Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution.

I really don't want to write a score until the whole show is cast and staged.

The man i'll never be, Who remembers him?

Almost all the shows I've been connected with have been extremely well cast. They're playing the show, not just doing the songs.

If you're dealing with a musical in which you're trying to tell a story, it's got to sound like speech. At the same time it's got to be a song.

The last collaborator is your audience ... when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you've written. Things that seem to work well -- work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece -- suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience.

What justifies a character singing one idea for 3 minutes on the screen? I get impatient and want the story to carry on. I don't get impatient in the theatre.