Putting It Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created "Sunday in the Park with George

as we were walking over to the opening-night party at Sardi’s, my father said sweetly, “You didn’t tell me that you put your grandfather in the show.” I had never met his father, who passed away long before I was born and about whom I really knew nothing. “What are you talking about, Dad?” I said. “My father, Louis. He was a baker.” That stopped me

And it comes right out of the scene. That’s the Rodgers and Hammerstein principle for carrying forward a dramatic moment. In this case, George is announcing that he has turned down a commission and that he doesn’t know what to do next.

always thought of it this way: “Children and Art” explained the show and “Lesson #8” explained George.

I always point this out as the greatest piece of advice that anyone has ever given me about producing—plays, musicals, readings, whatever; you must always say something supportive.

I’ll often put the script on the easel of the piano and just look at it, sometimes sort of sing it in my head.

Many years ago, on a Sunday, I was home writing a new project and the work felt labored and forced. I was not having a good workday. The phone rang and it was Steve, who was in a similar state of mind with a project he was working on. We chatted for a while—always a treat—and then I hung up and decided to take a break. I went and turned on the TV a

Once when I was trying to get a song out of him, Steve said to me, “Do you want it Tuesday, or do you want it good?”

By then, I’d heard Bernadette speak the role, and the accent suggested to me Harold Arlen. He was a Buffalo boy who kept writing southern-inflected music, and I thought, southern inflection … hey, there’s my favorite composer. And I was off and running.

I actually remember not being able to hear the bow music. So I went to the sound operator and asked if he could make it a little louder. He said, “No, I can’t. I’m turning up the stage mics to make the applause sound louder because it’s so weak.” LAPINE: Who told him to do that? STAROBIN: He told me it was an old Broadway trick.