He came from a rock band and even though he was not a lead singer, I knew he was musical just from that. I also knew that he was intelligent enough from talking to him, that he would not play this part unless he could handle it vocally. I knew he was not about to get up there and have to have his voice dubbed or come off croaking. So Johnny Depp casted Johnny Depp. I trusted him entirely. I knew that he was no fool and he would only do it if he felt he could handle it. I told him to listen to the score carefully and if you can handle it, fine by me, and I was right.

The dumbing down of the country reflects itself on Broadway. The shows get dumber, and the public gets used to them.

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.

The Tonys ignored West Side Story. The Tonys ignored Gypsy. It's a kind of public humiliation.

I firmly believe lyrics have to breathe and give the audience's ear a chance to understand what's going on. Particularly in the theater, where you have costume, story, acting, orchestra.

Everyone would like to be on Broadway, cause if a show works, you make a great deal of money and it allows you to write other shows.

For anyone approaching any one of the cast albums, if they don't like what they hear, it's not the performer's fault.