This story begins where all great stories start, with loss. 'Hansel and Gretel' begins with the parents are gone, 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty,' the mom is dead.

We've had some months that we experienced a loss, but never had a loss on any year.

Something's gotta give. The emotional cost of two parents working is debilitating - I'd rather take the financial loss and simplify than live with the emotional battering, upheaval and stress.

None of us as parents brought up our children to be this way, ... We all have some turn out to be bad apples ... As one parent to another, I have a lot of compassion for him.

If someone wants to say 'I love you' in a straight play, they say it, and then it's the other person's turn to talk. But in a song, you can sing about it for another three minutes. The musical form has that unique opportunity to express at length what joy really feels like.

Think of a musical as a string of pearls. If you don't have a string, you can't put the pearls around your neck.