Harold Smith Prince (born Harold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known as Hal Prince, was an American theatre director and producer known for his work in musical theatre.
One of the foremost figures in 20th-century American theatre, Prince became associated throughout his career with many of the most noteworthy musicals in Broadway history, including West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof,
Cabaret,
Sweeney Todd, and Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history.[1] Many of his productions broke new ground for musical theater, expanding the possibilities of the form by incorporating more serious and political subjects, such as Nazism (Cabaret), the difficulties of marriage (Company), and the forcible opening of 19th-century Japan (Pacific Overtures).
Over the span of his career, he garnered 21
Tony Awards, 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[2] in
Manhattan, the son of Blanche (née Stern) and Harold Smith.[3] His family was of
German Jewish descent.[4][5] He was adopted by his stepfather, Milton A. Prince, a stockbroker.[6][7][8] Following his graduation from the
Franklin School, later called 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.[5]
He received a Tony Award for producing Fiddler on the Roof (1965) and almost gave up musical theatre before his Tony winning success directing and producing with
Kander and Ebb's Cabaret in 1966, followed by Kander and Ebb's Zorba (Tony nomination, 1969). 1970 marked the start of his greatest creative collaboration, with composer/lyricist
Stephen Sondheim. They had previously worked on West Side Story[11] and their association spawned a long string of landmark productions, including Company (Tony Award, 1970), Follies (Tony Award, 1971), A Little Night Music (Tony Award, 1973), Pacific Overtures (Tony nomination, 1976), Side by Side by Sondheim (Tony nomination, 1977), and Sweeney Todd (Tony Award, 1979).[10] Following Merrily We Roll Along (1981),[12] which ran for 16 performances, they parted ways until Bounce in 2003.[10][13]
He received a Tony nomination for directing On the Twentieth Century (1978) and won twice for the
Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Evita (1980) and The Phantom of the Opera (1988).[10][13] Between them, Prince was offered the job of directing Cats by Lloyd Webber but turned it down[14] and directed A Doll's Life (1982) with lyricists
Betty Comden and
Adolph Green. The musical continued the story of
Nora Helmer past what
Henrik Ibsen had written in A Doll's House. It ran for five performances; The New York Times 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." Broadway wags dubbed the show either "A Doll's Death" or, due to the omnipresent portal out of which Nora slammed in the prologue, "A Door's Life."
[15]
Prince's other commercially unsuccessful musicals included Grind (Tony nomination, 1985), which closed after 71 performances,[16] and Roza (1987). However, his production of The Phantom of the Opera eventually became
the longest-running show in Broadway history.[17] Prince ultimately stopped producing because he "became more interested in directing".[10][13]Kiss of the Spider Woman, which he directed in 1993, received the Tony Award for Best Musical. In 1994, Prince became a Kennedy Center Honoree.[18] He received a 1995 Tony Award for directing Showboat, and was nominated again for 1999's Parade.
Prince was the inspiration for
John Lithgow's character in
Bob Fosse's film All That Jazz.[32] 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.[33]
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 (1970), was a solid success and paved the way for other innovative musicals."[34]
The Harold Prince Theatre at the
Annenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania is named in his honor.[35]
A documentary titled Harold Prince: The Director's Life was directed by
Lonny Price and broadcast on
PBSGreat Performances in November 2018.[36][37]
In 2019,
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presented an extensive exhibit honoring the life and work of Harold Prince.[38] Prince served as a trustee for the library and on the
National Council of the Arts of the
National Endowment for the Arts.[39] At the behest of
Lotte Lenya, whom he cast in Cabaret (1966), Prince also served on the Board of Trustees of The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music and as a judge of their Lotte Lenya Competition.[40]
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."[41]
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."[41]
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 for his role as James Hobert on Spin City, is Prince's son-in-law. At the time of his death, Prince lived in Manhattan and Switzerland.[1]
Death
Prince died in
Reykjavík, Iceland, on July 31, 2019, at the age of 91, after falling ill while traveling from Switzerland to the United States.[1][42] Later that day, the marquee lights of Broadway's theaters were dimmed in a traditional gesture of honor.[43] A memorial was held at Broadway's
Majestic Theatre on December 16, 2019.[44]
Work
Stage productions
Source: Playbill (vault);[10] Internet Broadway Database[45]
Prince, Harold, Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-six Years in the Theatre, Dodd, Mead
ISBN0-396-07019-1 (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),
ISBN1-5578-3617-5
Ilson, Carol (1989), Harold Prince: From Pajama Game To Phantom of the Opera And Beyond, Cambridge University Press,
ISBN0-8357-1961-8
Ilson, Carol (2000), Harold Prince: A Director's Journey, Limelight Series, Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN0-8791-0296-9