The Washington Post - 01.08.2019

C8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 , 2019

Prince had forged artistic alli-

ances with other major compos-

ers, including Lloyd Webber, who

idolized him. The composer told

me in a 2016 interview that he

counted Prince as one of the most

influential people in his profes-

sional life. Prince’s observations

about what makes a great theater-

going experience — such as the

vital importance of visual design

— opened his own eyes, Lloyd

Webber said.

“I went round to meet him at

the Savoy Hotel, where he was

staying, and where Hal gave me a

piece of advice that has stayed

with me forever,” Lloyd Webber

recalled. “Which is, you can’t lis-

ten to a musical if you can’t look at

it. When you think of Hal’s best

productions, you understand

what’s behind that.”

Laypeople sometimes have dif-

ficulty understanding exactly

what producers and directors do.

That Prince was able to master so

many aspects of both of those

ever-evolving but essential jobs,

on so many varied projects, sug-

gests a man worthy of renaissance

status. But he was capable, too, of

wisdom about his own limits, as

when he chose to step away from

the development of “The Band’s

Visit,” which under his successor

director, David Cromer, would go

on to win 10 Tonys.

And that, theater lovers, marks

a man of not only manifold gifts,

but also of many graces.

[email protected]

of human flesh were baked.

Prince’s staging of Mrs. Lovett’s

demise shattered me. My wife and

I left the Uris in a daze. I felt

unsettled, sickened — and

thrilled. I sensed that I would be

playing that scene over and over

in my head for a long time.

Now that’s theater.

Like all great theater artists,

Prince had his disappointments:

For instance, “It’s a Bird... It’s a

Plane... It’s Superman” was a

flop in 1966, and “A Doll’s Life,” a

musical based on “A Doll’s House,”

opened at the Mark Hellinger

Theatre on Sept. 23, 1982, and

closed on Sept. 26, 1982. Along,

though, with the original musi-

cals he shepherded (and 21 Tonys

he earned), Prince can be credited

with some key musical revivals:

His revolutionary reworking of

“Candide” in 1974, which includ-

ed new lyrics by Sondheim and

others, showed the industry how

to transform a Broadway space

for a more immersive experience.

And his bravura, epic-scale “Show

Boat” in 1994 found a new way to

enlighten audiences about the

landmark 1927 musical, despite

its antiquated perspective on race

relations. It ran for almost 1,000

performances.

Prince’s musical-minting col-

laborations with Sondheim end-

ed with the failure of “Merrily We

Roll Along” in 1981; they reunited

briefly for the musical “Bounce,”

which was a critical bust at the

Kennedy Center in 2003. But

It is a bit heady, just tallying

Prince’s artistic and commercial

successes, for still to come was,

perhaps, his greatest artistic

achievement: directing Sond-

heim and Hugh Wheeler’s

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Bar-

ber of Fleet Street” in 1979. And

wait! There was more! After

teaming up with Andrew Lloyd

Webber to direct “Evita” later that

same year, Prince and Lloyd Web-

ber would create what was des-

tined to become Broadway’s all-

time longest-running hit, a show

that recently marked its 13,110th

Broadway performance.

So, yes, it is absolutely accurate

to say that Prince’s survivors in-

clude wife Judy, children Daisy

and Charles, three grandchildren

and “The Phantom of the Opera.”

What accounts for such an as-

tonishing résumé? Genius? Pas-

sion? Luck? The answer is yes.

Add to these an insatiable appe-

tite and uncanny insight into the-

atergoing tastes, and you begin to

grasp the attributes shaping an

extraordinary theater man. Sev-

eral years ago, on the occasion of

his receiving the Stephen Sond-

heim Award, an honor bestowed

annually by Arlington’s Signature

Theatre, I sat down with him and

the subject of aging came up. He

was 85 and the numerical time

marker seemed a mere trifle.

“I hate it when I see 85, ” he

said. “Because, come on, I’m 40.”

