Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.
All the best performers bring to their role something more, something different than what the author put on paper. That's what makes theatre live. That's why it persists.
I chose and my world was shaken. So what? The choice may have been mistaken; the choosing was not. You have to move on.
The nice thing about doing a crossword puzzle is, you know there is a solution.
Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.
I was essentially trained by Oscar Hammerstein to think of songs as one-act plays, to move a song from point A to point B dramatically.
I was raised to be charming, not sincere.
A close-up on screen can say all a song can.
Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from 'Oedipus' to 'Hamlet.'
I was a mathematician by nature, and still am - I just knew I didn't want to be a mathematician. So I decided not to take any mathematics courses.
Nice is different than good.
I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.
Musical comedies aren't written, they are rewritten.
The more restrictions you have, the easier anything is to write.
One difference between poetry and lyrics is that lyrics sort of fade into the background. They fade on the page and live on the stage when set to music.
I think 'lunch' is one of the funniest words in the world.
I played the organ when I went to military school, when I was 10. They had a huge organ, the second-largest pipe organ in New York State. I loved all the buttons and the gadgets. I've always been a gadget man.
Musicals are plays, but the last collaborator is your audience, so you've got to wait 'til the last collaborator comes in before you can complete the collaboration.
My mother wanted me off her hands. She was a working woman. She designed clothes, and she was a celebrity collector. It's my mother's ambition to be a celebrity.
I prefer neurotic people. I like to hear rumblings beneath the surface.
