Please note this production has been postponed indefinitely.
Celebrating the most influential and successful career in the American theater of the past 60 years, PRINCE OF BROADWAY will look at the circumstances and fortune, both good and bad, that led to Hal Prince creating some of the most enduring and beloved theater of all time, from 1954's The Pajama Game to The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history.
PRINCE OF BROADWAY will feature words and music from the shows that have earned Hal Prince a record 21 Tony Awards.
PRINCE OF BROADWAY will be directed by Mr. Prince with co-direction and choreography by Susan Stroman (The Producers, Contact, Crazy for You). David Thompson (The Scottsboro Boys, Chicago [adaptation]) is writing the book and Jason Robert Brown (The Last Five Years, Parade) is writing vocal and dance arrangements.
Though the music soars, the show's central figure remains a bit generic, a bit out of focus. We don't really see Prince - certainly not as we got to see Sondheim, through actual personal video footage, in the 2010 Broadway revue (and similar career retrospective) Sondheim on Sondheim. Instead, we see a mostly young cast, all looking very chic in black-and-white baseball costumes by William Ivey Long, delivering a number of well-meaning truisms about luck and heart. (The book, which weirdly feels both a little too slick and a little too earnest, is by David Thompson).
Fine. But what does this musical have to say? Now 89, Prince has had a storied career, but we don't get that story here. Beyond his penchant for unconventional material, there's little insight into Prince's craft or his vision. It's not easy to detect the director's history in what we're seeing, since the musical numbers-greatest hits from shows including West Side Story, Sweeney Todd, Company and Cabaret, plus a sprinkling of relative obscurities-feature new casts, new choreography (by codirector Susan Stroman) and new sets (by Beowulf Boritt, making budget-conscious nods to the originals). The songs wind up in an awkward space: divorced from the dramatic context that gave many of them their power, yet too tethered to their first incarnations to enjoy the interpretive mobility they might have in a straightforward concert or cabaret show.
2015 | International Tour |
World Premiere Production International Tour |
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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