Bill Hanney : Theatre by the Sea and North Shore Music Theatre

Bill Hanney, is owner and producer of Theatre By The Sea in Wakefield, Rhode Island and North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, Massachusetts. Theatre By The Sea, which is on the National Register of Historic places and is located on the ancestral lands of the Narragansett People, has had many incarnations over the years. Bill Hanney purchased the property and historic theatre in 2007 and the theatre continues to produce a four-musical subscription season along with a children's theatre series. 

 

Since 1955, North Shore Music Theatre has become one of the most attended theatres in New England, with approximately 250,000 patrons annually. With a national and regional reputation for artistic achievement, NSMT has received numerous industry awards. It continues to annually produce a musical subscription series,  celebrity concerts  and children's programming along with year-round education programs. Bill Hanney's company, Entertainment Cinemas, currently owns and operates seven movie theaters across four states. He is an award winning business owner and has been recognized as business person of the year. Bill will discuss the seasons shows at both theatres with a behind the scenes look at the making of the shows.

 

                           

 

                           

 

 

ABOUT BILL HANNEY

 

Bill Hanney (Owner/Producer) is honored and proud to have been responsible for the re-opening of the nationally renowned North Shore Music Theatre in 2010. Aside from his work operating North Shore Music Theatre, one of Bill's crowning achievements was the 2007 purchase and re-opening of Theatre By The Sea, a landmark 500 seat professional summer theatre and restaurant, which is entering its seventeenth successful year of operation in Matunuck, RI.
 
Bill was a co-producer on the Broadway play, The Shark Is Broken, and recently co-produced a New York City workshop of The SeaView Nursing Home for the Newly Deceased.  Bill was also an investor in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Pippin, as well as the First National Tour. Bill is currently expanding his group of live theatres. 
 
He began his career in show business at age 19, leasing and developing movie theaters, including his first multiplex in Quincy, Massachusetts. Before long, he was booking rock shows (Jefferson Starship, Rush) and other types of live entertainment, which eventually led to the presenting and producing of Broadway productions. One such show was an appearance by the legendary mime artist, Marcel Marceau. As president of Broadway Productions, Bill presented national tours such as Annie, Amadeus, Dancin', Peter Pan, Rocky Horror Show and Mark Twain starring Hal Holbrook, throughout New England including Worcester, Springfield, Portland, Maine and Boston.
 
Throughout his career, Bill has stayed focused on his movie theatre chain having bought, built, owned, operated, and sold more than 30 cinemas. His company, Entertainment Cinemas, currently operates six movie complexes in three states. In 2009, Bill is currently Chairman of the Board of the Theatre Owners of New England. Bill has been named to the North Shore Top 100 by the North Shore Chamber of Commerce. He received the Leslie S. Ray Hall of Fame Award (2015) and Businessperson of the Year Award (2012) from the Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce, as well as Businessperson of the Year from the Salem Chamber of Commerce (2011).