美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: The Prince Of Broadway's Legacy Lives On Through His Music

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Think of a musical you may love from the last seven decades or so - "West Side Story," "Cabaret," "Company," "Follies," "Damn Yankees," "Fiddler On The Roof," "Sweeney Todd," "Phantom¹ Of The Opera," "Evita." Well, Hal Prince produced and/or directed all of them and many more. Not just the prince of musicals, Andrew Lloyd Webber said, but the crowned head.

We know all those titles as hits, but each show took chances in its times as Hal Prince and his collaborators found the stuff of musicals in surprising places - two star-crossed lovers from different blocks of a tough neighborhood, a struggling milkman in a menaced Jewish village of czarist Russia, a murderous Fleet Street barber, the icon³ of a turbulent nation and a Berlin nightspot just as Nazis⁴ began to march. Hal Prince won 21 Tony Awards, a record.

In an enterprise known for explosive egos⁵ and incendiary talents, Hal Prince managed to collaborate⁶ with an assemblage of geniuses - Bob Fosse, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Bock and Harnick, Susan Stroman, Kander and Ebb² and Stephen Sondheim. But his longest collaboration⁷ was 56 years of marriage to his wife Judy.

Jeffrey Seller, the producer of "Rent," "In The Heights" and, of course, "Hamilton," told us this week, Hal Prince became the bridge between the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein and the modern musicals we enjoy today. Truth is there is no Broadway musical without Hal Prince. His shoulders were strong and wide. He's holding all of us on top of them.

There's so many songs from Hal Prince shows, but when he died this week at the age of 91, I thought of the opening number from "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum⁸," written by Stephen Sondheim. It makes you think of the kind of moment Hal Prince helped bring about so many times and in so many lives, the breath of hope and promise that hits the stage every night when the lights go up.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMEDY TONIGHT")

FRANKIE HOWERD: (Singing) Something familiar, something peculiar⁹, something for everyone - a comedy tonight. Something appealing, something appalling¹⁰, something for everyone - a comedy tonight. Nothing with kings, nothing with crowns. Bring on the lovers, liars¹¹ and clowns. Old situations, new complications, nothing portentous¹² or polite. Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight. Something familiar...

SIMON: Frankie Howerd and the opening of "Forum."

1 phantom   

n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的

参考例句：

• I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她，好像她是一个幽灵。
• He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。

2 ebb   

vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态

参考例句：

• The flood and ebb tides alternates with each other.涨潮和落潮交替更迭。
• They swam till the tide began to ebb.他们一直游到开始退潮。

3 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

4 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 egos   

自我，自尊，自负( ego的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Their egos are so easily bruised. 他们的自尊心很容易受到伤害。
• The belief in it issues from the puerile egos of inferior men. 这种信仰是下等人幼稚的自私意识中产生的。

6 collaborate   

vi.协作，合作；协调

参考例句：

• The work gets done more quickly when we collaborate.我们一旦合作，工作做起来就更快了。
• I would ask you to collaborate with us in this work.我们愿意请你们在这项工作中和我们合作。

7 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

8 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

9 peculiar   

adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的

参考例句：

• He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。
• He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我。

10 appalling   

adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions.恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• Nothing can extenuate such appalling behaviour.这种骇人听闻的行径罪无可恕。

11 liars   

说谎者( liar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The greatest liars talk most of themselves. 最爱自吹自擂的人是最大的说谎者。
• Honest boys despise lies and liars. 诚实的孩子鄙视谎言和说谎者。

12 portentous   

adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的

参考例句：

• The present aspect of society is portentous of great change.现在的社会预示着重大变革的发生。
• There was nothing portentous or solemn about him.He was bubbling with humour.他一点也不装腔作势或故作严肃，浑身散发着幽默。