Who

A towering figure on the theater scene, Hal Prince has spent the last four decades producing and directing some of the biggest shows on Broadway, including Sweeney Todd, Evita, and Phantom of the Opera.

Backstory

Born in New York to a self-described "privileged, upper-middle, lower-rich class Jewish" family, Prince began his career as an apprentice for producer/director/screenwriter George Abbott, who directed the original Broadway run of shows like Chicago and Damn Yankees. When he was 26, Prince co-produced his first show, the original 1955 run of The Pajama Game; the hit earned him a Tony Award. Credited with creating the "concept musical," Prince established his directing career in 1966 with Cabaret, and went on to helm some of the most notable Broadway shows of the 20th century like Company, Sweeney Todd (the original 1979 production), Evita and Kiss of the Spider Woman. Prince's collaborations with both Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Weber have proven especially fruitful: His production of Weber's Phantom of the Opera (which debuted in 1988) is now the longest running show on Broadway.

Of note

Nothing short of Broadway royalty, Prince has been the leading musical theater director for decades. During his lengthy career, he's racked up 21 Tonys, the most ever won by one person. Now in his ninth decade, he's somewhat settled into an eminence gris role, but he hasn't thrown in the towel altogether. In 2002 he directed the play Hollywood Arms, which Carroll Burnett and her late daughter Carrie Hamilton had adapted from Burnett's 1986 autobiography One More Time. His latest show, LoveMusik, based on the letters between German composer Kurt Weill and his wife Lotte Lenya, had a limited-run engagement at the Biltmore Theater in early 2007; a torn Ben Brantley called it "sluggish, tedious, and (hold your breath) unmissable."

Personal

He and his wife, Judy Prince, have two children, director Daisy Prince Chaplain and conductor Charles Prince. Hal and Judy reside at the exceedingly luxe 834 Fifth Avenue, where they share the elevators with the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Woody Johnson, John Gutfreund, and Carroll Petrie. (Previous occupants of their sprawling apartment include Mary Lou Whitney, Charlotte Ford, and Elizabeth Arden.) In 2006, a property Hal co-owned with his daughter—a 7-bedroom, five-story townhouse on East 64th Street—went on the market with Barbara Fox for $10 million.

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