I really like reaching out and seeing the audience – they’re potential audiences! And on occasion I can make them excited about going to the theater again, if they’ve ceased or gone less. – Harold Prince
There have always been revivals. Some have always been successful. And many of them have failed. – Harold Prince
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. – Harold Prince
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. – Harold Prince
I feel so much more comfortable when I’m working on material which makes other people scratch their heads and ask, ‘You’re going to make a musical out of that?’ – Harold Prince
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. – Harold Prince
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. – Harold Prince
Audiences are very willing to be taken somewhere, and to ask an audience beforehand what it wants is probably, I think, a mistake. Much better you should tell them what you want and hope they agree with it. – Harold Prince
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. – Harold Prince
Lyrics can’t do what they do – or should do – when you’re creating a musical with rock lyrics. There’s plenty of room for rock musicals, just not all rock musicals. – Harold Prince
The truth of the matter is that I have lasted a long time, and with it comes both good and bad things. One of the good things is that no one can ever take my career away from me. No one can ever say, ‘You can’t be in the theater any more.’ – Harold Prince
There’s no lack of talent out there. I suspect there is a lack of creative guidance, and that would not be solely the responsibility of a director but also a producer. – Harold Prince
I suppose a certain degree of adulthood has entered my life. Aiming for Broadway, I can’t think that way any more. Of course, Broadway will always be important. But it’s not the focus of everything that you do. You know, I’m very happy I was born when I was, so I got there in time. When it was time to get there. – Harold Prince
I’m crazy about Dublin. If you went back 3,000 years in my ancestry you wouldn’t find a drop of Irish blood in the veins, but I love the place. – Harold Prince
I always liked the visuals to be choice and at the same time minimalist. And, I love black boxes. After all, that’s what theatre is, it’s an empty space, and it’s both limited and unlimited because the space is the space, but what you can do with people’s imaginations is really endless. – Harold Prince
I’m just really trying to say what I really mean, which is: ‘Your eye’s on the prize, your eye’s on the future. It’s nice to know that a lot of wonderful things have happened to your life and that so much of it has been successful. That’s great, but the work is really what makes it fun – and that has to be the future.’ – Harold Prince
