“It’s often very hard to follow a hit with another hit. He was 91. Mr. Fiorello! “I was a very solitary kid. Then came “Forum,” directed by Abbott, a show with big troubles on the road that Mr. That I would stand at the back of the theater and I thought, you’re backstage at theater history. They lined up 164 investors because “none of the smart money would support us”, Prince recalled. We sat down with this Broadway titan in September 2008, to discuss his career and the astounding 21 Tony awards he has won, more Tonys than anyone else. Harold Prince, a Broadway director and producer who pushed the boundaries of musical theater with such groundbreaking shows as The Phantom of the Opera, … “I said, I would like to work for you. ‘West Side Story.’ That never got a Tony. Prince and Griffith produced 1957’s “West Side Story,” a love story set among gangs in contemporary New York City and put to music by Leonard Bernstein. I really relied on him enormously.” Prince had already been thinking about doing more than producing hits and the loss of his producing partner spurred him on. Kiss of the Spider Woman (2003) reunited Harold Prince with Cabaret songwriters Kander and Ebb and West Side Story star Chita Rivera for a musical version of Argentine novelist Manuel Puig’s tale of political prisoners in a nameless South American country. Mr. And I came back with him all those years later and I said, we should create a role for the M.C.. Harold Prince, 91, the musical theater producer and director whose Broadway portfolio included West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Evita, and The Phantom of the Opera, died Wednesday, July 31, in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he was traveling. The Army interrupted his early career for two years, a European hiatus that he judged afterward to have been beneficial. [singing] Then came a landmark in Prince’s career. Hal Prince, Giant of Broadway and Reaper of Tonys, Dies at 91. Hal Prince, the Broadway royal and prodigious Tony winner who produced or directed (and sometimes both) many of the most enduring musicals in theater history, including “West Side … He directed Ms. Lansbury, as Mrs. Lovett, in the Broadway production, which opened in 1979. His innovations of the 1960s and early ′70s have now become as calcified as the conventions he once helped to overthrow.”. An elaborate musical retrospective of his career, “Prince of Broadway,” directed by Mr. “Might not the hero’s tragedy have better stood simply and intimately on its own?”. Harold Prince, consummate Broadway impresario, dies at 91 An appreciation of Hal, as he was universally known, practically writes itself. In a never-before-seen interview, the legendary Broadway producer Harold Prince sat down with The New York Times in 2008 to talk about his life, career and accomplishments. He wanted to be a playwright and, after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1948, he hustled his way into a low-level job with George Abbott, the writer-producer-director whose Broadway credits spanned the 20th century. Harold Prince was born on January 30, 1928 in New York City, New York, USA as Harold Smith Prince. Prince that was their final Broadway collaboration; the song, about two young men and a young woman looking to make their mark in New York City, was based, Mr. Sondheim acknowledged, on himself, Mr. Prince told the reporter Rex Reed for an article in The New York Times in 1968, “but I still wanted to be a director, not just a fellow with a lot of bumbling enthusiasm who said, ‘Yeah’ and ‘Swell’ or ‘Great’ a lot. His contributions were prolific, persisting through challenging eras — when rock ’n’ roll threatened to make show music irrelevant, when the decline of Times Square discouraged Broadway attendance, when the arrival of popular British musicals like “Phantom” pushed aside their American counterparts, and when corporations like Disney entered the Broadway sweepstakes and miniaturized the impact of the independent producer. Mr. Prince’s most frequent collaborator was Stephen Sondheim, right. I watched him after ‘Pacific Overtures’ had been massacred by critics. The legacy of it was that I came out of it a different person — extremely ambitious. Aspiring to be a playwright, Hal attended private school in Manhattan and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was active in the Penn Players, a still-extant student theater group. