When I listen to my work, I think, what’s so inflammatory about it? It’s not really that dissonant. A lot of people who used to hate my stuff have come round to it.
When you know your cast well and their strengths and weaknesses, you can start writing for them, just the way Shakespeare wrote for his actors.
Sometimes I’ll ask the book writer to write a monologue, not to be performed, just as if they were notes for the character.
When I was growing up, there was no such thing as Off-Broadway. You either got your show on or you didn’t.
You get used to the exact amount of space between lines. You write a word and then you write an alternate word over it. You want enough room so you can read it, so the lines can’t be too close.
You have to be submitted for the Pulitzer, and unbeknownst to us, a choral director whom I know had submitted us.
I took piano lessons when I was 6. I didn’t want to go on with it. I don’t remember being moved by a piece of music.
I was never much of a reader. I’m a slow reader, which is unusual, because I’m so into language and I love words so much. But it’s hard for me to read.
I’m sure many writers have these strange, tiny little habits.
I’ve always liked puzzles, since I was a kid. I like party games, silly games. I loved chess. I enjoy jigsaw puzzles, but I’m not particularly visual.
They wanted me to be a concert pianist, because I had a very good right hand, but my left hand’s terrible and I hated performing.
In not-for-profit theater, you don’t worry so much about how the audience is going to react. You want to make them absorb the piece.
It’s age. It’s a diminution of energy and the worry that there are no new ideas. It’s an increasing lack of confidence. I’m not the only one. I’ve checked with other people.
Take a play that you like but you think is flawed, and see if you can improve it and turn it into a musical. Then make up your own story.
Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor.
If the end is right, it justifies the beans!
My main goal is to tell a story.
It’s not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do.
What justifies a character singing one idea for 3 minutes on the screen? I get impatient and want the story to carry on. I don’t get impatient in the theatre.
By the time I get through writing a score, I know the book better than the book writer does, because I’ve examined every word, and questioned the book writer on every word.