Harold Prince
Prince in 1988
Born	Harold Smith (1928-01-30)January 30, 1928 New York City, U.S.
Died	July 31, 2019(2019-07-31) (aged 91) Reykjavík, Iceland
Other names	Hal Prince Harold Smith Prince
Education	Timothy Dwight School
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania
Occupations	Theatre director producer
Years active	1955–2019
Spouse	Judith Chaplin ​ (m. 1962)​
Children	2

Harold Smith Prince (bornHarold Smith; January 30, 1928 – July 31, 2019), commonly known asHal Prince, was anAmerican theatre director and producer known for his work inmusical theatre.

One of the foremost figures in20th-century theatre, Prince became associated throughout his career with many of the most noteworthy musicals inBroadway history, includingWest Side Story,Fiddler on the Roof,Cabaret,Sweeney Todd, andPhantom of the Opera, thelongest-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 a record 21Tony Awards, including eight forDirection, eight for producing the year'sBest Musical, two as Best Producer of a Musical, and threeSpecial Awards.

Prince was born to an affluent family^[2] inManhattan, the son of Blanche (née Stern) and Harold Smith.^[3] His family was ofGerman Jewish descent.^[4][5] He was adopted by his stepfather, Milton A. Prince, a stockbroker.^[6][7][8] Following his graduation from theFranklin School, later called the Dwight School, in New York, he entered theUniversity of Pennsylvania, where he followed a liberal arts curriculum and graduated in three years at age 19. He later served two years with theUnited States Army in post–World War II Germany.^[5]

Prince began work in the theatre as an assistant stage manager to theatrical producer and directorGeorge Abbott. Along with Abbott, he co-producedThe Pajama Game, which won the 1955Tony Award for Best Musical.^[9] He received Tony Awards for 1956'sDamn Yankees, 1960'sFiorello! and 1963'sA Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Tony nominations for 1958'sWest Side Story andNew Girl in Town. He went on to direct and produce his own productions in 1962 beginning with the unsuccessfulA Family Affair^[10] followed by his first critically successful musical,She Loves Me (Tony nomination, 1964).

He received a Tony Award for producingFiddler on the Roof (1965) and almost gave up musical theatre before his Tony winning success directing and producing withKander and Ebb'sCabaret in 1966, followed by Kander and Ebb'sZorba (Tony nomination, 1969). 1970 marked the start of his greatest creative collaboration, with composer/lyricistStephen Sondheim. They had previously worked onWest Side Story^[11] and their association spawned a long string of landmark productions, includingCompany (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), andSweeney Todd (Tony Award, 1979).^[10] FollowingMerrily We Roll Along (1981),^[12] which ran for 16 performances, they parted ways untilBounce in 2003.^[10][13]

He received a Tony nomination for directingOn the Twentieth Century (1978) and won twice for theAndrew Lloyd Webber musicalsEvita (1980) andThe Phantom of the Opera (1988).^[10][13] Between them, Prince was offered the job of directingCats by Lloyd Webber but turned it down^[14] and directedA Doll's Life (1982) with lyricistsBetty Comden andAdolph Green. The musical continued the story ofNora Helmer past whatHenrik Ibsen had written inA 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 includedGrind (Tony nomination, 1985), which closed after 71 performances,^[16] andRoza (1987). However, his production ofThe Phantom of the Opera eventually becamethe 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 directingShowboat, and was nominated again for 1999'sParade.

In 2000, he was awarded theNational Medal of Arts.^[19] In 2006, Prince was awarded aSpecial Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.^[20] In 2007, he directed his last original musical on Broadway,LoveMusik, and on May 20 of that year, he gave the commencement address atGettysburg College inGettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was presented with theAmerican Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award by awards council member and authorToni Morrison at a 2007 ceremony in Washington, D.C.^[21] In 2008 Prince was the keynote speaker atElon University's Convocation for Honors celebration.^[22]

Prince co-directed, withSusan Stroman, the 2010 musicalParadise Found. The musical features the music ofJohann Strauss II as adapted byJonathan Tunick with lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh. The book was written byRichard Nelson, based onJoseph Roth's novelThe Tale of the 1002nd Night. The musical premiered at theMenier Chocolate Factory in London on May 19, 2010 and closed on June 26, and starredMandy Patinkin.^[23][24]

