin; Silver Linings Playbook, a musical adaptation of the popular film; The Marvels, a musical adaptation of the popular novel; and Treasure, an original musical written with 2021 Ed Kleban Award-winner Benjamin Scheuer.  From 1982-1999, as creative director at Serino Coyne Inc, Rick created and produced ad campaigns for more than 300 Broadway shows, from A Chorus Line to The Lion King.  From 1999-2009, he served as creative consultant for The Walt Disney Studio.  Charter member, American Repertory Theatre.  Trustee, The Actors’ Fund.  BA, Cornell University; MFA, Yale Drama School; Teaching Fellow, Harvard University.  Heartfelt thanks to those he’s been lucky enough to know, whose work makes him grateful for the day he was born: Sondheim, Stoppard, Bennett, Prince, Fosse, Robbins, Nichols, Tune, Nunn, Timbers, McAnuff, Laurents, Lippa, Stone, Taymor, Papp, Schumacher, Schneider, Costello, Coyne, Brickman, and eternally, Roger Rees.

SEAN PETER FORTE (music arranger) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary musician and performer who has worked in a variety of genres, styles, and settings. He is focused on creating new work that encourages audiences to reexamine the expectations they have when walking into a traditional theater or concert space.

Sean is a proud member of the understudy family at Cole Escola’s OH, MARY!, the Tony Award-winning runaway hit directed by the queer brilliance of Sam Pinkleton.

Sean is a co-adapter of figaro/faggots – a hybrid theater piece combining Larry Kramer’s revolutionary novel Faggots and Mozart’s masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro – with Kevin Carillo, who conceived the piece. The show was at Baryshnikov Arts in fall 2025. figaro/faggots has had previous residencies at The Mercury Store and Lincoln Center. 

In 2024, he was the associate musical director of Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Tony Award-winning musical, ILLINOISE, at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. The show premiered at Bard’s SummerScape 2023 and was followed by sold out runs at Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Park Avenue Armory in New York City. (NYT Critic’s Pick)

In 2022, Sean served as the musical director and conductor for the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Daniel Fish’s Most Happy, a reimagining of the music from Frank Loesser’s Most Happy Fella. Sean was also the associate musical director for the national tour of Fiasco Theater’s Into the Woodsthat traveled the country in 2016 and 2017. He has worked as a rehearsal and substitute musician for many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows: including Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret, Hadestown, MJ the Musical, Here We Are, Daniel Fish’s Oklahoma!, and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.

BEN WATERS (electronic composer) a dancer and composer from Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. Ben is a lifelong musician and self-taught composer with a passion for integrating dance with music. Ben was first commissioned to compose original music for Ethan Colangelo’s “a vanishing thread” (Jan 2022) for Whim W’Him in Seattle. Since then, Ben has composed several scores for Ethan and many other voices in the North American and European dance communities including Ballet BC, the National Ballet of Canada, BODYTRAFFIC (Fernando Magadan), Ballet de Monterrey (Robbie Fairchild), Dallas Black Dance Theatre (Norbert De La Cruz III), The Joffrey Ballet (Martha Nichols), and many more.  Although each of Ben’s original compositions vary in style, his musical works are often characterized by rich harmonic soundscapes, soaring melodies, and heavy, intricate percussion.

VINCENZO DI PRIMO(Alfonso) grew up in Adrano, Sicily, Italy and graduated from the Vienna State Opera Ballet Academy. Vincenzo has worked with The Royal Ballet of London, Greek National Ballet , Complexions Contemporary Ballet and performed works by Crystal Pite, Dwight Rhoden, Morgann Runacre-Temple , Justin Peck , Ricardo Amarante , Jenn Freeman , Jae Man Joo and more. He received awards including 3rd Prize Winner and Contemporary prize at the Prix de Lausanne, Gold Medal at Grand Prix de Paris , Best Artistry Award at Youth America Grand Prix New York, and Bronze Medal at Beijing International Ballet Competition. In 2019, he was a contestant and finalist on the Italian TV show Amici. In 2021, Vincenzo was included in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. He was part of the cast of Étoile, the ballet drama TV series on Amazon Prime Video.

SARA ESTY(Anne Hathaway) is a former soloist with Miami City Ballet, and a Princess Grace Award recipient for excellence in dance. Select theatre credits: An American in Paris (Lise Dassin – Broadway/1st National Tour), The Phantom of the Opera (Meg Giry – Final Broadway Company), The Queen of Versailles (Emerson Colonial Theatre), A Chorus Line(Maggie – NYCC Encores!, Cassie – Cape Playhouse), Crazy For You (Polly Baker – Asolo Rep Theatre), Singing in the Rain (Kathy Selden – Riverside Theatre), Come From Away (Janice and Others – Asolo Rep Theatre). TV/Film: “Fosse/Verdon”, “EVIL”, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. For Robbie. 20 years of friendship and grateful for every moment of it, and for the opportunity to be onstage with these wonderful friends and artists.

AHMAD SIMMONS(George) is a New York City based multidisciplinary artist, working as a director, choreographer, producer, and performer across stage and screen. His performance credits include original Broadway casts of Illinoise and Hadestown, alongside roles in West Side Story, Carousel, and Cats. Appearances on screen include FX’s Fosse/Verdon, Maestro, Better Nate Than Ever, The Kennedy Center Honors and The Tony Awards. He has toured globally as a dancer with Parsons Dance, River North Dance Chicago, and Eisenhower Dance Detroit.  In addition to performing, Ahmad served as resident choreographer for the Hamilton Philip Tour, Associate Choreographer for Hadestown, and has created numerous works for Chicago-based dance companies and projects including DanceWorks Chicago, Eisenhower Dance Detroit, Thodos Dance Chicago, Visceral Dance, and River North Dance Chicago. 

LILY SHEPPARD(Emilia) originally from the metro Detroit area of Michigan, graduated from Marymount Manhattan College receiving a BFA in Modern Dance. Lily has worked closely alongside and performed works by Peter Chu, Sonya Tayeh, johannes wieland, Micaela Taylor, Yin Yue, Jenn Freeman, Martha Graham and more. She has also attended professional training programs that include b12 festival in Berlin, Springboard Danse Montreal, GibneyPro, Complexions and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. Upon graduation from Marymount in 2022, Lily was awarded the Gold Key in excellence for modern dance. Lily has also most recently been the associate choreographer for ‘Is It Thursday Yet?’, an evening length show performed and created by Jenn Freeman and created and directed by Sonya Tayeh. Sheppard also worked as an associate choreographer for Juilliard’s New Dances under Jenn Freeman in the fall of 2024. She has also performed as a member of VERBAL ANIMAL , a Brooklyn based contemporary dance theater company. In addition, Sheppard has been the a co-choreographer of a multidisciplinary fashion show for the last 3 years that is centered around movement and sustainability as well as appearing in the Volvo 2025 commercial under the movement direction of Andrew Winghart. Lily has been freelancing as a dancer and choreographer in New York City as well as sharing her art through masterclasses nationwide to young artists that include jazz, contemporary, fusion, floor work and improvisation.