Harold Prince


Harold Smith Prince, commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the 20th century.
Over the span of his career, he garnered 21 Tony Awards, more than any other individual, including eight for directing, eight for producing the year's Best Musical, two as Best Producer of a Musical, and three special awards.

Early life

Prince was born to an affluent family in Manhattan, the son of Blanche and Harold Smith. He was adopted by his stepfather, Milton A. Prince, a stockbroker. His family was of German Jewish descent. Following his graduation from the Dwight School in New York, he entered the University of Pennsylvania, where he followed a liberal arts curriculum and graduated in three years at age 19. He later served two years with the United States Army in post-World War II Germany.

Career

Prince began work in the theatre as an assistant stage manager to theatrical producer and director George Abbott. Along with Abbott, he co-produced The Pajama Game, which won the 1955 Tony Award for Best Musical. He went on to direct his own productions in 1962 beginning with A Family Affair and had a series of unsuccessful productions.
He almost gave up musical theater before his success with Kander and Ebb's Cabaret in 1966. 1970 marked the start of his greatest collaboration, with composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim. They had previously worked on West Side Story and at this point decided to embark on their own project. Their association spawned a long string of productions, including Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, and . Following Merrily We Roll Along, which was not successful, running for 16 performances, they parted ways until Bounce in 2003.
Prince directed operas including Josef Tal's Ashmedai, Carlisle Floyd's Willie Stark, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and a revival of Bernstein's Candide. In 1983 Prince staged Turandot for the Vienna State Opera.
He directed two of Andrew Lloyd Webber's successes, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. He was offered the job of directing Cats by Lloyd Webber but turned it down.
Despite creating a number of hugely popular musicals in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as Sweeney Todd and Evita, Prince had his first critical failure with Sondheim in 1981 with Merrily We Roll Along. Determined to bounce back, he started working on a new musical A Doll's Life with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green that would continue the story of Nora Helmer past what Henrik Ibsen had written in A Doll's House. It was badly received and ran for five performances; The New York Times reviewer wrote "It was overproduced and overpopulated to the extent that the tiny resolute figure of Nora became lost in the combined mechanics of Broadway and the Industrial Revolution."
Prince's other commercially unsuccessful musicals included Grind, which closed after 71 performances, and Roza. However, his production of The Phantom of the Opera, debuting on Broadway in 1988, eventually became the longest-running show in Broadway history. Prince ultimately stopped producing because he "became more interested in directing".
Prince was the inspiration for John Lithgow's character in Bob Fosse's film All That Jazz. He was also assumed to be the basis of a character in Richard Bissell's novel Say, Darling, which chronicled Bissell's own experience turning his novel 7½ Cents into The Pajama Game.
In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts. In 2006, Prince was awarded a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. On May 20, 2007, he gave the commencement address at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 2008 Prince was the keynote speaker at Elon University's Convocation for Honors celebration.
Prince co-directed, with Susan Stroman, the 2010 musical Paradise Found. The musical features the music of Johann Strauss II as adapted by Jonathan Tunick with lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. The book was written by Richard Nelson, based on Joseph Roth's novel The Tale of the 1002nd Night. The musical premiered at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London on May 19, 2010 and closed on June 26, and starred Mandy Patinkin.
A retrospective of his work, titled Prince of Broadway, presented by Umeda Arts Theater, premiered in Tokyo, Japan in October 2015. The book was written by David Thompson with additional material and orchestrations by Jason Robert Brown. The revue was co-directed by Susan Stroman and Prince. The revue opened on Broadway in August 2017 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Directed by Prince and Stroman, the cast featured Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Michael Xavier, Tony Yazbeck, and Karen Ziemba.

