The truth is, I initially became a singer-songwriter while still in my teens because it was the only way to guarantee that somebody on earth would sing the songs I was writing. Since then, I've performed just about everywhere: rock clubs, concerts halls, arenas, TV.

I didn't want much. I wanted much more. In fact, I wanted everything.

A lot of my early career, I wrote story songs that had narratives, that had plots.

I first had the thought about making a musical of 'Edwin Drood' as far back as 1971.

In all my years of performing, no audience member has ever actually assaulted me. I consider this to be the singular triumph of my performing career.

Kipling said that Success and Failure are both imposters, and we should all listen to Kipling, if only because none of us are likely to know anybody else named Rudyard. But having been bitten in my life by the jaws of both victory and defeat, I must rush to add that success is to failure as butter pecan ice cream is to death.

As much as the mystery element is all a lot of fun, when you do go to 'Edwin Drood,' you're going to a theatre to see a show about going to a theatre and what that relationship between actors and audiences has been for years.