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. ... West Side Story. Mr. Rehearsal photo of West Side Story, 1957. The arc of Mr. Prince’s career was unusual, but it began like many show business careers did, with good fortune and a lift from an old hand. Dim all the marquee lights on Broadway — Harold Prince, the producer and director behind many of the American theater’s greatest musicals, died Wednesday at 91, after a brief illness. ‘West Side Story’ (1957) went on to become one of the all-time greats Harold Smith Prince was born in New York City in 1928, the only child of … Hal was willing to go ahead and take a chance on it. (1959), about New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia, and Evita (1978), about the scheming, image-conscious wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Peron. And they survived.” Harold Prince was born in 1928 and raised in New York City during the Great Depression. After West Side Story opened, ... he began a collaboration with director Harold Prince that would result in a body of work that is considered one of the high water marks of musical theater history. Learn more about his life and career. “Bobby was playing golf and had a heart attack and died the next day. I was so nervous, so desperate for success.”. Prince and Robert Griffith, another stage manager in the Abbott stable, acquired the rights to a novel, “7½ Cents,” by Richard Bissell, Abbott and Robbins shared the directing chores for the show that emerged from the book, “The Pajama Game,” a romantic comedy set amid a labor dispute at a pajama factory. ... West Side Story. So I went to Bernstein’s apartment and Lenny played the score. “I was an ambitious and nervous fellow, and it slowed me down; it made me more rational, less nervous, more adult,” Mr. Deconstructing Harold Hill Deconstructing Harold Hill by Scott Miller. His productions were often large in every sense, their emotional resonance heightened by grandiose or otherwise audacious performances (Patti LuPone in “Evita,” Elaine Stritch in Mr. Sondheim’s “Company”) and dazzling, opulent design; think of the swooping chandelier in “Phantom” or the Rube Goldberg-esque human-flesh-to-meat-pie mechanism in “Sweeney Todd.”, “The two things that characterize him most are energy and impatience,” Mr. Sondheim said in an interview for this obituary in 2016. [singing] “The Pajama Game.” [singing] “West Side Story.” [singing] [singing] “Fiddler on the Roof.” [singing] And “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history. image copyright Getty Images. His flops included “It’s a Bird ... It’s a Plane ... It’s Superman,” in the 1960s, and “Grind” and “Roza” in the 1980s. Steve had been told by Lenny never to play the score for anyone. And he said, why do you want to do it so much? Prince was born Harold Smith Jr. in Manhattan on Jan. 30, 1928, to Harold Sr. and Blanche (Stern) Smith. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Prince was attracted to provocative material — he took on political prisoners and gay persecution in “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993) and anti-Semitism in “Parade” (1998) — that pushed the musical in an audience-challenging, as opposed to simply audience-pleasing, direction. On the opening night at the St. James Theater, Bobby Griffith and I were on either side of the stage. Leland Hayward has made an offer. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. Harold Prince: West Side Story. Harold "Hal" Prince, the masterful producer and director who served as the driving force behind such acclaimed Broadway musicals as Damn Yankees, West … Much of Prince’s work was characterised by social concerns, in a field full of more escapist productions, ‘West Side Story’ (1957) went on to become one of the all-time greats, {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Harold Prince: Impresario behind Broadway’s biggest hits, Martin Charnin: Driving force behind Broadway hit ‘Annie’, The cast for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story has been announced. There’s a sophomore jinx, but you did.” “Yeah. (Left to Right) Producers Robert E. Griffith and Harold Prince, Director/Choreographer Jerome Robbins, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, Composer Leonard Bernstein, Author Arthur Laurents, Assistant Director Gerald Freedman, Production Assistant Sylvia Drulie and Scenic Designer Oliver Smith It was criticized for, among other things, its unpleasant tone and Mr. Prince’s decision to have youthful actors play the roles throughout, even at the start, when the characters are older. I can afford to work for six months for nothing. He died on July 31, 2019 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Harold “Hal” Prince, the famed American theater producer and director who passed away July 31, left behind at least $5.2 million to a