Hal David Quotes

I love characters songs and I love to fit into a story. I love singing through a character's journey.

If people need to be informed by lines, then there's no reason why the actor is saying the line except for information for the audience; I think there's something wrong.

Tolstoy may be right about happy and unhappy families, but in ballet, it works the opposite way: All good ballets are different from each other and all bad ones are alike, at least in one crucial respect - they're all empty.

You have to realize that when I started to work on 'Aladdin', Disney Theatrical wasn't in existence. I suppose I had always hoped that 'Aladdin' would be somewhere on the runway.

If you're going to make a musical, don't cartoon it from the play. Make it better than the play. Have a reason for making it sing.

The filmmaker's got to make it his story and the actors have got to make it their story.

'Sleepy Hollow' was really the first thing I'd done that gave me the opportunity in the modern age to build an authentic relationship with an audience that was a lot more like what happens in theater.

To me, great writing - and when you can really make something wonderful out of it as an actor - is when your character has a sense of self-awareness. It doesn't necessarily have to arc. It doesn't have to grow.

Stepping back into theatre, a childhood dream, I always felt like I would be onstage. I hadn't imagined myself in a composer role... I find it so satisfying to be behind the scenes and writing the music and watching it elevated and characterized by different voices than my own. It's so exciting.

Obviously, a theatrical masterpiece needs more than a plot; many television shows are nothing but plot, and it is doubtful that they will stand the test of time. But I also don't think that making fun of plot or acting like we're all somehow 'above' structure is such a good idea.

The point of songs in theater is that you're supposed to end up in a different place than where you started.

When I saw 'Chess' in London, I thought it was horrible. It was so static. People were coming down front and just facing the audience, singing.

Every step is basically a word, especially with musical theatre, because you're not doing it for dance's sake, you're promoting a story - and, more than that, a moral. You're propelling a story.

The music is the emotional substance of the show; the book just sets it up. Nobody goes to a musical to hear the book. That's the way it works.

I think I approached 'Captain Phillips' as I would any project. I always try to understand the story, characters, and themes as deeply as possible and then work as hard as I can to make those things come to life.

'Chicago' kind of set the bar in terms of how we approach musicals, and tone is one of the key elements.

Some actors just have a quality, a way of combining music and character and story, where everything just falls into place.

I weave the company into what we laughingly call 'Jack's novel.' I write this novel for them about who they are and what's going on in their world. When I had 90 people in 'Porgy and Bess,' each had a story, history and family relationship.

The thing about 'Next to Normal' is that it really is an ensemble piece for six actors. They are all asked to do very important things in the show, and I think all six are equal in terms of telling the story.

At the end of the day, whatever you're doing in the ring, you want it to look real, and genuine, and authentic.

I think the first role I ever played was the Magic Carpet in 'Aladdin Jr.' I did a lot of tap dancing and not a lot of dialogue. But I loved it so much, and I loved the way people responded to the characters.

The difference between one writer and the other, or one director and the other, is the way he deals with a scene.

As a director, what I'm trying to do is to create interesting stories.

All I have tried to do as an actor is push good story telling.

The true art is being able to take whatever the writer's done, and if it is a bit flimsy or it is a bit rushed or is just box-ticking writing, then the true artist would be able to make that come off the page and sing for an audience or a viewer. I'm still learning how to do that properly.