IMMERSIVE REEL AND BIO
HOLLY-ANNE DEVLIN is an award-winning director, writer and producer based in New York City. She has been a part of the creative teams for mega-hit Broadway shows including Jersey Boys and Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, as well as dozens of National and International productions and tours. She specializes in developing musicals from inception and bringing them to a global audience as both a creative and a producer.
She recently created and directed the Award-Winning Cirque Spectacle PERSEPHONE for Virgin Voyages which has received dozens of international accolades including Cruise Critic’s Choice for Best Entertainment 2023 amongst all global cruise lines. She has also created brand activations for Virgin Group, Virgin Hotels, Virgin Atlantic and food and beverage experiences onboard Virgin Voyages with their “Happenings” program. In 2022-2024 she produced some of the largest events in Times Square for New Year’s Eve alongside the Fireman Group, Times Square Alliance and NYC Hospitality.
She currently has a dozen large-scale immersive experiences for global clients featuring Cirque, Burlesque, Couture Fashion, Food and Beverage and video mapping experiences in development, with each of these bespoke productions are rooted in connecting audiences with various forms of entertainment and mixology, heightening their overall sensory experience.
After opening Off Broadway in June 2021, her show, SPEAKEASY TIMES SQUARE has been playing to sold out audiences in both New York and most recently, Washington DC. Described as a “bawdy, boozy night of revelry that goes down easy”, by New York Theatre Guide, Speakeasy Times Square features some of the top burlesque, cirque and Broadway talent in the world. The production was formed after the great success of her feature film, SPEAKEASY ON DEMAND, created in 2020 under strict Covid guidelines. The feature film is an electrifying virtual experience featuring cirque, theatre and film stars including Autumn Miller, Mike Peele, Miss Miranda, Hazel Honeysuckle and more, in one fabulous evening from home in which you enjoy 10 cocktails delivered to you! The show has been hailed as a “glorious, playful evening – exactly what the world needs right now!” by Edge Magazine.
At the height of the pandemic, in Spring 2021, she created, directed and produced WE WILL BE BACK, to mark the year anniversary of Broadway closing alongside Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids and the Times Square Alliance. The event featured Chita Rivera, Brian Stokes Mitchell, André DeShields, Matthew Broderick, BD Wong, Tamara Tunie and dozens of other Broadway stars coming together to support the re-opening of the arts in New York City. The stunning event garnered international press and shone a much needed spotlight on the need for nationwide arts funding during the pandemic.
In 2020, she was honored as the New Yorker of the Week for NY1, for her contributions to the New York City arts community and featured in FORBES, the New York Times, ABC, CBS-NY, HK/Tokyo and Voice Of America for her expansive body of work created during 2020. She was a part of passing the Open Culture bill alongside the City Council in New York City to support initiatives for production companies and independent artists and produced more than 80 outdoor events all over New York City when much of the arts and culture sector was grounded for most of the year.
Additional recent projects include global hits Wine Lovers The Musical, the world’s first wine tasting musical seen by over two million people after opening Off Broadway in New York in 2005, and still running globally after fifteen years; PROHIBITION, which she created, wrote, directed and designed, currently on Tour in the United States and consistently ranked at the top of global entertainment offerings for Norwegian Cruise Line; and a newly envisioned production of Jersey Boys at the Ogunquit Playhouse, the first licensed long-running regional production since the completion of the production’s Broadway run. After a successful nine week run in 2018, TRW and the Four Seasons invited the Playhouse to produce a second run of the show in the Spring of 2019, both which opened to rave reviews and sold out houses.
Her production companies Kaleidoscope Entertainment, Happy Hour Entertainment and Wine Lovers LLC are currently operating 13 companies of Wine Lovers The Musical and Prohibition globally and have eleven new shows in development including Bottoms Up Brunch! – I Love the 90s – a brunch boozical, first presented in New York in August 2019.
Upcoming projects include Cookin’ With The King, an immersive food and beverage experience featuring the music of Elvis Presley, developed in partnership with his estate; Redlight, an immersive burlesque aerial experience, Battle League Royale, a new Esports arena experience being developed for Asian markets, Wanderlust, a immersive theatrical event featuring Michelin star level food and wine pairings, being developed alongside a high end travel partner, Uncorked! From vine to wine on Tour and for the high seas, The Storm, a new roots musical featuring the work of Australian Hall of Fame Singer-Songwriter Kasey Chambers and Two If By Sea, a rock musical featuring music from New England artists.
Selected Credits – Broadway/National Tour/West End: Jersey Boys (Broadway, National Tours); Bring It On – The Musical (Broadway, Tokyo, National Tour), Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays (Broadway); Walking With Dinosaurs (North American Tour); Dracula; Zhivago; As You Like It; Much Ado About Nothing; Cover Girls. Selected Regional – Jersey Boys (Ogunquit Playhouse), Soul Doctor (Le Petit Theatre), Dirty Pictures (NY), Oklahoma (Reagle Players), All Shook Up (Ogunquit Playhouse – Starring Sally Struthers); Steel Magnolias (Starring Loni Ackerman), The Wedding Singer (LPT). New York: Marilyn! A new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe, Gentleman’s Wish; Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (Barrow Group, NY); For the Love Of Christ, The Musical! (Cherry Lane Theatre), Platforms (Theatre at St. Clements); Dancing With Abandon; Inventing Avi Aviv (Abingdon Theatre); Morgan Karr: An Awfully Big Adventure (Joe’s Pub); City of Light (Book/Director). Journey to Jersey Boys; The American Dream; Autophobia; Broadway Spotlight 2005-2007; Where are you going, Where have you been?; A Happy Goy In The Shiva House; The Transfiguration of Benno Blimpie; Secrets of A Soccer Mom (Associate).
As an educator, Holly-Anne has taught students of all ages at New York University, Pace University, Columbia University, Yale University, Boston University, Hunter College and theatre companies all over the world. A short list of recent awards include – 40 Under 40 – New Orleans Gambit; Top 30 Under 30/Greater Boston Arts; Best Director – MITF, New York City; Best Book – MITF, New York City.
In addition to her theatrical and live event work, Holly-Anne is a notable arts and leadership philanthropist and spent a great deal of time working with New Orleans production companies after Hurricane Katrina. She served on the Kohlmeyer Circle young arts board member for the Ogden Museum of Contemporary Art in New Orleans, a Producer-Level donor for the New Orleans Film Society and has been awarded “Best Live Event Producer” two years in a row from Meetings Professional International, a group made up of thousands of Destination Management Companies, Travel Partners and Live Event Producers. In 2016 and 2017, she was awarded Gold Leadership status from the Boy Scouts of America’s national office for her work in re-invigorating scout and community growth in under-served communities.
Holly-Anne holds a degree in Theatre – (Directing, Performance) from Fordham University at Lincoln Center in Manhattan and a Certificate in Theatre from Balliol College at Oxford University.