My first Broadway contact with

Prince was back when he was

turning 40 for real, and I was a

kid, seeing his “Fiddler” with my

Tevye-adoring parents. Even then

I knew the production was an act

of meticulous craftsmanship; it

was well into the show’s Broad-

way run and the polish on the

performances felt fresh. As I

started going to more shows, tak-

ing the bus in on Saturdays from

New Jersey with my friend Neil, I

would have additional epiphanic

moments via Prince (and Sond-

heim): at “Company,” “Follies,”

“Night Music.” But the Hal Prince

memory that has stayed with me

most indelibly was born in a

scalding sequence in “Sweeney

Todd,” in what was then called the

Uris, now the Gershwin Theatre.

At the climax of the show, an

apoplectic Sweeney, portrayed by

Len Cariou, committed the musi-

cal’s most searing act of revenge:

pushing the eternally lovable An-

gela Lansbury, as Mrs. Lovett,

into the furnace in which the pies

APPRECIATION FROM C1

ACROSS
1 Digital unit
4 Play the part of
9 Paintball attire,
for short
13 Cry from a
card holder
14 Religious leader
16 Made man?
17 Home for the
holidays, say
18 World’s largest
lizard
19 Rooftop spinner
20 Court address
22 FDR job-
creating
program
23 -
25 -
27 Catchers with
pots
28 Like the
Avengers
31 Twice DVI
32 Z preceder
33 Pancake at a
seder
36 Longtime
Sweethearts
maker
40 Instructions for
fire safety ... or
for complet-
ing four puzzle
answers
43 Marx forte
44 Kim and
Kourtney’s
sister
45 Bundle of cash
46 Toy with a tail
48 “Spill it”
50 Bassett of
“American
Horror Story”
53 Percussion
piece
55 Shotgun type
56 Zing
57 -
61 Where
Georgia is
62 -
65 Mineral
resource
66 Move
67 Cocktail
garnishes
68 A long time
follower?
69 Scoundrel
70 “Aida” setting
71 Dawn
phenomenon

DOWN

1 Elevate

2 Scoop

3 Curds in cubes

4 “Oy!”

5 High-capacity

vehicle?

6 Record time?

7 Like noisy fans

8 Vicious on

stage

9 High-and-

mighty

10 Wise words

11 Regal home

12 Warning signs

15 Book form that

replaced the

scroll

21 Pi follower

24 Team in a

seasonal verse

26 Boring

contraption

28 Diner dish

29 Words to a

backstabber

30 Part of a Clue

accusation

31 “Iron Chef

America”

creation

34 Casino gratuity

35 Canadian

road sign

letters

37 Monk’s hood

38 Quahog or

geoduck

39 Renaissance

faire word

41 Sphere used

to capture a

Pikachu, say

42 “Zip it!”

47 Fitness

portmanteau

49 Was in

charge

50 Small recipe

amount

51 Long time

follower?

52 Chicanery

53 Rosemary

unit

54 Brazen

58 “Ice __

Truckers”:

TV reality

series

59 Impulse

60 Cry that may

mean “I’m out

of tuna!”

