The Broadway Husbands Share Their Fatherhood Journey
Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna with their son Maverick.
Stepping onstage to perform in front of an audience might induce plenty of fear and excitement and 6,000 other feelings…but is it more intense than raising a child? Well, the Broadways Husbands, made up of Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna, are finding out — and letting us in on the ride. Their son Maverick was born in March 2022 and the family is sharing their journey from Broadway to fatherhood.
The Broadway Husbands platform provides a safe and welcoming space for creative entrepreneurs, new parents and members of the LGBTQ+ community to exchange ideas, celebrate art and strengthen their talents. The husbands met while performing in New York; Shuford acted in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on Broadway and Hanna was a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet.
The couple married in 2011 and moved to Houston in 2020 to start their family. Today, they continue giving creatives the tools they need to achieve their personal and professional aspirations.
Bret and Stephen sat down with Good People, Cool Things to talk about Broadway Husbands, their favorite acting games, and why it’s important to have LGBTQ+ representation in the media and entertainment world.
What do you hope to deliver with your Broadway Husbands channel?
Our mission with Broadway Husbands is not only to help normalize same-sex parenting and marriage, but to also show people you can love who you love and love what you do. We are always on a mission to support the arts and make the arts just as trendy as any influencer out there.
How have you grown your brand?
We have grown our brand through authentically sharing our struggles as a same-sex couple making their living in the arts. Having always wanted to pursue a career as performing artists, we never saw ourselves represented online. We hope to inspire young LGBTQ people to go for what they really want.
What have you learned from starting a family as LGBTQ+ and surrogate parents?
We have learned a lot about each other's own childhoods through learning to raise a child ourselves. As queer young people, we both experienced rough childhoods. Learning from those experiences is enabling us to create a more functional and healthy relationship with our son.
Practicing for a gold medal.
What's the worst show or performance you've ever had?
The joy of live theatre is that nothing ever goes as planned. It's one of the reasons we think parenthood is coming pretty naturally to us. Whenever something goes awry on stage, you learn to adjust — just like life with a newborn.
Do you have a favorite acting game/warmup exercise?
Who doesn't love a little zip zap zop?! But, of course, those mirror exercises are coming in handy now that Maverick is three months old.
What's next for you?
We are both auditioning regularly. Bret will be performing at a theatre in Houston this winter that we can't talk about yet. Stephen will be performing at the Lake Tahoe Dance Festival this summer, as well as a fun new project in the works for the winter as well. We are excited to see how to balance parenthood with all of our pursuits.