On this day we're celebrating the birthday of one of the architects of modern musical theatre, producer and director, Hal Prince.

Harold 'Hal' Prince directed the premiere productions of Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita and Parade.

Before becoming a director, Mr. Prince's productions included The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Fiorello! and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Among the plays he has directed are Hollywood Arms, The Visit, The Great God Brown, End of the World, Play Memory and his own play, Grandchild of Kings. Recent projects include a new version of Phantom, currently running in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel, the Broadway musical LoveMusik and the new musical Paradise Found, which had its world premiere at London's Menier Chocolate Factory.

His opera productions have been seen at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Vienna Staatsoper and the Theater Colon in Buenos Aires. He served as a trustee for the New York Public Library and on the National Council of the Arts of the NEA. He is the recipient of a National Medal of Arts for the year 2000 from President Clinton for a career spanning more than 40 years, in which "he changed the nature of the American musical."

In 2010, he received the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center's Monte Cristo Award. The recipient of 21 Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

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