In this fast-moving candid conversational and entertaining memoir Harold Prince the most honored director/producer in the history of the American theater looks back over his seventy-year (and counting!) career.TH In 1974 Prince released his first book EContradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the TheatreE. Although EContradictionsE has since attained cult status among producers directors and actors alike Prince in hindsight believes he wasn't ready to publish such a tome at that point in his career (in fact doing so was an act of insane arrogance ). Although he doesn't regret that effort he is at last prepared to conclude it to see where I was right in my assessments and where I was wrong. In ESense of OccasionE Prince returns to this seminal text invigorating it with fresh insights cultivated through four decades of additional practice.THESense of OccasionE gives an insider's recollection of the making of such landmark musicals as EWest Side StoryE EFiddler on the RoofE ECabaretE ECompanyE EFolliesE ESweeney ToddE EEvitaE and EPhantom of the OperaE with Prince's perceptive comments about his mentor George Abbott and his many celebrated collaborators including Leonard Bernstein Jerome Robbins Stephen Sondheim John Kander Boris Aronson Andrew Lloyd Webber Angela Lansbury Zero Mostel Carol Burnett and Joel Grey. As well as detailing his titanic successes that changed the form and content of the American musical theater Prince evenhandedly reflects on the shows that didn't work most memorably and painfully EMerrily We Roll AlongE. Throughout he offers insights into the way business is conducted on Broadway drawing sharp contrasts between past and present. This thoughtful complete account of one of the most legendary and long-lived careers in theater history written by the man who lived it is an essential work of personal and professional recollection.

About the Author
HAROLD PRINCE (New York City) directed the original productions of She Loves Me, It s a Bird ... Superman, Cabaret, Zorba, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, On the Twentieth Century, Sweeney Todd, Evita, Merrily We Roll Along, The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Parade, and LoveMusik. He has also directed acclaimed revivals of Candide and Show Boat. Before becoming a director, Mr. Prince produced the original productions of The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, New Girl in Town, West Side Story, Fiorello!, Tenderloin, Flora the Red Menace, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Fiddler on the Roof. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory, and his own play, Grandchild of Kings. His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. His most recent version of Candide was seen at New York City Opera in January 2017. In 2006, he prepared a new version of Phantom that ran in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel for six years. Prince of Broadway, a musical compendium of Mr. Prince s entire career, will open on Broadway in August 2017. Mr. Prince is a trustee for the New York Public Library and previously served on the National Council on the Arts for the NEA. Mr. Prince is an officier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, given to him by the French government in 2008. He is the recipient of 21 Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor, the Eugene O Neill Theatre Center s Monte Cristo Award, and a National Medal of the Arts from President Clinton for a career in which he changed the nature of the American musical.


Book Information
ISBN 9781495013027
Author Harold Prince
Format Hardback
Page Count 358
Imprint Applause Theatre Book Publishers
Publisher Hal Leonard Corporation
Weight(grams) 762g
Dimensions(mm) 236mm * 161mm * 28mm