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Looking Back at PRINCE OF BROADWAY's Opening Night
May 17, 2024
As the theatre community mourns the loss of the legendary producer and director Harold Prince, we're looking back at the opening night of Manhattan Theatre Club's Broadway production of Prince of Broadway, which celebrated his career spanning seven decades. Check out the video to see Hal alongside the show's stars Tony Yazbeck, Brandon Uranowitz, Emily Skinner, Chuck Cooper, and more on the special night.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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One of the most eagerly awaited new shows of the fall season is Prince of Broadway from Manhattan Theater Club
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The musical celebrates the legendary career of producer-director Harold Prince and features musical numbers from some of his iconic musicals such as West Side Story, Cabaret, and Aveda
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And we are here on opening night to celebrate with the company. Getting to opening night is
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getting to opening night is
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like the end of the marathon. You know, you're in rehearsals and doing it in the day and you're the show at night
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You just, you know, the tech, the la, la, la, la. It's really, it's odd because it's really when you're your most tired is opening night
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And so most of us are feeling very relieved and happy and grateful
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What have you enjoyed the most so far about working on Prince of Broadway
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Um, first I'd have to say it would be the caliber of artists that I'm working with
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They're all, I mean, it's an A team. They're all at the top of their game. And everybody raises the bar and floats all the boats
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And it's just incredible in that respect. I just am so grateful
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I'm so grateful. This has been a long, this hasn't even been long for me
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They've been working for five and a half years. I've been with a show for two, and I'm so grateful
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that we're finally in New York City, and we're here, and I get to perform for my friends and my peers
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It feels wonderful. And this cast is incredible. So being in the rehearsal room with Hal Prince, Susan Stroman
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and Jason Robert Brown, what was that like? Well, for the first, oh, I don't know, run of Japan
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it was like I was continually pinching myself. Because these are people that you read about you written reports on you watched rise to the top and then all of a sudden you in a room with them and they telling you
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I remember Stro gave me the moves for Can't Help Loving that man and I thought
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oh my God, Susan Stroman is telling me how to dance. Does she know that I'm not a dancer? I'm a singer-actress
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But it worked out fabulous and she's so positive and reassuring that I feel confident now
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But it's been, it's just been a dream. It's just been a dream
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I can't believe it's happening. It's one of those out-of-body experiences where you're sitting there and you're looking around and trying to take it all in
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And you just can't believe that you're sitting in the room with these people at this time
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And I couldn't be more grateful. I mean, it's a fantastic, fantastic feeling
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You get to play all these iconic roles. Do you have a favorite? I love Maria
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I love playing Maria. But all of them are fantastic, and I love being on stage with Brianna in Showboat
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It's so much fun. It's so much fun to do. And as someone who does theater, I don't think you can ask for anything more than something that's fun to do
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What was it like being in the room with Hal Prince? I mean, we were all brought up on these iconic, these albums
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I mean, you're working with the masters, like a master class, I'm sure, right? Yes
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I mean, it's just, there really are no words to describe. that kind of moment in your career as an actor
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He is the reason all of us are standing here right now
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Whether you are conscious of it or not, his impact on the art form is undeniable
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And to be in a room with him is just, you know
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every single day is a pinch me day. What was it like being in the room with Hal Prince and Susan Strzman
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you spent most of your time pinching yourself. I mean, what a team
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What a team. And Jason Robert Brown as well. You know, it's just the three of them working together
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We managed to get a great photo from rehearsals, actually, the three of them, you know, kind of laughing together
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And that for me was just such a great moment. I thought, this is, this is so unique
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How often would you get the opportunity to work with three greats? And, you know, I mean, to work with Hal Prince
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I mean, 21 Tony Awards. and a lifetime of incredible work You know nearly seven decades in the industry It remarkable What have you enjoyed the most about working on Prince of Broadway
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Well, working with Hal and with Susan Stroman. Both of them have just been so wonderful and collaborative
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And this cast is all so really just phenomenal. And we get along so great
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So it's just all really been a dream. What was it like being in the rehearsal room with Hal, with Susan, and Jason Robert Brown
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Yeah, a little overwhelming at times. And slightly nerve-wrecking at the beginning
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but once we all became familiar with each other, things just very easily went into place
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Do you have a favorite moment that you do in the show, or the favorite moment that you learned? Yes, the Spider-Woman
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Spider-Woman, hands down. It just feels the most overly theatrical to me
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and I just love performing it. All right, so working on, like, Mrs. Lovett with Hal
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which I thought you were flawless. What was it like being directed by him during that process
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Well, Hal really liked what I was doing with Mrs. Lovett, my own choices
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And it keeps evolving because I become more comfortable making the pies, big the dough
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using the knives, using the pin, the brewing pin. It's a lot of props and things
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The flour, so I just have to work on that myself and get more deft at it
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But Susan Stroman was the one who said, you're going to do this, you're going to do this here
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you're going to do that here, and then you're going to turn your... She was specific about what she wanted, and that's what Hal wanted
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And that's what Hal wanted to, because it was more like the original, what he and Angela created and he always loved that
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And so now it's me channeling her, but also then bringing my own self into it
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and doing it with Chuck Cooper. So it's all of us doing it together
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And that's what theater is about. It's about, you know, following in somebody's footsteps
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and yet not totally feeling them just like joining them and being part of this incredible history
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We've been tweaking so much in performance and in the preview period
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I think everybody's quite relieved that it's open and the show is set, and now we can just do the show and enjoy it for audiences
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and continue to have the experience, you know? Take me back to the room because you're in the rehearsal room with Hal Prince
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We were all brought up on the shows through cast albums or whatever, and you're working with the master himself
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What is it like? It's wonderful. He tells a lot of stories
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He tells a lot of stories about what it was like, work on these shows originally which is you know of course we were sitting there like you know and he got the best stories man He coming out with a new book I have the book I already read it
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Oh, yeah, I read it. I read a chapter, a day to save her. And all the pictures
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Oh, it's so good. It's so good. But, yeah, it's just thrilling
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I could sit and listen to him tell stories on an endless loop forever
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Howe always has an incredible story every single day. He'll stop rehearsal and just tell you something, and you're like, oh, my God
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I'm witnessing something and I'm witnessing I'm feeling part of history. But even deeper than that, when we work on something like, let's say, like the right girl
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you know, we went in the room with sort of a blank slate
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And I am so appreciative to Susan Stroman, who I adore and will work with forever
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And Jason Robert Brown and how the four of us got in the room with that number and said
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let's do something together. Let's create this. Let's give an ode to Michael Bennett and say
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say, this is what he wanted. Now let's do our version of it. And I really appreciated that process
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Hal, it is opening night. How do you feel tonight? Great. Why not? They loved us, and it was a very
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good performance. So I'm happy. What have you enjoyed about the entire process of working on this
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with Stroh and Tommy Thompson? Every minute of it. It's always been fun. It really has been fun
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from the first day, and we've been at it for five years
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And this incredible cast you have put together. Talk about your performers
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The nine most talented people I've ever worked with. How did you decide to wheedled down to the 16 you did
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You have given us so many iconic musicals. How did you come up with what you had
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Was it difficult? Yeah, it was difficult, but you picked favorites of the audience
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and then favorites of your own, that the audience may not even know
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So it's a mix. So just my final question is, when you took your bow tonight on stage
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with this incredible company, how did you feel and what were you thinking? I was thinking I need a meal
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because I'm feeling very weak
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