Harold Prince

Harold Smith Prince (January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019) 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.

Spouse

Life and career

Early years

Prince was born in Manhattan and adopted in childhood by Milton A. Prince, a stockbroker, and Blanche Stern. 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 three years later 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 hit a series of unsuccessful productions.

He almost gave up musical theater right before he hit success with 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 (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Pacific Overtures (1976), and Sweeney Todd (1979). Following Merrily We Roll Along(1981), which was not successful, they parted ways until Bounce (2003).

Prince has directed operas including Ashmedai, Willie Stark, Madame Butterfly, and a revival of Candide. In 1983 Prince staged Turandot for the Vienna State Opera(conductor: Lorin Maazel; with José Carreras, Éva Marton). 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 Stephen 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 also badly received. Other commercially unsuccessful musicals included Roza and Grind, though his production of The Phantom of the Opera, debuting on Broadway in 1988, eventually became the longest-running show in Broadway history. Prince himself stopped producing and directing concurrently during this period because the process of financing a show had become so difficult.

Prince was the inspiration for John Lithgow's character in Bob Fosse's film All That Jazz. He was also 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.

On May 20, 2007, he gave the commencement address at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 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. The Harold Prince Theatre at the Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania is named in his honor. 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 in October 2015. The book was written by David Thompson with additional material and orchestrations by Jason Robert Brown. The revue is 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 (also choreographer), the cast featured Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Michael Xavier, Tony Yazbeck, and Karen Ziemba.

Personal life

Prince married Judy Chaplin, daughter of 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.

Prince died on July 31, 2019 in Reykjavík, Iceland at the age of 91.

Work

Stage productions

• Tickets, Please! (1950) - assistant stage manager
• Call Me Madam (1950) - assistant stage manager
• Wonderful Town (1953) - stage manager
• The Pajama Game (1954) - co-producer
• Damn Yankees (1955) - co-producer
• New Girl in Town (1957) - co-producer
• West Side Story (1957) - co-producer
• Fiorello! (1959) - co-producer
• West Side Story (1960) - co-producer
• Tenderloin (1960) - co-producer
• A Call on Kuprin (1961) - producer
• Take Her, She's Mine (1961) - producer
• A Family Affair (1962) - director
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) - producer
• She Loves Me (1963) - producer, director
• Fiddler on the Roof (1964) - producer
• Baker Street (1964) - director
• Flora, The Red Menace (1965) - producer
• It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman (1966) - producer, director
• Cabaret (1966) - producer, director
• Zorba (1968) - producer, director
• Company (1970) - producer, director
• Follies (1971) - producer, director
• The Great God Brown (1972) - artistic director
• Don Juan (1972) - artistic director
• A Little Night Music (1973) - director, producer
• Sondheim: A Musical Tribute (1973) - performer
• The Visit (1973) - director
• Chemin de Fer (1973) - artistic director
• Holiday (1973) - artistic director
• Candide (1974) - producer, director
• Love for Love (1974) - director
• The Member of the Wedding (1975) - artistic director
• The Rules of the Game (1974) - artistic director
• Pacific Overtures (1976) - producer, director
• Side by Side by Sondheim (1977) - producer
• Some of My Best Friends (1977) - director
• On the Twentieth Century (1978) - director
• Sweeney Todd (1979) - director
• Evita (1979) - director
• Merrily We Roll Along (1981) - director
• Willie Stark (1981) - director
• A Doll's Life (1982) - producer, director
• Play Memory (1984) - director
• Diamonds (1984) - director
• Grind (1985) - producer, director
• The Phantom of the Opera (1986) - director
• Roza (1987) - director
• Cabaret (1987) - director
• Grandchild Of Kings (1992) - adaptation (from the stories of Seán O'Casey) director and adapter
• Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993) - director
• Show Boat (1994) - director
• The Petrified Prince (1994) - director
• Whistle Down the Wind (1996)
• Candide (1997) - director
• Parade (1998) - director, co-conceiver
• 3hree (2000) - supervisor, director (The Flight of the Lawnchair Man)
• Hollywood Arms (2002) - producer, director
• Bounce (2003) - director
• LoveMusik (2007) - director
• Prince of Broadway (2015) - director

Filmography

• Something for Everyone (1970) - director
• A Little Night Music (1977) - director

Bibliography

• Prince, Harold, Contradictions: Notes on twenty-six years in the theatre, Dodd, Mead ISBN 0-396-07019-1 (1974 autobiography)
• Prince, Harold (1993), Grandchild of Kings, Samuel French
• Hirsch, Foster (1989, rev 2005), Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre, Applause Books, (with Prince providing extensive interviews and the foreword)
• Ilson, Carol (1989), Harold Prince: From Pajama Game To Phantom of the Opera And Beyond, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-8357-1961-8
• Ilson, Carol (2000), Harold Prince: A Director's Journey, Limelight Editions
• Napoleon, Davi, Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater, Iowa State University Press (Includes a preface by Prince and a full chapter about the production of Candide)
• Brunet, Daniel; Angel Esquivel Rios, Miguel; and Geraths, Armin (2006), Creating the "New Musical": Harold Prince in Berlin, Peter Lang Publishing
• Thelen, Lawrence (1999), The Show Makers: Great Directors of the American Musical Theatre, Routledge
• Guernsey, Otis L. (Editor) (1985), Broadway Song and Story: Playwrights/Lyricists/Composers Discuss Their Hits, Dodd Mead