Despite the successes, you remember the failures - rather lovingly.

Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.

An over-reliance on past successes is a sure blueprint for future failures.

You do a show to be a hit and hopefully run a couple of years.

It's fine when you careen off disasters and terrifyingly bad reviews and rejection and all that stuff when you're young; your resilience is just terrific.

You could argue that 'Sweeney Todd' was romantic, if you looked closely at it, but it didn't impart that to its audiences. But it's large, and it's melodramatic, and it's a style I like to work in periodically.