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Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue — Page 2

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#28

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

Prince is a legend but he was a Producer and Director, how do you re-create that?
Fosse and Robbins had dances that could be done as before, if you do a Porter or Sondheim revue, you sing the songs. But how do you do Directing on stage?
#32

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

Sort of sad to see all the greats reduced to Side by Side by Sondheim outings these days. Wish that all the Prince/ Stroman creative juices and producer money were focused on the creation of a brilliant NEW show instead.

Saw the Jerome Robbins fest in 1990 and yes, that night provided glorious chances for many of us to enjoy recreations of brilliant choreography from shows we were too young to see. But staging a series of perfect dance sequences is a very different animal than showing selections of Prince's direction: how do you convey a show's concept or character nuance in a concert format? Will they be rebuilding the great sets of Aronson, Eckhart and Lee to stage these scenes in?

What I wouldn't give to have Prince/Stroman put Kander and Ebb's The Visit on Broadway instead. (Prince's staging of the play back in 1974 was electrifying.)
#35

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

While I loved Fosse simply because it gave me a chance to see many of my fave numbers (and many I didn't know) live, I agree that the staging should have had either some narration or lighted titles (yes they were in the program, but especially for some of the numbers that were a mix of things, it was a bit hard to figure out).

As others mentioned Jerome Robbins' Broadway also largely (And expensively) recreate the original designs. This would make even more sense in a Prince show--and I have zero hope they would ever do that, or could even afford to recreate a couple...
#36

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

More info came out today on the Broadway-bound revue "Prince of Broadway":

http://www.toronto.com/article/701332--new-hal-prince-musical-sparks-dancap-season

------------
"Prince has always been known as a man for whom theme comes before all else, so we asked him what he thought the message of this show would be.

“It culls from almost sixty years of working in the musical theatre and in particular, it addresses luck as a factor in anyone’s career.”

The veteran showman soft-shoed around the issue as to whether or not a specific actor would portray him (Jason Alexander, anyone?), but he would reveal that “I will be represented onstage using a variety of techniques, not just film.”

Perhaps the most delicious thing about the show is that it will include music from all of Prince’s major shows, which means that it will be the first stage show ever to feature songs by both Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber on the same stage at the same time.

Besides his numerous successes, Prince has also been the force behind shows that featured memorable material, even though they weren’t hits themselves, like A Doll’s Life and Parade.

“When we put together a list of all the songs from all the shows I produced,” he laughs, “it came to 55 single-spaced typed pages. We’ve chosen from the hits as well as the flops, but every song is a good one.” "

Updated On: 10/17/11 at 01:45 PM

#38

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

Am I the only one who thought JEROME ROBBINS' BROADWAY was like the best high school production EVER!?

I really don't understand the point of retrospectives of director's work, much less a retrospective of a director/producer's work. Such Frankenstein's monsters don't have the automatic unity of a songwriter's retrospective (and even the latter should be done sparingly).
#39

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

The veteran showman soft-shoed around the issue as to whether or not a specific actor would portray him (Jason Alexander, anyone?), but he would reveal that “I will be represented onstage using a variety of techniques, not just film.”

...so it's Hal Prince in the vein of SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM. Got it.

Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

Updated On: 10/17/11 at 05:30 PM

#42

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

Sorry if this has already been mentioned and I somehow missed it, but an acquaintance told me that there seemed to be a decent chance that The Prince of Broadway would include one or more NEW Sondheim songs, and that Sondheim might be playing a bit of a collaborative role in some aspects of the production.

My internet searches haven't come up with anything in this regard, and I was just curious if anyone here had heard/read anything similar.
#43

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

The thing that seems so misguided about this is that it's a revue honoring Hal Prince but featuring none of his work on stage. It merely features numbers from shows he worked on. A "living resume" that isn't representational at all. Unless they are recreating the physical productions that he produced or his direction ... this doesn't make any sense to me.

"Here's a scaled-down, re-imagined number from a show I did 40 years ago! Yes, I did the original, but this isn't it! Hope you enjoy it!"

With Fosse and Robbins they recreated their staging. With Prince, what exactly are they recreating, except the titles of the shows? With new direction and choreography by Stroman?

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 11/5/11 at 09:27 AM

#44

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

That'swhat bugs me too--and if we are getting recreations of the original staging, wouldn't this be insanely expensive?

I get the complaints about Jerome Robbins' Broadway and Fosse but they DID allow us to see again some really incredible numbers, some, in both both shows, that have been little or completely un seen for a good while (which is why I wish the brief plan to film Jerome Robbins for TV had happened). As I've said in other posts, I do think Prince deserves a ton of credit for the shows he did--often times for their creation, but... I don't get how this will represent his genius on that level. And already I see it turning into some weird revue with a medley mixing the love songs of Phantom/Follies and Roza etc. Oy.
#45

Harold Prince & Susan Stroman to Direct THE PRINCE OF BROADWAY Revue

So we now know it'll have a cast of twelve, and David Thompson is doing the book? hrmm... (Interesting Jerome Sirlin, who I think Prince only worked on with Spider Woman is doing the designs, which I guess means a lot of spectacular projections... )

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