Harold Prince

b. Harold Smith Prince, 30 January 1928, New York, USA. A distinguished director and producer - the supreme Broadway showman - whose career has lasted for many decades. ‘Hal’ Prince served his theatrical apprenticeship in the late 40s and early 50s with the esteemed author, director, and producer George Abbott. In 1954, he presented his first musical, The Pajama Game, in collaboration with Robert E. Griffith and Frederick Brisson. His association with Griffith continued until the latter’s death in 1961, mostly with hits such as Damn Yankees, New Girl In Town, West Side Story, and Fiorello! (1959). Tenderloin (1960) was a disappointment, as was Prince’s first assignment as a director, A Family Affair (1962). From then on, he has been the producer or co-producer and/or director for a whole range of (mostly) successful musicals such as A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1962), She Loves Me (1963), Fiddler On The Roof (1964), Baker Street (1965), Flora, The Red Menace (1965), It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman (1966), Cabaret (1966), Zorba (1968), Company (1970), Follies (1971), A Little Night Music (1973), Candide (1974), Pacific Overtures (1976), On The Twentieth Century (1978), Evita (1978), Sweeney Todd (1979), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), A Doll’s Life (1982), Grind (1985), The Phantom Of The Opera (1986), Roza (1987), and Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1992). The list does not include re-staging and directing the original productions in several different countries, nor his work with American opera companies such as the New York Opera, the Houston Opera, and the Chicago Lyric Opera. For his innovative concepts, the ability to find the exact visual framework for the musical-narrative content, and his role, notably with Stephen Sondheim, in the drastic reshaping of the modern theatre musical, Prince has received more Tony Awards than anyone else, including one for his superb staging of the Broadway revival of Show Boat (1995). This was followed by a disappointingly brief run for Prince’s revival of the 1974 version of Candide (1997) and Parade (1998).