The Prince of Broadway, Starring Sierra Boggess & Emily Skinner, Eyes World Premiere in Japan

Konnichiwa, Hal Prince! The Prince of Broadway, the long-in-the-works musical celebrating the career of the 21-time Tony-winning director and producer may have found a home…approximately 6,735 miles from Broadway. At the American Theatre Wing tribute to Hal Prince at the Plaza Hotel on September 16, costume designer and Wing chairman William Ivey Long revealed the new, unexpected plans for the revue.

“I have been working on The Prince of Broadway for 27 years,” Long told The New York Post. “And I hear it’s finally going to be done by people who know how to put on a show in a land across the ocean—Japan!” The production is slated to premiere in 2015 at the Umeda Arts Theatre in Osaka, starring Sierra Boggess (The Phantom of the Opera), Richard Kind (The Producers) and Emily Skinner (Side Show), who were all originally slated to appear in the show's 2012 Broadway premiere. Director and choreographer Susan Stroman is still on board to helm the musical alongside Prince.

The Prince of Broadway pays tribute to Prince’s 60-year career and examines the circumstances and fortune, both good and bad, that led to him creating some of the most beloved theater of all time, including West Side Story, The Pajama Game, Cabaret, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, The Phantom of the Opera, Evita and Company.

The previously announced Prince of Broadway creative team includes vocal and dance arrangements by Jason Robert Brown, a book by David Thompson, orchestrations by Don Sebesky and musical direction by Eric Stern. The design team includes costume design by Long, projection design by Jerome Sirlin, lighting design by Howell Binkley and sound design by Peter Hylenski.