Singer-actress Faith Prince – who made a splash on Broadway as Adelaide in the 1992 revival of Guys and Dolls and was a series regular in the television series Huff – was born in Georgia and raised in Virginia. She was drawn to theater in high school, and by her early 20s she was performing in a revue at The Village Gate in New York’s Greenwich Village. This was followed by off-Broadway and regional productions of Tintypes; Little Shop of Horrors; Guys and Dolls; Leave It to Jane; Groucho: A Life in Revue; and Living Color.
In 1986, Prince took center stage as Carrie Pepperidge in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel at the Kennedy Center. After performing in various off-Broadway and regional productions, she made her Broadway debut in the revue Jerome Robbins’s Broadway (1989), which won several Tonys®, including one for Best Musical; Prince herself earned a Tony® nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.
She returned to Broadway in 1991 to play in the short-lived Thin Man musical Nick & Nora; then the following year she won a Tony® for Best Actress in a Musical and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical in a Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls. Playing opposite Nathan Lane as Nathan Detroit, Prince wowed audiences with her over-the-top performance as the nightclub singer Miss Adelaide.
She starred opposite Jerry Stiller in Donald Margulies’s play What’s Wrong with This Picture? (1994) and later took over the role of Anna Leonowens (opposite Lou Diamond Phillips) in a revival of The King and I. Playing alongside Martin Short, she starred in a revival of Little Me (1998), and in 2000 she stepped in as Gretta Conroy in the musical James Joyce’s The Dead, which featured Christopher Walken as Gretta’s husband.
In a revival of the Comden-Green musical comedy Bells Are Ringing (2001), Prince again had a leading role, as Ella Peterson, and received Tony® and Drama Desk nominations for her performance. She returned to Broadway to play Belinda Blair in a revival of Michael Frayn’s farce Noises Off (2001).
Most recently on Broadway, Prince created the role of Aggie – a 1950s Bronx mother with grand plans for her daughter’s wedding – in the musical A Catered Affair (2008). Playing opposite Harvey Fierstein and Tom Wopat, Prince received both Tony® and Drama Desk nominations for her performance.
Prince’s movie credits include The Last Dragon (1985), in which she sings and dances in the music-video spoof “Dirty Books”; Dave (1993); My Father the Hero (1994), a remake of the French film Mon père, ce héros (Gérard Depardieu starred in both versions); Friends at Last (1995); Picture Perfect (1997); and Our Very Own (2005). She has also appeared on television in such series as Remington Steele, Law & Order, Monk, House, and Grey’s Anatomy, with recurring or regular roles in High Society, Spin City, and Huff.
As a singer, Prince has worked with The Boston Pops, the Utah Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, and others. In 2005 she presented her cabaret show A Leap of Faith at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and her recent tour of Australia won rave reviews.
