from Lucia

Hal Prince
Born Harold Smith Prince on January 30th, 1928, Hal Prince is now known as one of the most successful producers of the stage. To be completely honest, I am quite embarrassed that I don’t know who he is; but this is a strong way to find out more about him.
A native of New York, his father (a New York stockbroker) and his mother raised him in a “privileged, upper-middle lover-rich class, Jewish” home (Prince 1). His parents had the finds and the resources to take him to the theatre often and at an early age. He worked at a Smith-Corona portable till where he wrote four novels and four full-length plays. He went to the University of Pennsylvania for the liberal curriculum at the age of sixteen. He was not a drama major because it did not exist at the University, but he expresses in his autobiography that one does not “get much valuable, practical experience in college dramatic programs” (Prince 3). He excelled greatly and graduated with a
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B.A. in English at the age of nineteen in 1948. Upon graduation he moved to New York and “began his theatrical career as an apprentice and stage manager for the noted producer and director George Abbott” (Encyclopædia Britannica). He had sent around some plays he had written and got to the desk of the head of a big script department, then it was passed to George Abbott. George Abbott, a famous and successful producer (among other things), helped Prince get on his feet because of his huge influence in the theatre since 1913. At first, Prince helped out around the office doing “on spec” jobs and working on television shows (Prince 4).
Prince’s career began to really take off when he got involved with a musical about a strike at a pajama factory. The Pajama Game opened on May 13, 1954 in the St. James Theatre. “The budget was so tight that Prince and Griffith worked as their own stage managers” (Stewart 455). While The Pajama Game was still running, Prince got involved with the musical comedy Damn Yankees. Everyone was unsure about the success of the show because it had “no stars in the cast and two precarious themes (baseball and the Faust legend)”, but there was no problem with finding the money to fund it (Ilson 22). Damn Yankees opened on May 5, 1955 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for a “total of 1,019 performances” (Stewart 163). Next came New Girl in
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Town, which told the story of a prostitute quitting her job at a “brothel to come east to New York for a reunion with her father . . .” (Stewart 420). George Abbott was the director of this musical and the dark material paved the way for later Hal’s later projects: Sweeney Todd, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera. It opened on May 14, 1957 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran until May 24, 1958. Hal Prince’s good friend Stephen Sondheim wanted his help with his new modern day Romeo and Juliet musical West Side Story. It opened in the Winter Garden Theatre on August 26th, 1957 and ran for 732 performances. Prince finally got the chance to produce a straight play in 1958 when A Swim in the Sea opened in the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, Florida on April 28th. It never got to Broadway, but Prince believes that “investors should take failures in stride” (Prince 48). Fiorello! (11/23/59-10/28/61), Tenderloin (10/17/60-4/23/61), A Call on Kuprin (5/25/61-6/3/61) were the last three shows that Prince did with his partner Bobby Griffith because he died on June 7, 1961. He took some time off to go to Europe, but returned for the chance to direct A Family Affair (1/27/62-3/25/62). Among the hundreds of shows he has been involved with, his most well known are A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (5/8/62-8/29/64), Fiddler on the Roof (9/22/64-7/2/72), Cabaret (11/20/66-9/6/69), Company (4/26/70-1/1/72), Candide
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(12/1/56-2/2/57), Evita (9/25/79-6/25/83), Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (3/1/79-2/6/79), The Phantom of the Opera (1/2/88-present *the longest running Broadway show), Showboat (4/24/83-6/26/83), and Parade (12/17/98-2/28/99). Luckily, Hal Prince’s career is not yet over and continues to thrive on the stage.