If you really want to help the American theater, don't be an actress, dahling. Be an audience.
To watch Lin Manuel Miranda... you could not make a better spokesperson for Broadway in a laboratory.
After a West End run, in which I was promoted to Laertes, I joined the RSC in 1972. I had fulfilled my dream.
Under Todd Haimes' leadership, Roundabout created a black-box theater whose sole mission was to house premieres by writers who are just starting out and have zero name recognition.
If you've seen Mary Poppins and The Grinch, come to the Booth Theater and let me shove a little coal down your stocking.
I have this huge, huge fan base of people who've never seen a Broadway show, but I think it's a great introduction to what Broadway is because my shows are not that. I think that if you're getting people to go to theater then somebody should be celebrating that.
Anything one can do to provoke and inspire an interest in the works of Shakespeare in a young audience is fair game. Anything.
I really like reaching out and seeing the audience - they're potential audiences! And on occasion I can make them excited about going to the theater again, if they've ceased or gone less.
I wish it was possible to do the work and not have to talk about it, but it is traditional in the theater to go into the village square and bang the drum and say, 'Come see this show, come see this show.'
New York is not conductive to theater. New York does not encourage its young. It does not encourage experimentation.
All this thing that L.A. doesn't have any love for the theater isn't true.
When I was 20 years old and first with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, we had an 88-seat theater in a basement and no money.
All I know is that as an audience member, I am less and less inclined to go to the theater. But that has to do with content and also because the venues seem to be actively trying to repel people.
I actually run a non-profit where one of the main objectives is to branch out and get a new audience for the theater. Just because the writing is so good and nothing is more effective than seeing something live and happening right in front of your face, so I definitely want to continue to pursue that.
