Two of the hardest words in the language to rhyme are life and love. Of all words!

Musicals are, by nature, theatrical, meaning poetic, meaning having to move the audience's imagination and create a suspension of disbelief, by which I mean there's no fourth wall.

I'm interested in the theater because I'm interested in communication with audiences. Otherwise I would be in concert music.

On stage, generally speaking, the story is stopped or held back by songs, because that's the convention. Audiences enjoy the song and the singer, that's the point.

Sometimes I'll ask the book writer to write a monologue, not to be performed, just as if they were notes for the character.

Content dictates form and style.

Music straightjackets a poem and prevents it from breathing on its own, whereas it liberates a lyric. Poetry doesn't need music; lyrics do.