Lifetime Achievement Award - Sheldon Harnick

Friday, May 20, 2011

Sheldon, Jim Dale and Hal Prince.
Photos by Rob Rich

Michael Gottlieb and I had the pleasure of (quickly) lighting the Theatre Museum’s Award to lyricist extraordinaire, and very dear friend, Sheldon Harnick. The award was presented by Hal Prince.

A wonderful show with a stellar cast was put together by Tony Walton and featured many of Sheldon’s wonderful songs.

It was one of those shows that loaded in at 9:00AM and opened at 7:00PM. Two socket outlets were available to light this mini-musical! Thanks to Michael’s ingenuity, this power was spread across nine lighting instruments including LED backlight. And it worked—just!

It was great seeing Hal again. We had a twenty-five year partnership in London, producing many of his shows including “She Loves Me” and “Fiddler on the Roof”, both by Sheldon with his long time collaborator, the much missed composer, Jerry Bock.

Hal Prince

Hal reported that he had often visited TPC’s recent New World Symphony hall in Miami Beach, which he thought was superb. He termed it a “major breakthrough in presentation and architecture for musical performance.”