Harold Prince, A Sweeping Force In Broadway Musicals, Dies at 91

Aug 01, 2019 by apost team

Famous Broadway musical producer and director Harold Prince has passed away yesterday at the age of 91. The legendary director was known for his work on the musicals, “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Sweeney Todd,” “West Side Story,” and many more. 

Prince’s publicist confirmed to Variety the director died following a short illness in Reykjavik, Iceland. Andrew Lloyd Webber who is a legend himself on broadway shared a touching tribute to his friend on Instagram. The pair had worked together on the giant successes “Evita” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

Webber wrote alongside the photo of him and Prince saying,

“Farewell Hal, Not just the prince of musicals, the crowned head who directed two of the greatest productions of my career, Evita and Phantom. This wonderful man taught me so much and his mastery of musical theatre was without equal.”

apost.com

The multiple tony-winner got his start on broadway when he received a job working in the office of George Abbot a well-known theatre producer. From there he worked his way up to directing and producing his own musicals out of Abbot’s shadow. 

Prince went on to collect the most Tony awards out of any individual ever. For as many successes as Prince had there were downtimes in his career.

Stephen Sondheim a composer who worked with Prince on several musical and also wrote and lyricized music for hits like “West Side Story” and “Sweeney Todd,” talked about Prince’s work ethic in an interview with the New York Times.

“One quality Hal has is he refuses to accept defeat. When we opened ‘Funny Thing’ in Washington and it got scathing reviews, we played to 50 people in a 1,200-seat auditorium.”“Almost any other producer would have closed it. Hal was willing to go ahead and take a chance on it. It wasn’t even that he loved the show that much, but once he was there, it was his baby, and he fought for it.”

Prince leaves behind his wife Judy Chaplin and their two children. Sondheim also added about Prince’s character.

“If there’s a burning plane, I want Hal to be the pilot. He’s just great faced with difficulties, and he’s a terrific leader. I watched him after ‘Pacific Overtures’ had been massacred by critics. And he had to address the cast, give them courage, even though he was hurting just as much. I thought, ‘This is a captain!’”

Are you familiar with Prince's work? Let us know in the comments - and make sure you pass this along to your friends and family!