Harold Prince to Direct Paradise Found in London Prior to New York Bow

By Andrew Gans
22 Sep 2009

Harold Prince
Harold Prince
Photo by Elisabeth Novick

Tony Award winner Harold Prince's latest project is Paradise Found, a new musical based on Viennese author Joseph Roth's novel "The Tale of the 1002nd Night."

Prince — of Evita, Cabaret and The Phantom of the Opera fame — will co-direct the musical with Susan Stroman (The Producers) at London's Menier Chocolate Factory prior to a New York run. Prince and Stroman previously collaborated on the 1994 revival of Show Boat.

Variety reports that the cast will likely boast John Cullum, Mandy Patinkin, Shuler Hensley, Judy Kaye and Emily Skinner. A seven-week run is expected at the London venue with rehearsals commencing in mid-April 2010.

The musical features a book by Richard Nelson, lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh and music by Johann Strauss II, which has been adapted by Tony-winning orchestrator Jonathan Tunick.

Paradise Found, according to the industry paper, "centers on an impotent Shah (Cullum) with 139 wives. The ruler's eunuch (Patinkin) convinces him to travel to Vienna, where the Shah falls in love with the empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."

Prince told Variety, "I'm insisting that on this show we have only four producers, that we do it on a budget of $7 million and that we pay it off."