63 Microbrewery

output

64 WWII craft

LA TIMES CROSSWORD By Jack Murtagh

WEDNESDAY’S LA TIMES SOLUTION

© 2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 8/1/19

kidspost

Washington-area sports
fans may hear a lot of a
certain word during the
next few weeks:
quarterback.
That’s because the Washington
Redskins have to decide who will be the
quarterback for the 2019 National
Football League (NFL) season. Last
year’s quarterback, Alex Smith, has a
broken leg and will be out for the year.
The Redskins have three candidates
for what some have jokingly called the
most important job in Washington —
even more important than the U.S.
president.
Colt McCoy is a career backup who is
more likely to be carrying a clipboard on
the sidelines than playing in the game.
He has started in only a handful of
games since he began with the Redskins
in 2014. But McCoy knows head coach
Jay Gruden’s offense, so he may see
some action.
In March, the Redskins traded some
draft picks to get Case Keenum from the
Denver Broncos. Washington will be
Keenum’s sixth team in the past six
years. While he had a good season
leading the Minnesota Vikings to the
playoffs in 2017, you have to wonder why
so many teams have let Keenum go.
Dwayne Haskins is the Redskins’
Number 1 draft pick and the guy who
has everyone excited. But remember,
Haskins, who went to the Bullis School
in Potomac, is a rookie and played only
one full season at Ohio State University.
But what a season! Haskins completed
70 percent of his tosses and threw 50
touchdown passes.
Washington fans are hoping Haskins
(or maybe Keenum or McCoy) will
become a “franchise quarterback.”
That’s a quarterback, such as Tom Brady,
Drew Brees or Ben Roethlisberger, who
can lead a team to multiple winning
seasons and even a Super Bowl.
But sometimes I wonder whether all
this attention to the quarterbacks sends
the wrong message. Football, like a lot of
sports, is a team sport. I realize that

quarterbacks are important especially in

today’s pass-happy NFL. But they are

still only one position.

To be a good football team — and the

Redskins have not won a playoff game

since the 2005 season — you need

offensive linemen to protect the

quarterback, running backs and

receivers to make plays and a rock-solid

defense. Oh, and you need special team

players for punts and kickoffs.

It’s good for kids to remember this. In

team sports, not everyone can play the

“glamour” positions, such as

quarterback or pitcher, or be the high

scorer. Most kids just have to find a way

to help their team.

So maybe Washington fans shouldn’t

put all their hopes on finding that one

franchise quarterback who will save the

season.

The Redskins have a lot of places

where they have to improve. It’s not just

the quarterback.

[email protected]

Bowen writes the sports opinion column for

KidsPost. He is the author of 23 sports books

for kids, including “Touchdown Trouble,”

“Quarterback Season” and “Double Reverse.”

D.C. will fumble if it fields top quarterback without strong team

TODAY’S NEWS

A conservation organization in San

Diego, California, says it has achieved

the first successful artificial

insemination birth in North America

of a southern white rhino, an

important step in saving another

rhino subspecies from extinction.

San Diego Zoo Global announced

that Victoria gave birth Sunday to a

healthy southern white rhino male

calf. In the wild, the subspecies lives

in Africa.

Artificial insemination is a

technique used to allow a female to

reproduce without mating. Victoria’s

body received sperm from a southern

white rhino in March 2018.

“This birth is significant, as it also

represents a critical step in our effort

to save the northern white rhino from

the brink of extinction,” said Barbara

Durrant, director of reproductive

science at San Diego Zoo Global.

Only two documented northern

white rhinos remain on Earth. Both

are female, but sperm from now-

deceased males was preserved.

Scientists say the southern white

rhinos will eventually be surrogates

(carrying babies that are not theirs)

for northern white rhino embryos.

— Associated Press

KEN BOHN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Scientists hope the birth of this

southern white rhino will help save

a rhino cousin from extinction.

The Score

FRED BOWEN

Birth of rare rhino

is reported by zoo

CHIP SAYS

On this day in 1993, Reggie Jackson was inducted

into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He helped lead the

Oakland Athletics to three World Series titles and the

New York Yankees to two.

TODAY

The summer continues with partly

cloudy skies, temperatures near

90 degrees and plenty of humidity.

KIDSPOST.COM

Looking for a boredom

buster? Draw August weather

for our daily forecast. Find out

ILLUSTRATION BY KATE WICKERSTY, 7, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA online how to send it to us.

JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST

From left, Colt McCoy, Case Keenum or Dwayne Haskins could become a “franchise quarterback” to lead the Redskins, but a

quarterback can’t save the season without strong offensive linemen, running backs and receivers, and a rock-solid defense.

How Hal Prince broadened Broadway

MELANIE BURFORD/PRIME/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Hal Prince’s fan club includes musical theater giants such as

Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.