Hal Prince, Giant of Broadway and Tony Award Collector, Dies at 91
Source: New York Times
Hal Prince, the Broadway royal and prodigious Tony winner, the producer or director (or both) of many of the theater’s most enduring musicals, including “Damn Yankees,” “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “Sweeney Todd” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, died on Wednesday in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 91.
The death was confirmed by a spokesman.
Mr. Prince began working in the theater in the halcyon days of Broadway, when Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hammerstein were its songwriting kings, the stage musical was a robust American art form (not to mention an affordable entertainment option) and theater songs were staples of the airwaves.
His contributions were prolific and persisted through challenging eras — when rock ‘n’ roll threatened to make show music irrelevant, when the decline of Times Square discouraged Broadway attendance, when the arrival of popular British musicals like “Phantom” pushed aside their American counterparts and when corporations like Disney entered the Broadway sweepstakes and miniaturized the impact of the independent producer.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/31/theater/hal-prince-dead.html
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RIP
