One of the last of the icons of the "Great White Way", Hal Prince has departed for Fabulon, at the ripe old age of 91.
In the pantheon of musical theatre history, there are many classics - The Pajama Game, Fiddler on the Roof, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, She Loves Me, Flora the Red Menace, Cabaret, Chicago, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Company, Pacific Overtures, Follies, Candide, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman - and Hal Prince was the man behind them all! He produced and/or directed more than sixty ground-breaking productions, winning 21 Tony Awards, more than any other individual.
Of his circle - Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents, George Abbott, Betty Comden, Adolph Green and the rest - only Mr Sondheim is still with us. However, it is Mr Prince to whom so many people owe a huge debt for their own success; Sondheim, Lloyd-Webber, Sheldon Harnick and Kander & Ebb among them. Let's raise a toast to a man truly deserving of the title "legend"...
RIP, Harold Smith Prince (30th January 1928 - 31st July 2019)
It is impossible to imagine what Broadway and the world of the musical theatre would be like with out Hal Prince
ReplyDeleteR.I.P.
A truly grate talent
He was one of those pivots around whom the lights of Broadway revolved... Jx
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