Ethel Merman would stay with a show for years and tour with it. So would Mary Martin, the great stars. They recognized the value of that success and nurtured it. Now, you come from Hollywood, you play 12 weeks and go away. I don't think that's the best policy.
I think when you start analyzing trends and start making shows for a particular audience, you are making a fatal move. I think that's why people are doing too many revivals, that's why there's a plethora of rock musicals. There's room for everything, but not room for too much of anything.
I saw 'On The Town' about nine times. I discovered it. I loved it. I was in college.
Lyrics can't do what they do - or should do - when you're creating a musical with rock lyrics. There's plenty of room for rock musicals, just not all rock musicals.
I've always loved Victorian melodrama. And I've always liked larger-than-life theater, providing it's truthful and honest. I like what the theater can provide in energy and bombast - I enjoy it when it's large, and by that I don't mean in size, I mean in emotions. Shakespeare did that.
A star may guarantee business, but the tradeoff is a very short run.
Producing should be a creative responsibility.
You think, 'Musicals, they must always be romantic' - You'd be surprised how few of them historically have ever been romantic.
Producers want to put their music behind revivals but I don't think that's a good trend for the theater at all.
There have always been revivals. Some have always been successful. And many of them have failed.
The musical has always been in jeopardy - until - or was in jeopardy until it was realised that it is probably the safest living theatre art form.
'Showboat' is the quintessential family show.
I've never been able to understand where great artists come from.
I always liked the visuals to be choice and at the same time minimalist. And, I love black boxes. After all, that's what theatre is, it's an empty space, and it's both limited and unlimited because the space is the space, but what you can do with people's imaginations is really endless.
I wouldn't want to be just pigeonholed as an extravagant director.
I got successful awfully quick, and I wanted it... But I do think there is responsibility to move the musical theater form forward. I think you always have to be aware of the work that came before and build on that.
What's missing in the musical theater is producers willing to nurture new work, raise the money and put it on.
Most of the big money people don't know what would interest an audience if you did it. They only know what interested the audience last time.
I feel so much more comfortable when I'm working on material which makes other people scratch their heads and ask, 'You're going to make a musical out of that?'
I wouldn't be here if it weren't for 'Show Boat.' The kind of theater I chose to be involved in is completely a direct reflection of what 'Show Boat' made possible.
