Harold Prince Talks 'PARADISE FOUND' to the New York Times

Harold Prince's new musical, Paradise Found, will bow at London's Menier Chocolate Factory next spring before it comes to New York. Prince will co-direct with Susan Stroman. The iconic director spoke to The New York Times about the upcoming project. You can read the feature by clicking here.

Paradise Found is set to go into rehearsal April 12th for the Chocolate Factory production of Paradise Found, which is planned to run seven weeks and then move quickly after that to New York reported Variety earlier today.

John Cullum, Mandy Patinkin, Shuler Hensley, Judy Kaye and Emily Skinner are all expected to take leading roles in the production. 

Paradise Found will have a book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh and music by Johann Strauss II and Jonathan Tunick. The show is based off of Joseph Roth's novel "Tale of the 1,002nd Night". In the novel, which takes place in Vienna, the Shah of Persia falls for a beautiful countess. The Austrian officials arrange for him to spend the night with the "countess", but unbeknown to the Shah she is a prostitute who merely resembles the countess.

To watch an exclusive BWW TV interview with the legendary Prince where he discusses Paradise Found click here.

Harold Prince directed the premiere productions of Cabaret, the original Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, The Phantom of the Opera, She Loves Me, Company, Follies, Candide, Pacific Overtures, Evita, Parade and LoveMusik. Mr. Prince's producing credits include 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. Recently he prepared a new version of Phantom, which is running in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel. 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. Recently, he became an officer with the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Government for "contributing significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world." 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." The recipient of 21 Tony Awards, he was a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.