A retrospective of Prince's work titledPrince of Broadway was co-directed by Prince andSusan Stroman and presented byUmeda Arts Theater in Tokyo, Japan in October 2015.^[25] The book was written by David Thompson with additional material and orchestrations byJason Robert Brown. Prince was slated to directThe Band's Visit in 2016 but withdrew due to scheduling conflicts.^[26]Prince of Broadway opened in August 2017 at theSamuel J. Friedman Theatre in New York^[27][28] with a cast featuringChuck Cooper,Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham,Emily Skinner,Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees,Michael Xavier,Tony Yazbeck, andKaren Ziemba.^[29]

In addition to musicals, Prince also directed operas^[13] includingJosef Tal'sAshmedai,^[30] Carlisle Floyd'sWillie Stark, Puccini'sMadama Butterfly, and a revival of Bernstein'sCandide (Tony Award, 1974). In 1983 Prince stagedTurandot for theVienna State Opera (conductor:Lorin Maazel; withJosé Carreras andÉva Marton).^[31]

Prince was the inspiration forJohn Lithgow's character inBob Fosse's filmAll That Jazz.^[32] He was also assumed to be the basis of a character inRichard Bissell's novelSay, Darling, which chronicled Bissell's own experience turning his novel7½ Cents intoThe 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]

According toThe New York Times, "He was known, too, for his collaborations with a murderer's row of creative talents, among them the choreographersBob Fosse,Jerome Robbins,Michael Bennett andSusan Stroman; the designersBoris Aronson,Eugene Lee,Patricia Zipprodt andFlorence Klotz; and the composersLeonard Bernstein,John Kander,Stephen Sondheim andAndrew Lloyd Webber.^[1]"

The Harold Prince Theatre at theAnnenberg Center of the University of Pennsylvania is named in his honor.^[35]

A documentary titledHarold Prince: The Director's Life was directed byLonny Price and broadcast onPBSGreat 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 theNational Council of the Arts of theNational Endowment for the Arts.^[39] At the behest ofLotte Lenya, whom he cast inCabaret (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 ofPhantom 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]

Prince married Judy Chaplin, daughter of composer and musical directorSaul Chaplin, on October 26, 1962. They are parents of Daisy Prince, a director, and Charles Prince, a conductor. ActorAlexander Chaplin, best known for his role as James Hobert onSpin City, is Prince's son-in-law. At the time of his death, Prince lived in Manhattan and Switzerland.^[1]

Prince died inReykjavík, 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'sMajestic Theatre on December 16, 2019.^[44]

Source:Playbill (vault);^[10] Internet Broadway Database^[45]

• Something for Everyone (1970) – director^[51]
• A Little Night Music (1977) – director^[52]

Sources:Playbill (vault);^[10] Internet Broadway Database;^[45]Los Angeles Times^[13]

• Prince, Harold,Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-six Years in the Theatre, Dodd, MeadISBN 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),ISBN 1-5578-3617-5
• 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 Series, Hal Leonard CorporationISBN 0-8791-0296-9
• 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 ofCandide)
• 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

• Harold Prince at theInternet Broadway Database
• Harold Prince atPlaybill Vault
• Harold Prince at theInternet Off-Broadway Database (archived)
• Harold Prince atIMDb
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Harold Prince onCharlie Rose
• Harold Prince collected news and commentary atThe New York Times
• Harold PrinceDownstage Center interview atAmerican Theatre Wing.org, May 2008
• Harold Prince papers, 1954–1999, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Harold Prince papers at theLibrary of Congress
• Ruth Mitchell papers, 1887–1999 (bulk 1946–1999), held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Harold Prince scores, 1955–1983, held by the Music Division,New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
• Interview with Harold Prince by Bruce Duffie, November 11, 1982

• 1928 births
• 2019 deaths
• American adoptees
• American expatriates in Switzerland
• American musical theatre directors
• American people of German-Jewish descent
• American theatre directors
• American theatre managers and producers
• Broadway theatre directors
• Broadway theatre producers
• Drama Desk Award winners
• Dwight School alumni
• Film directors from New York City
• Kennedy Center honorees
• Military personnel from New York City
• People from Manhattan
• Special Tony Award recipients
• Tony Award winners
• United States National Medal of Arts recipients
• University of Pennsylvania alumni

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