Harold Prince Meets His Phans Tom Donoghue When we spoke with Harold Prince earlier on Tuesday to talk about his new musical, “Paradise Found,” he mentioned that he had recently returned from Phantom Fans Week, a five-day long celebration of “Phantom – The Las Vegas Spectacular” at the Venetian Hotel. There, Mr. Prince helped rehearse the abbreviated Las Vegas production of “Phantom of the Opera,” and gave the celebration’s keynote address. He also met some particularly dedicated admirers of the show — and of him. As Mr. Prince recalled: “They said to me, ‘There’s going to be a masked ball.’ I said, ‘Well, I think I’m going to have to pass on that. I’m going to be on the tired side.’ And they said, ‘Yes, but you’ll see certain elements of it in the audience.’ Well, there were numerous Phantoms and Christines. There was a fellow in a bright red costume that he had spent 10 years making. And it was just elaborate beyond belief. And there was a guy in the front row with a beard, a fake bald pate and his glasses on his head. And I thought: This is spooky.” “I ultimately met up with most of them and they were totally nice people. It’s like Trekkies, you know what I mean? I’ve never had a Trekkie show before and I don’t expect to have a Trekkie show again. Quite astonishing.” Courtesy Dave Itzkoff, New York Times