It was the most exciting music I'd ever heard, ... And 'Company' was the first album -- as in old-fashioned LP -- I ever bought for myself, which of course was pretty strange since all my peers were listening to the Rolling Stones.

I grew up in Queens, and part of my birthday gift, always, was a Saturday matinee of whatever hit musical there was. When I was three, I saw 'Oliver!'.

I sure hope there will be more theatre on television and in the movie theaters. I do have to say, the idea of theatre in movie theaters is really exciting to me.

Every actor has a different language. Every actor has their strengths and their challenges, and I try to help them and support them and help them through their challenges as best I can.

Plus, the show is very interesting to me politically at the moment, ... I think it speaks to our time in the way it looks at conformity and individualism and the whole question of speaking out. It seems to me these days that everybody is just joining the biggest line and not questioning things. And there's a lot of finger-pointing, with the red states against the blue ones, and those in the blue states labeled crazy while those in the red ones try to shut them up.

It's a complicated chain of events to recount, but to cut to the chase, I went to a camp with Mary Rodgers' daughter [grand-daughter of Richard Rodgers], ... And in 1973, when I tried to get a ticket to a special Sondheim concert, she passed my precocious letter on to him and he actually put his return address on his response. That was the beginning of a correspondence, and ultimately I got an invitation to tea where we talked about his work and I asked a million questions. As I was about to leave, Steve asked me if I wanted anything and I told him I'd love a recording of 'Anyone Can Whistle,' because it was out of print at that time. He went right upstairs and got a record for me.