I want to make 'Broadway' a word that doesn't have pejorative connotation. I don't want 'musical theater' to be a dismissive term. I want it to be something that people can be proud of, that people can say, 'Look at the possibilities.'
Thomas Kail
When 'The Sound of Music' aired live on NBC, 18 million people were talking about theater the next day. That's incredible. 'Grease' felt like a chance for me to participate in that landscape.
I think that one of the beautiful things about theatre - and a place like 'Powerhouse' - is that who you are is informing your work. There's actually no separation from that.
Humanity is more important to me than talent... if there's a choice to make, I'll go humanity over talent every time.
I grew up with two sisters, and we owned three movies: 'Grease,' 'It's a Wonderful Life,' and 'Grease 2.' And you can only watch 'Wonderful Life' in the last half of the year. So I don't remember a time when I didn't know 'Grease.'
Fundamentally, what you're trying to do when you're directing is get a group of people who most likely have never met, unify them, and make sure that we're all clear on what we're marching towards.
One of the challenges of being a director is often you don't get to work with your peers. You know, writers can write together, and as a director you get to work with so many wonderful actors and writers and designers. But it's pretty rare that you get a chance to partner in that way with another director.
The beauty of making theater is that you have to go and do it the next day. Making a show nightly is a really difficult skill. It's something every theater actor and every theater maker is challenged with.
One of the greatest compliments anyone could ever give a director is, 'Everybody was in the same show.' That's something I think about constantly.
I didn't really start going to see a lot of musicals and live theater probably until I was in seventh or eighth grade, maybe my first year of high school, and by that time I'd probably seen 'Grease' twice a year every year of my life.
My job is the same if I'm making a new musical or making a play for sixty-five people or doing a live television broadcast. The job is to take care of the actor; the job is to create an environment where they can excel and try to access all their attributes.
When you're driving into D.C. as a young kid and you go over the Key Bridge and see the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and Capitol Building, they become a part of the landscape for you. You are also constantly in contact with this idea that history, and the people that made it, are being remembered.
So much about being a director is getting the show ready for that first preview audience. I have a lot of experience making events that only happen once; it's opening and closing night in the same three-hour span.
I go to each job and open my little briefcase up, and I take out the things that I have or I know. It might be a Swiss army knife, a quart of milk and a ruler. That might be all I can bring to it, but that's what I have.
Fundamentally, one of the things I tend to migrate toward when I'm working is a story about people whose stories aren't told in theater.
As a kid, I wanted to be a sportscaster. On the radio. I loved the idea of painting a picture. I didn't want to be on TV. I wanted to be Jon Miller, who called all the Orioles games.
My pride at being a member of the theater community is deep, and we have a chance to reach a lot of people who might feel like there's a place for them. I want theater to be part of the cultural conversation and be on par with all mediums of television in its ability to be relevant.
I think that the nature of being a human being and someone who works in the creative arts is that you hear the word 'no' a hundred times before you hear the word 'yes.'
