As [director] Lonny Price always says to me, Musicals have to be ‘north of the floor.’ The reason people sing must be larger than life. Musicals have to raise you up, there’s an emotional lift they have to bring you. You have to say, Yes, this sings. This is a musical. People give me stuff all the time and say, ‘I want to make a musical out of this.’ Most of the time, I don’t agree. I’m always saying ‘Metaphor, metaphor!’ The lyrics aren’t ‘Look how old we are,’ the lyric is ‘Send in the clowns.’ Imagery that illuminates a character in a wonderful way — imagery you can sing. It’s ‘defying gravity’ not ‘I’m hoping I can fly and can get off the ground.’ I hate the expression ‘a hook,’ but … It’s not a hook, it’s a metaphor. Something poetic that takes the emotional state of the character and lifts it into song.

Everything’s going to be alright in the end. So of it’s not all right, it’s not the end.