Harold Prince Quotes
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I was there when the quote-unquote golden age of musical theater was flourishing. I met everybody who worked in theater or was famous in theater from the '40s on.
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Collaboration is just, really, a group of people getting in a room with their eye on a very similar prize and wanting to come out with the same show. The director, ultimately, is the guy in front of whom the buck stops. So, he has to have the courage to prevail. But, he has got to have a huge amount of respect for his collaborators.
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The idea is to work and to experiment. Some things will be creatively successful, some things will succeed at the box office, and some things will only - which is the biggest only - teach you things that see the future. And they're probably as valuable as any of your successes.
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I don't compare shows. It's very simple. I don't live in the past. If there's any secret to my longevity, it's living in the future. And a little bit in the present.
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'Showboat' is the quintessential family show.
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You can't just keep recycling revivals. And you can't keep betting on the efforts of guys like me who've been around. You have to take the next step and bet on the next generation.
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I didn't go into the theater to be a producer, I went into the theater to be a director.
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Producing should be a creative responsibility.
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The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form.
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I remember when people actually wore coats and ties to theatre every night. They don't anymore. It's very different.
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Throwing money at something doesn't really create - forgive me that onerous word - art.
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A star may guarantee business, but the tradeoff is a very short run.
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Artistic self-indulgence is the mark of an amateur. The temptation to make scenes, to appear late, to call in sick, not to meet deadlines, not to be organized, is at heart a sign of your own insecurity and at worst the sign of an amateur.
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One thing is certain: We can't go back. The musical will never be the same as it was.
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I like to do everything you can possibly do before you go into rehearsal, because once we are in rehearsal or on the stage there will be a problem I didn't anticipate. It's really good to think we got it all nailed - of course you've never got it all nailed.
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You do a show to be a hit and hopefully run a couple of years.
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I was nine. I saw Orson Welles in 'Julius Caesar.' It was involving, emotional, imaginative. I've never forgotten it.
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I really wish people - maybe it's naive - wish people had priorities and were willing to be artistic patrons.
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I'm always glad to see somebody rethink something rather than reproduce something I did.
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The perfect expression of receiving a lifetime award is to be working when they're handing it out.
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Audiences are quite happy to be astonished, and they don't care who does that astonishing.
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I don't like abrasion while I'm working. I don't thrive on chaos. I enjoy what I'm doing, and it seems to work better when I am enjoying it.
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You could argue that 'Sweeney Todd' was romantic, if you looked closely at it, but it didn't impart that to its audiences. But it's large, and it's melodramatic, and it's a style I like to work in periodically.
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I wouldn't want to be just pigeonholed as an extravagant director.