In alphabetical order the five Great Performances shows available are:

Harold Prince: The Director’s Life

Lonny Price, who appeared in Merrily We Roll Along, directed this documentary which is a look at the man who directed and produced that show, Harold Prince.

Prince, who passed away last July, had an unparalleled career that included such Broadway shows as The Pajama Game, West Side Story, Cabaret and many Sondheim musicals including Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. In some cases he produced the shows; in others he directed them and in still others he both produced and directed the shows.

Amongst those making an appearance in this documentary are Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Andrew Lloyd Webber (Prince directed Phantom of the Opera), Mandy Patinkin, composer John Kander and Prince himself.

Harold Prince: The Director’s Life runs approximately 83 minutes.

Much Ado About Nothing

We’ve previously written about this production of Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon, this production comes from The Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park series. The show was part of the 2019 season.

Danielle Brooks (Clemency) and Grantham Coleman (The Americans) star as battling lovers Beatrice and Benedick. It is an all-Black cast playing the characters as Black characters. Leon has put together a very contemporary and timely (in the #MeToo era) production that earned rave reviews.

Much Ado About Nothing runs approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes

Noël Coward’s Present Laughter

Kevin Kline won the 2017 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance as Garry Essendine in Noël Coward’s uproarious comedy. Joining him in this production are Kate Burton (The Constant Wife), Kristine Nielsen (Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) and Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother).

Present Laughter first appeared on Broadway in 1946 and has proven quite attractive to actors who love farce.

Essendine is a well-known British staged actor whose adoring fans are ravenous. So are the people in his life including a woman with stars in her eyes, his ex-wife, an up ‘n’ coming playwright, Essendine’s friend’s wife, a secretary and others who all surround him as he nears his 40th birthday and a trip to Africa.

This is perfect material for Kline and for those seeking humor this is a must-see.

Present Laughter runs approximately 2 hours and 14 minutes.

Red

When John Logan’s play about artist Mark Rothko first appeared in London at the Donmar Warehouse in 2009, it was inevitable that the play would transfer to Broadway. It did in 2010 with original cast members Alfred Molina as Rothko and Eddie Redmayne as a fictional assistant.

Red was nominated for 7 Tony Awards and won six of them including Best Play for Logan. He was the creator of Showtime’s Penny Dreadful.

Logan’s play takes place as Rothko has the commission to create the murals for the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. It’s a tight play that gives both actors great parts. I saw the show with Molina at the Mark Taper Forum in 2012 with Jonathan Groff as his assistant. It’s a terrific play.

This filmed version of the play features Molina with Alfred Enoch as his assistant.

Red runs approximately 93 minutes.

Sound of Music

Just as the United States has done live television versions of musicals, so has the UK. This production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s beloved musical dates to 2015. Starring as Maria is Kara Tointon (The Man in the White Suite) and Captain Von Trapp is played by Julian Ovenden (Sunday in the Park with George and Downton Abbey).

This production went out live, was sung live and took place all on a soundstage. If you don’t know the story of the Von Trapp Family and how they escaped the rise of the Nazi’s, let me just say it’s more complicated than Do-Re-Mi.

Sound of Music runs approximately 2 hours

Main photo: Alfred Molina and Alfred Enoch in “Red” (Photo by Johan Persson/Courtesy of PBS)

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Hal Prince passed away today in Iceland a the age of 91. His last show on Broadway was The Prince of Broadway, a show that celebrated his legendary career. It only ran for 76 performances, but gave audiences a look into the career of a man who made the theatre his home.

Prince collaborated with everybody. That’s no exaggeration. Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Kander & Ebb, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerome Robbins, Cy Coleman, Tim Rice, Terrence McNally, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Jason Robert Brown and perhaps most famously, Stephen Sondheim.

Prince was the producer of West Side Story and A Funny Thing Happened… before adding director for Sondheim’s shows from Company through to Merrily We Roll Along. He also produced all those shows along the way with the exception of Sweeney Todd.

Simply put, Hal Prince was theatre royalty. And he kept working. His philosophy was always keep an eye on the future . He once said, “I don’t look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That’s really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.”

I never met Hal Prince. I saw many of his shows. As readers might know, when I saw Sweeney Todd it was like finding religion. I did, however, sit next time him once at a performance of David Mamet’s The Old Neighborhood in 1997. He wasn’t involved in the show. I assumed he was there to support Patti LuPone who played Evita.

The play was not particularly memorable. In fact, I remember finding it dull and uninspired. I don’t know what Prince thought of the play. I do firmly recall that when the cast came out for a third curtain call he said to his guest, “Oh Christ, they are coming out again!!!!” That made the entire evening for me.

Hal Prince, for better or for worse, gave us musicals as events. As spectacles. Some of them much better than others. What sets him apart from most producers today in the theatre is that he actually was passionate about it for artistic reasons, not just financial. He was a creature of the theatre. The likes of him are unlikely to be seen ever again.

“I always had a good time in theatre, even when shows don’t turn out as well as I’d like.” – Harold Prince

So did we, sir. So did we. Thank you..

Photo of Harold Prince during a rehearsal of Merrily We Roll Along by Martha Swope/Courtesy of New York Public Library Archives.

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