Biography
Born Harold Smith Prince on 30 January 1928 in New York, USA, the veteran stage figure known as Hal Prince earned a lasting reputation as Broadway’s preeminent director-producer across many decades. He began his professional training during the late 1940s and early 1950s under the guidance of author-director-producer George Abbott. His initial venture as presenter came in 1954 when he mounted The Pajama Game alongside Robert E. Griffith and Frederick Brisson. That partnership with Griffith endured until the latter’s passing in 1961 and yielded a string of successes that included Damn Yankees, New Girl In Town, West Side Story, and the 1959 production Fiorello! Less favorable results followed with Tenderloin in 1960 and with Prince’s debut effort behind the director’s desk, A Family Affair, in 1962. Thereafter he assumed producing, co-producing, or directing duties—frequently in combination—on an extensive roster of musicals, among them 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). These credits stand apart from his repeated stagings of original productions abroad and from his separate engagements with the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Chicago Lyric Opera. Widely honored for his inventive staging choices, his skill at matching visual design to narrative drive, and his transformative work—especially alongside Stephen Sondheim—in redefining the contemporary musical, Prince has accumulated more Tony Awards than any other individual, one of which recognized his 1995 Broadway revival of Show Boat. Subsequent projects comprised a short-lived 1997 return to the 1974 edition of Candide and the 1998 mounting of Parade.