trust, according to his newly revealed will. Prince began work in the theatre as an assistant stage manager to theatrical producer and director George Abbott. He was heralded as a visionary who saw theatrical potential in the most unlikely subject matter and who helped to shepherd emerging talents, many of them composers. And by God, you’re a small part of it.” [singing] In 1961, Prince suffered a major shock when his producing partner, Robert Griffith, died suddenly. Mr. Download in PDF, EPUB, and Mobi Format for read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Click Get Books for free access ebooks. “Cabaret” was among the first of the so-called concept musicals — shows organized around ideas rather than the telling of a pure story. It starred Rosalind Russell and featured music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Prince: “Zorba” and “Cabaret.”. Prince and Mr. Sondheim, whose mentor was Oscar Hammerstein, met in 1949 at the Broadway opening of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “South Pacific,” and their friendship and aspirations ran parallel throughout the 1950s. It was a hit.” [singing] “Damn Yankees,” a tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil to help the Washington Senators win the pennant. The show ran for more than a year, but Abbott was the director, and Mr. After their collaboration on West Side Story, with Sondheim only writing the lyrics, Prince encouraged Sondheim also to compose music. It’s a very intriguing thing.” Abbott took Prince under his wing, employing him primarily as an assistant stage manager. His career as a solo producer began with a comedy, “Take Her, She’s Mine,” about the conventional parents of a precocious young woman, written by Henry and Phoebe Ephron and based, at least in part, on their daughter Nora, the future writer and filmmaker. “It was not as big a hit as the first two. With book and lyrics by Adolph Green and Betty Comden and a score by Larry Grossman, huge sets and grandiose sound amplification, it closed after five performances, a victim of its outsize self-importance. Prince, “who did so much to destroy the clichés of musical staging that existed on Broadway when he began his career, would once again leap ahead of the fray. From there followed a remarkable string of musicals presided over by the Prince-Griffith producing team, among them the baseball fantasy story “Damn Yankees”; “New Girl in Town,” an adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s lusty drama “Anna Christie”; and “Fiorello!,” the admiring stage bio of the Roosevelt-era three-term mayor of New York. Prince was a nurturer of unproved talent. Mr. Two other producers shared the award. “He trained as a stage manager,” Mr. Sondheim added, “and he learned the business from the ground up, so he knows how to order a pair of shoes, which many producers don’t.”, He continued: “A visual imagination is, if not his greatest strength, then one of them. 1970 marked the start of his greatest collaboration, with composer/lyricist St… And I think there will be other offers. “I wandered the street having kind of conversations in my head. Do you think there’s anything in ‘Phantom of the Opera?’ And I said, I’ll do it. Harold Prince, a theatre titan who shaped the history of Broadway, was born January 30, 1928. It was a journey getting Fiddler on the Roof to Broadway." He was married to Judith Arlene Chaplin. And “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” [singing] “Directing, I had to hopefully find something of myself. Mr. Prince’s singularly significant role in shaping the Broadway musical during the second half of the 20th century was attested to by the Tony award for lifetime achievement he received in 2006. Tenderloin. Harold Prince, a theatre titan who shaped the history of Broadway, was born January 30, 1928. “We were both bitter about the experience, and there was a lot of Broadway bitchery, but the show failed because people didn’t like it.”