Legendary Broadway Director-Producer Harold "Hal" Prince Dies at Age 91

Theatre Development Fund – TDF: Broadway icon Harold "Hal" Prince, also known as the Prince of Broadway, died this morning at age 91 after a brief illness. During his almost 70-year career in theatre, he helped create some of the most successful shows of all time, both artistically and commercially. He frequently collaborated with composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, directing the original productions of Company, Follies, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. Prince also helmed the original productions of Evita and The Phantom of the Opera, the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Hal Prince, the Broadway Legend, Dead at 91

The Atlantic: Harold Smith Prince was the George Kennan of modern musical theater. He was present at the post–World War II creation of a brand of boffo showmanship that came to dominate Broadway in the days when Broadway was still a dominant force—in some ways, the dominant force—in American popular music and culture. Prince prevailed through changing tastes and times—the rise of rock and roll and the counterculture—and helped pioneer the creation of the “concept musical,” in which plot and character are subordinate to style or theme.

Steven Bochco Obit

www.vulture.com: The writer-producer, who died Sunday morning of leukemia at 74, was the mastermind behind a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, and Doogie Howser, M.D. He won multiple Emmys and Peabody awards, the Humanitas Prize, and countless other honors, and incidentally ran a series of on-air finishing schools for writer-producers (including Deadwood’s David Milch and Law and Order’s Dick Wolf) who absorbed his sensibility and went on to be almost as important has he was.

Satoshi Kon - Editing Space & Time

Vimeo: Four years after his passing, we still haven't quite caught up to Satoshi Kon, one of the great visionaries of modern film. In just four features and one TV series, he developed a unique style of editing that distorted and warped space and time. Join me in honoring the greatest Japanese animator not named Miyazaki.

In Memoriam Of Jay Glerum

Theatre content from Live Design: Jay Glerum, author, teacher, designer, consultant, family man, and friend, passed away last week. It was hard news to hear. I'd known Jay since my early days in the industry. Our paths didn't cross all that often but Jay still had a significant influence on my career and the way I thought about the entertainment industry, especially with rigging. He had that effect on a lot of people.

Obituary: Jean-Pierre Nutini / Film gaffer was 'larger than life'

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: To the extent that Pittsburgh has a film bibliography, Jean-Pierre Nutini's name appears on every page. Just look on the international movie database website: He was a crew member on all of the major films, and some minor ones, that have been made here in the past 20 years, from "Lorenzo's Oil" to "Wonder Boys" to "The Dark Knight Rises." But Mr. Nutini, who died July 10 of cancer at age 57 in his Squirrel Hill home, also had another calling: to bring Mexican art and culture to Pittsburghers through Mexico Lindo Y Galeria de Artesanias, a shop on Murray Avenue operated by him and his wife, Lisa DiGioia-Nutini.

Bernard Sahlins, Patriarch of Sketch Comedy, Dies at 90

NYTimes.com: Bernard Sahlins, a founder and former owner of the Second City, the Chicago nightclub that helped establish improvisational sketch comedy as a rudiment of American entertainment and created a resident troupe that propelled the careers of myriad funnymen and women, died on Sunday at his home in Chicago. He was 90.

Bozo the Clown actor dies at 83

Hollywood Reporter: "Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83."

Patti McKenny, Chicago Playwright, Librettist and Lyricist, Dead at 57

Yahoo! News: "She was a founding member of Chicago Musical Theatre Works (CMTW), a collective of Windy City musical writers who sought to establish Chicago as a place where musicals were developed. The group's efforts included public readings of new works. Recently, an offshoot group would meet for critique sessions of their dawning works."

Anglo-Hungarian playwright George Tabori dies at 93

Reuters: "George Tabori, a Hungarian-born playwright and director regarded as one of the most significant figures in 20th-century theater, died Monday at the age of 93, a spokesman for the Berliner Ensemble theater said."

Mary Mease Warren / Theater clothing designer from Pittsburgh to Broadway

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "Mary Mease Warren, a skilled designer of theatrical costumes with credits from Pittsburgh to Broadway and a demanding, loving mother and teacher who spoke her mind, died July 14 of lung cancer. She was 57 and lived in Crafton."

Noted tenor taken off life support

Yahoo! News: "Celebrated tenor Jerry Hadley was taken off life support Monday, nearly a week after an apparent suicide attempt left him with a severe brain injury."

Producer and Theatre Owner Edwin Mirvish, Major Force in Canadian Theatre, Dies at 92

Playbill News: "Edwin Mirvish, the patriarch of the powerful Mirvish producing and theatre-owning family of Canada and the man who saved the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto from the wrecking ball, died July 11 at St. Michael's Hospital, his family announced. He was 92."

Two killed as Rolling Stones stage is dismantled

Guardian Unlimited: "Two construction workers were killed today as they dismantled the stage after a Rolling Stones concert in Madrid, Spanish emergency services have said."

Trapeze artist killed in fall in Calif

Boston.com: "A circus trapeze artist working without a net fell 40 feet to his death during a performance, authorities said."

Film lobbyist Jack Valenti dies at 85

Yahoo! News: "Jack Valenti was not just Hollywood's top lobbyist. He was one of its biggest stars. The 85-year-old Valenti, who died Thursday of complications from a stroke in March, led the movie industry out of the prudishness of old Hollywood and into an age of freer expression with the creation of the film rating system that has endured nearly 40 years."

Mimi Lerner / Classical vocalist with indomitable spirit

Post Gazette: "Mezzo-soprano Mimi Lerner, Pittsburgh's most beloved classical singer, died yesterday morning of complications from cancer at her home in Oakland. She was 61."

George C. Izenour Dies at 94

Lighting&Sound America Online - News: "Izenour was professor emeritus of theatre design and technology and director emeritus of the electro-mechanical laboratory of Yale University's School of Drama, where he served for 38 years. He contributed many inventions to theatre technology, including the basic inverse polarized rectifier electronics dimming circuit, the electronic multi-preset lighting control system, the synchronous winch system, articulated acoustical sub-structures, and related analog and digital control systems."

March 22: College of Fine Arts Mourns Loss of Professor Emeritus Cletus Anderson

Carnegie Mellon University: "'His incalculable contribution to generations of drama students, his taste and stature as a theatre artist, and his deep humanity and friendship will be missed by us all,' "

CLETUS ANDERSON, R.I.P.

clarkblog: "I was lucky enough to have Cletus for a class called Designing for Playwrights, an overview of theatrical costume and set design. "