Hal Prince Lives

Theatre Director Harold Prince rarely appears in my blog, though his most frequent musical collaborator Stephen Sondheim gets a whole page, my curated list of reflections on Sondheim's shows, music, and lyrics. But Prince's presence is pervasive in how I think of theatre, whether I mention him specifically or not.

Harold Prince brought texture to theatre, a rich layering of metaphor with story, character, song, and design. He pushed his collaborators to give live stage shows the fluid transitions of film. See still photos of any Prince show, not just Sondheim, but Evita and Phantom, and you'll see how striking visuals reflect the content of the story. While he died this week at age 91, he lives on in the work of theatre professionals who now take those qualities for granted.

[Photos: In Follies, we see the show's theme of reflection in a song about mirrors, the singer in the foreground doubled by a "ghost" of her younger self in the background; a favorite scene transition from Phantom; Prince with collaborators Andrew Lloyd Webber above, Stephen Sondheim below.]

Sondheim writes in his memoir that he was the "romantic" of the two, while Prince was an "ironist." The clash made their collaboration strong, inventive, but also, he acknowledges, "cold." The audience often felt they were observing from a "distant" vantage point. (Finishing the Hat, 165-166). He adds that there seems to have been a "thaw," as perhaps time has opened audiences up to what Prince was doing.

Read more in this blog for demonstrations of Prince's ideas in his work:

• Every Minor Detail is a Major Decision (07/19/2016) is my blogpost about Everything was Possible and an early edition of Sondheim & Company, books that go behind - the - scenes for an in - depth look, respectively, at the creation of Follies, and at all the Prince - Sondheim collaborations of the 1970s. Prince made sure that every member of a show's creative team made every choice in support of a unified vision for the show.
  
• Learning from Harold Prince: A Director's Journey (07/19/2014) is what I gleaned from Carol Ilson's study of the director's career. Prince's use of a controlling metaphor on each show is explained here, along with others' appreciation for his enthusiasm and even his ability to "wing it" when he worked.
  
• Joy of Pacific Overtures (05/11/2017) studies how Prince's ideas brought out beauty and joy in a Broadway musical improbably focused on the industrialization of Japan.
  
• Prince with other collaborators.
  • Cabaret had book by Joe Masteroff, score by John Kander and Fred Ebb, but the look, feel, and shape of the show is all Hal Prince, to this day. I responded to a local production in "Cabaret Still Fresh" (06/22/09).
  • Parade was Prince's collaboration with book writer Alfred Uhry and composer / lyricist Jason Roberts Brown, concerning the notorious lynching of Leo Frank. I responded to a disgruntled audience member with my blogpost, "So You Want Theatre to be Uplifting?" (08/04/2008)
• Failure (12/26/2017) concerns the crash of high expectations for the Prince - Sondheim - Furth collaboration Merrily We Roll Along. Cast member Lonny Price directed a moving documentary, The Best Worst Thing That Ever Happened, which I wrote about at Christmastime in "A Merrily Little Christmas." The show, about the crumbling friendship of two musical collaborators, led to the crumbling friendship of its musical collaborators. The documentary does reach a happy ending for us, for Sondheim, and a visibly moved and gratified Prince.