. Mr. Prince, directed and choreographed by Robbins, with music by Bock and Harnick and a book by Joseph Stein, it won nine Tonys and ran for nearly eight years — more than 3,200 performances — the longest run in Broadway history at the time. Tenderloin. Legendary Broadway musical producer and director Harold Prince, whose considerable legacy includes “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “West Side Story,” “Company… And I thought, you know, it’s sort of the end of the world. of the bawdy Kit Kat Club in Weimar-era Berlin. He went on to direct his own productions in 1962 beginning with A Family Affairand had a series of unsuccessful productions. Royal Watch. I see it now. “By inflating a Dickensian tale to cosmic proportions, the enormous production seemed to imply that the audience were guilty of the Victorian injustices that led to Sweeney’s murderous acts of revenge,” Mr. Rich wrote. And when Mr. And within a space of about three months, it began to go away. His son, Charles, an orchestra conductor, was asked as a boy what his father did. In 1957, Prince did "West Side Story," a modern-day version of "Romeo and Juliet" told against the backdrop of New York gang warfare. But in the mid-1950s, Prince had become a Broadway success, and Sondheim was still hoping for his first Broadway credit. Prince, who lived in Manhattan, had been on his way home from his residence in Switzerland when he died in Iceland after a brief illness. Tom Bosley, for instance, later known as Howard Cunningham on the nostalgic television sitcom “Happy Days,” won a Tony in his first starring role in 1959 as the titular mayor of New York, La Guardia, in “Fiorello!” Liza Minnelli made her first Broadway appearance — and won a Tony — as the title character in “Flora, the Red Menace,” a 1965 politically-inflected musical set in 1935 about a spunky fashion designer who falls for a Communist. Stephen Sondheim had become a good friend. But no failure was perhaps so poignant as “Merrily We Roll Along.” Written by Mr. Sondheim with a book by George Furth (who also wrote “Company”), “Merrily” is a show business story that rewinds the lives of its three main characters, from success and bitterness back to the innocence and aspirations of youth. Harold Prince poses with his Tony Award for best direction of a musical in 1980. We had such a successful track record that, I’d say, we’re doing a musical. It ran for three years and garnered a Tony for best musical revival. I’m totally mindful that nobody will ever have the life I’ve had in the theater. “When we opened ‘Funny Thing’ in Washington and it got scathing reviews, we played to 50 people in a 1,200-seat auditorium. [Read an appraisal of Hal Prince by our theater critic here]. Prince and his fellow fledgling producers fell short in raising the money for the show — because neither they nor the choreographer, Bob Fosse, the composer, Richard Adler, nor one of the chorus girls, Shirley MacLaine, were as yet bankable names — Abbott kicked in the needed cash. Mr. His first attempt at directing, “A Family Affair,” a 1962 musical about squabbles over wedding plans, was short-lived. Harold Prince was a musical theatre producer and director who championed adventurous, even demanding, fare in a field long known for escapism, and whose Broadway portfolio included West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. He was captivated by the stage when he saw Orson Welles’ 1937 Broadway staging of Caesar. Behind him is a painting by Tom Morrow for “Cabaret.”. Times Square, the center of Manhattan’s — and hence the country’s — theater district, had begun its slide into forbidding disrepair. At Thanksgiving 1960, the Griffith-Prince production team had three Broadway musicals running simultaneously: “Fiorello!,” “West Side Story” and “Tenderloin,” about an 1890s social reformer in a New York City red light district, with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, who also wrote “Fiorello!” But in June 1961, shortly after “Tenderloin” closed at a loss and a play they produced, “A Call on Kuprin,” shut down after just 12 performances, Mr. Griffith died, and Mr. Prince, presenting a caricature of the man himself — excitable, phone-obsessed, overly mannered, generally unpleasant. Perhaps the tribute he most coveted, however, nearly didn’t happen and ended in disappointment. Enlarge this image. Prince, at 89, was preparing to direct Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” (a show he directed on Broadway in 1982) for the New York City Opera. I live in the future. Bob Fosse talks about Jerome Robbins. Of “Sweeney Todd” itself, he wrote that the production, its eight Tony Awards notwithstanding, was wildly out of proportion to the material, an opinion that Mr. Sondheim has acknowledged he shared and whose validity has been underscored by subsequent, more modest productions. The overnight Broadway wonder then hit another home run: the baseball-meets-Faust story Damn Yankees (1955). I wanted what I wanted, and I was going to get it.” He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1948. A harbinger of later developments in the stage musical, “West Side Story” was a landmark Broadway production, though it won only two Tony Awards, one for Robbins’s choreography and the other for Oliver Smith’s scenic design.