Artistic self-indulgence is the mark of an amateur. The temptation to make scenes, to appear late, to call in sick, not to meet deadlines, not to be organized, is at heart a sign of your own insecurity and at worst the sign of an amateur.
One thing is certain: We can't go back. The musical will never be the same as it was.
I don't look back. I look forward and plan new shows. That's really feeding the most important part of working in the theater.
I don't know why the guys with the big money don't find five terrific young producers and give each of them enough to commission a musical and to live on for a year. You'd be likely to get at least one project with a future.
When I was a 25-year-old kid, I raised $260,000 for my first show, 'The Pajama Game,' in such a homemade, pathetic, endearing way - a buck here, a buck there.
There are wonderful composers and librettists out there. It's the lack of creative producers that is troubling.
We've got to find a way to protect the process of making musical theater.
I really wish people - maybe it's naive - wish people had priorities and were willing to be artistic patrons.
I don't think there's a defined contemporary American musical, do you?
The truth is, for some absurd reason, no one is willing to admit that the interests of the producers and the theater owners are not the same.
