‘A true champion of American theater’
Hal Prince, who racked up more than 20 Tony Awards over a legendary 50year Broadway career, died Wednesday after a brief illness in Iceland, his publicist said. He was 91. Prince, born and raised in Manhattan, was the director behind iconic Broadway hits including “West Side Story” (1958), “Cabaret” (1966), “Company” (1970), “Evita” (1979) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1988).
Throughout a career that began with a job as an assistant stage manager after two years in the Army during the Korean War, Prince won 21 Tony Awards, more than any other individual, including best musical for “The Pajama Game” in 1954, “Damn Yankees” in 1955 and “Fiddler on the Roof ” in 1965.
Prince’s “Fiddler,” which he produced alongside director Jerome Robbins and star Zero Mostel, was, for a time, the longestrunning show in Broadway history with more than 3,000 performances between 1964 and 1972.
“I became a producer because fate took me there, and I was delighted,” Prince wrote in his 1974 memoir. “I used producing to become what I wanted to be, a director. (Ultimately, I hired myself, which is more than anyone else would do.)”
Along with his own work, Prince also lined up a list of collaborators on various projects that included Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
“Not just the prince of musicals, the crowned head who directed two of the greatest productions of my career, Evita and Phantom,” Lloyd Webber said in a statement. “This wonderful man taught me so much and his mastery of musical theatre was without equal.”
Tony Award winner Chuck Cooper, who worked with Prince on his final Broadway production, the 2017 musical career retrospective “Prince of Broadway,” told the Daily News: “I don’t know if it was his insightful intuition, his thoughtful wisdom, his uncanny luck or some powerful combination of all of these that made his choices sparkle with relevance and audiencepleasing brilliance.”
He added Wednesday: “He’s given the American musical theater some of its brightest jewels. I doubt if there will ever be another theater artist who will create such a colossal and enduring legacy.”
In 2006, Prince was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Tony Awards for his contribution to the stage.
Prince is survived by his wife, Judy, and two children, Daisy and Charles.
“RIP our dear Hal Prince,” Kristin Chenoweth tweeted. “You inspired. You will ALWAYS inspire.”
“I am saddened beyond words,” wrote Chita Rivera. “There are some people you feel we will never be without. Hal is one of them. I owe so much to him. He knows my love for him.”
“Hal, you taught me so much,” Tony Award winner Tony Yazbeck tweeted. “You inspired and encouraged me on a daily basis. Thank you for showing me what a real leader can be like. So kind, so gracious, and a real visionary for the theatre. Your heart was seen in everything you created and imagined. I will miss you greatly!”
“One of the giants of Broadway and a deeply kind and inspiring human being,” tweeted actor Tony Goldwyn.
“Another hero moves on and I can only imagine the welcome he’s getting in heaven,” wrote producer Neil Meron. “It’s the greatest theatrical legacy of all time that will never be matched.”
“We will always remember Hal Prince, a true champion of the American Theatre,” the American Theatre Wing said in a statement.
“He was a brilliant, generous soul & he changed my life (and so many lives) with his genius,” wrote performer Donna Lynne Champlin. “He will live forever in our lives and deeply in my heart.”