Harold Prince, whose work defined much of what appeared on Broadway throughout the late-20th century, has died at 91. He had experienced a brief illness, according to a statement from his representatives, and died this morning in Reykjavik, Iceland. He is survived by his wife, Judy; his daughter, Daisy; and his grandchildren, Phoebe, Lucy, and Felix.
Prince started his career as an assistant stage manager on Tickets, Please! and Call Me Madam, climbing to co-producer on a range of musicals from The Pajama Game to West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, and eventually transitioning to directing shows like She Loves Me and Cabaret. Prince had a fruitful collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, directing most of his works throughout the 1970s, including Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, and Sweeney Todd, though they split with the flop of Merrily We Roll Along in 1981 (they eventually reunited on Bounce in 2003). Prince also collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, directing productions like 1979’s Evita and 1986’s Phantom of the Opera. His work pushed the American musical, specifically, to new heights of both spectacle and interior drama.
Prince won a total of 21 Tony Awards over the course of his career, the most of any individual across multiple categories, and in 2017, his work was celebrated in the Broadway production Prince of Broadway. According to Prince’s representatives, there will be no funeral, but there will be a “celebration of his life this fall with the people he loved most, the members of the theatrical community that he was a part of for seven decades.â€