I think one of the things that makes theater special is first of all, it's one of the last places you put your phone away. And second of all, it's one of the last places where we all have a common experience together.

The fact that I'm a performer helps me enormously as a lyricist.

You can't control the success or failure of a thing you work on. You can only control the thing you work on.

I've had a little Hollywood experience, and there's nothing like the Disney story experience.

We sort of quickly realized every rhythm, Opetaia [Foa'i] takes the lead.

It's an enormous relief to go to work and be an actor and not be worried about writing.

I grew up in the time just when cassettes were waning and CDs were growing. And so mix tapes - and not mix CDs - mix tapes were an important part of the friendship and mating rituals of New York adolescents. If you were a girl and I wanted you - to show you I like you, I would make you a 90-minute cassette wherein I would show off my tastes. I would play you a musical theater song next to a hip-hop song next to an oldie next to some pop song you maybe never heard, also subliminally telling you how much I like you with all these songs.