Harold Prince
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| Harold S. Prince | |||||||
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| Born | Harold Smith Prince January 30, 1928 New York City, New York , USA |
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| Other name(s) | Hal Prince | ||||||
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Harold Smith Prince (born January 30, 1928) is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century. He has garnered twenty-one Tony Awards, more than any other individual, including eight for directing, eight for producing, two as producer of the year's Best Musical, and three special awards. His shows are known for their political context, new approach to romance, and characters who sing and dance with thematic import.
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[edit] Biography
Born in New York City, Prince attended the University of Pennsylvania at age 16, studying a liberal arts curriculum, and graduated at age 19. He began work in the theatre as an assistant stage manager to legendary 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 the 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). After the disappointing Merrily We Roll Along (1981), they did not work together again until Bounce (2003), which proved to be another failure.
Prince also 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, Eva 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 Webber but turned it down.
Despite creating a number of hugely popular musicals in the late 1970s and 1980s such as The Phantom of the Opera, Sweeney Todd, and Evita, Harold Prince also had failures in this period. His first major artistic failure with Stephen Sondheim was in 1981 with Merrily We Roll Along. Determined to bounce back, Prince started working on a new musical A Doll's Life with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green that would be continue the story of Nora Helmer past what Henrik Ibsen had written in A Doll's House. It was as badly received critically as Merrily, mainly because critics blamed him for either picking a bad idea for a musical or repeating himself. Other unpopular musicals of this time include Roza (musical) and Grind which both suffered creative and financial difficulties. 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 7 1/2 Cents into The Pajama Game. Say, Darling also became a musical, with Prince parodied onstage by actor Robert Morse.
Prince is married to Judy Chaplin, daughter of Saul Chaplin. They are parents of director Daisy Prince Chaplin and conductor Charles Prince. He currently serves as president of the National Institute for Musical Theater. On May 20, 2007, he gave the commencement address at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Prince is known as the great modern Producer-Director of the American Broadway Musical. Critics have recognized Prince's work as further developing the “concept musical,” in which the narrative of a show is not necessarily the primary authorial emphasis and instead the production centers on an idea or metaphor that is explored through scenes and songs that do not unfold in a traditional sequential narrative style.
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 the Spring of 2008 Prince was the key note speaker at the Elon University's Commencement celebration in North Carolina
[edit] Stage productions
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[edit] Filmography
- Something for Everyone - 1970 - director
- A Little Night Music - 1977 - director
[edit] Bibliography
- Contradictions: Notes on twenty-six years in the theatre , Prince, Harold, published by Dodd, Mead ISBN-10: 0396070191, his 1974 autobiography
- Harold Prince and the American Musical Theatre, Hirsch, Foster 1989, revised 2005, with Prince providing extensive interviews and the foreword.
- Harold Prince: From Pajama Game To Phantom of the Opera And Beyond Ilson, Carol, 1989, published by Cambridge University Press ISBN-10: 0835719618
- Harold Prince: A Director's Journey, Ilson, Carol, 2000, New York: Limelight Editions ISBN-10: 0879102969
- Chelsea on the Edge: The Adventures of an American Theater, Napoleon, Davi. Includes a preface by Hal Prince and a full chapter about the production of Candide. Iowa State University Press.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Harold Prince at the Internet Broadway Database
- Harold Prince at the Internet Movie Database
- Prince papers at New York Public Library
- Harold Prince Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org, May 2008
| Awards | ||
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| Preceded by Peter Masterson and Tommy Tune for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical 1978-1979 for Sweeney Todd |
Succeeded by Hal Prince for Evita |
| Preceded by Hal Prince for Sweeney Todd |
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical 1979-1980 for Evita |
Succeeded by Wilford Leach for The Pirates of Penzance |
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