R.I.P. Harold Prince

Harold Prince Dies: Broadway Legend Who Produced Original ‘West Side Story’, ‘Fiddler’, ‘Phantom’ & More Was 91

Read obituary. 

Amazingly enough, I received this letter from him early in my career:

Thank you for letting me read The Comedian In Spite Of Himself. It's impressive work.I'm up to my ears with three projects for just this season, and I don't respond obsessively enough to your play to want to commit myself further. But, as I said, it's first rate.

Harold Prince
Producer, Phantom of the Opera etc.

He did not get the script from me, so this letter was a shock. I learned that what happened was this: a NY actress was in Pdx and saw the play at the New Rose Theatre. Not only did she love it, she wanted to be in it. So she got a script from the theater and passed it on to her friend, Prince.

It is obviously satisfying when such a major theater figure calls your work "first rate" and "impressive." But he was too busy putting together Phantom of the Opera  ha ha.