Aug 28

Aug 28 Remembering Pacific Overtures

Composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, particularly when he was paired with director Harold Prince, moved and shaped musical through bold experiments that challenged audiences while unearthing new possibilities. The musicals that this duo together brought to the stage included Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Merrily We Roll Along. Each was innovative in its own way, redefining the Broadway musical as we knew it. There was one other show that they created during this decade (and change) which may have been the most challenging (for audiences), clever (by even Sondheim and Prince standards) and groundbreaking (for posterity) in terms of the possibilities it demonstrated. That musical was the short-lived 1976 Pacific Overtures, which would also employ book writer John Weidman as part of the collaboration.

Aug 4

Aug 4 Remembering Grind

Mark Robinson

Music That Makes Me Dance

An eagerly anticipated musical of the 1984-1985 Broadway season was Grind, set to be Harold Prince’s big project of the time, but ultimately part of a sequence of lulls in what was an otherwise prolific career of genius and artistry. Grind was an edgy musical that depicted the harsh divide between races in burlesque theatre of Chicago in the 1930s. With a book by Fay Kanin, and a score by Larry Grossman (music) and Ellen Fitzhugh (lyrics), Grind was an ambitious piece of musical theatre that had a hard time settling into what it wanted to be. Sometimes, it played like a broad comedy, sometimes it felt as though it was aiming for serious drama, and the show-within-a-show moments often left audiences feeling like they were watching a musical revue, even when those numbers were making commentary about what was happening onstage. Still, there was something special about Grind sometimes did work, and much of that came from just how daring it set out to be.

Oct 29

Oct 29 Remembering A Little Night Music

Mark Robinson

Music That Makes Me Dance

By 1973, the combination of composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim and director Harold Prince had revolutionized Broadway with two compelling musicals, both featuring non-linear storytelling and taking a brutally honest look at life, its trials and tribulations, and everything in-between. Those musicals were (of course) Company and Follies. For their next Broadway outing, Sondheim and Prince would venture into less groundbreaking territory structurally, but with no less artistry and impact.

Sep 14

Sep 14 Book Review: Harold Prince — Sense of Occasion

Mark Robinson

Music That Makes Me Dance

The new book Sense of Occasion by theatrical director and producer Harold Prince is a memoir wherein he explores his vast career in theatre starting with The Pajama Game and then brings us up to date with his plans for the future. It is a curious book. For the first half, it is a reprint of Prince’s 1974 biography Contradictions: Notes on Twenty-Six Years in the Theatre, with a page or two at the end of each chapter adding additional reflections and making new observations that only time and distance can make space for. The second half is a continuation of Prince’s story, walking us through all his productions post Candide (1974), giving most of the shows in that section the similar treatment of telling us how they came to fruition. More exciting than the fascinating history itself are Prince’s candid observations and assessments of his own work. He is his own worst critic, but he is also a conscientious man who takes his obligations to artists and audiences seriously.

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