Legacy

According to Masterworks Broadway, "besides his achievements as a producer and director, Prince is also known for bringing innovation to the theatrical arts. In collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, he was a pioneer in the development of the 'concept musical,' taking its departure from an idea or theme rather than from a traditional story. Their first project of this kind, Company, was a solid success and paved the way for other innovative musicals."
The Harold Prince Theatre at the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania is named in his honor.
A documentary titled Harold Prince: The Director’s Life was directed by Lonny Price and broadcast on PBS Great Performances in November 2018.
Andrew Lloyd Webber said: "There isn’t anybody working on musical theater on either side of the Atlantic who doesn’t owe an enormous debt to this extraordinary man....Hal was very minimalist with his sets. People think of Phantom as this great big spectacle. That’s an illusion. Hal always looked at the show as this big black box in which the stage craft enabled you to believe there was this impressive scenery all around you."
Jason Robert Brown said: "More than anything else, when I think about Hal, I think about his belief in theater. He believed in what it could do....He thought a lot about the world and the political systems and emotional support systems in it. He was very much a political artist."

Personal life

Prince married Judy Chaplin, daughter of composer and musical director Saul Chaplin, on October 26, 1962. They are parents of Daisy Prince, a director, and Charles Prince, a conductor. Actor Alexander Chaplin, best known as "James Hobert" on Spin City, is Prince's son-in-law. At the time of his death, Prince lived in Manhattan and Switzerland.

Death

Prince died on July 31, 2019 at the age of 91. It had been erroneously reported that he had died in Reykjavík. In fact, local news and hospital records in Iceland confirmed that he actually died in Keflavik following a brief illness.
The marquee lights of Broadway theatres were dimmed on July 31, 2019, in the traditional gesture of honor.

Work

Stage productions

Source: Playbill ; Internet Broadway Database
Sources: Playbill ; Internet Broadway Database; Los Angeles Times
YearAwardCategoryWorkResult
1955Tony AwardBest MusicalThe Pajama Game
1956Tony AwardBest MusicalDamn Yankees
1958Tony AwardBest MusicalWest Side Story
1958Tony AwardBest MusicalNew Girl in Town
1960Tony AwardBest MusicalFiorello!
1963Tony AwardBest MusicalA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1963Tony AwardBest Producer of a MusicalA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
1964Tony AwardBest MusicalShe Loves Me
1964Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalShe Loves Me
1964Tony AwardBest Producer of a MusicalShe Loves Me
1965Tony AwardBest MusicalFiddler on the Roof
1965Tony AwardBest Producer of a MusicalFiddler on the Roof
1967Tony AwardBest MusicalCabaret
1967Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalCabaret
1969Tony AwardBest MusicalZorba
1969Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalZorba
1970Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalCompany
1971Tony AwardBest MusicalCompany
1971Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalCompany
1971Drama Desk AwardOutstanding DirectorFollies
1972Tony AwardBest MusicalFollies
1972Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalFollies
1972Tony AwardSpecial Tony AwardFiddler on the Roof
1973Tony AwardBest MusicalA Little Night Music
1973Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalA Little Night Music
1973Drama Desk AwardOutstanding DirectorA Little Night Music
1973Drama Desk AwardOutstanding DirectorThe Great God Brown
1974Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalCandide
1974Tony AwardSpecial Tony AwardCandide
1974Drama Desk AwardOutstanding DirectorCandide
1974Drama Desk AwardOutstanding DirectorThe Visit
1976Tony AwardBest MusicalPacific Overtures
1976Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalPacific Overtures
1976Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalPacific Overtures
1977Tony AwardBest MusicalSide by Side by Sondheim
1978Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalOn the Twentieth Century
1979Tony AwardBest Direction of a Musical'
1979Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a Musical'
1980Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalEvita
1980Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalEvita
1985Tony AwardBest MusicalGrind
1985Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalGrind
1988Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalThe Phantom of the Opera
1988Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalThe Phantom of the Opera
1988Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalCabaret
1992Outer Critics Circle AwardOutstanding DirectorGrandchild of Kings
1993Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalKiss of the Spider Woman
1995Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalShow Boat
1995Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalShow Boat
1995Outer Critics Circle AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalShow Boat
1999Tony AwardBest Direction of a MusicalParade
1999Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalParade
2006Tony AwardLifetime Achievement Award
2007Drama Desk AwardOutstanding Director of a MusicalLoveMusik