In recent headlines:
An Evening with Hal Prince set for September 15. Seeing this reminded me of the dream I once had as a kid to work with
Hal Prince. It all started with my obsession with the musical,
Annie.
Growing up, I was the biggest fan of
Annie -- in my usual way, I became obsessed with everything that the show was. I wore a red dress with black patent leather shoes, had the orange wig and belted out every
Annie song to anyone who would listen (and even to those who wouldn't). In addition, I also had 2-3
Annie dolls, a plush Sandy (the dog), sheet music, an official program and went through a good 4 or so cassette tapes (until the show came out on CD). Yes, as you would expect, I thoroughly ran that one into the ground. As a matter of fact, it took
years before I could even think about listening to the show again.
I went through a hiatus of sorts during the jr. high years when it came to musical theatre.
Annie had run it's course in my life and I wasn't so keen on anything else...until high school when my mom got a hold of
The Premiere Collection: The Best Of Andrew Lloyd Webber and
she became obsessed with
The Phantom of the Opera. Naturally, when the show came to
LA, guess who went...a LOT? I think my family saw the show a good 6-7 times during it's 6 year (?) run in
LA (obviously, the pure fact that I seem to have any kind of "obsession" is hereditary). After around my 2nd or 3rd time, I began to really notice the cast and production credits. Naturally, I became
the biggest
Davis Gaines fan (he has performed the title role in
POTO a good 2,000+ times in his career) but that story is too long and rather embarrassing. In addition to
Davis Gaines, I also became aquainted with
Hal Prince's body of work during my
The Phantom of the Opera phase
. Naturally, I became as crazy about
The Phantom of the Opera as I was with
Annie back in the heyday. In my quest to truly find out everything I could, I realized that
Hal Prince was the director/producer behind some of my favorite shows like
Cabaret,
A Little Night Music and
Evita. I was only beginning to understand the scope of this man's work. The more I read, the more I saw, the more I realized that
Hal Prince was it. He was involved in some way with almost every major musical in the last 50 years.
Hal Prince began his career working with the legendary
George Abbott as an assistant stage manager. Since then, he has won 20
Tony Awards and was a 1994
Kennedy Center Honors Inductee. He has worked with (amongst others) both
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and
Stephen Sondheim -- two of the most revered composers of musical theatre in the last 30 or so years. In high school, it was because of these three men that I rediscovered my love of musical theatre.
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the simple, melodic, typical Broadway shows whereas
Stephen Sondheim wrote for the more intellectually minded theatre crowd whose songs were complex and poetic in their own way. It was
Hal Prince though who really understood how to direct those shows.
Sadly, the reality is, I probably won't ever get to work with
Hal Prince (which is fine). He's getting older and hasn't been working nearly as much (most recently worked with
Sondheim in his newest production:
Bounce which sadly...didn't...it flopped). In high school, my parents urged me to get cracking if I really wanted to fulfill my dream of someday working with
Hal Prince. I should have listened...hahaha, look at where I am now -- no where
near Hal Prince!
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