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For me, in the audition, the song that you choose should make you cry. It doesn't matter why: it could be because you're happy, but it gives you that feeling that you're overflowing.
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At the end of 'Next to Normal,' you can see the light. 'There will be light.' That's the reason the show exists. Those are the last four words.
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The really good stuff- the 'Hamiltons' - comes out after decades of writing and being committed.
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Making music has saved my life.
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I would love to play Mary in 'Long Day's Journey Into Night' or 'Virginia Woolf' or a comedy - just, like, a slapstick comedy.
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With a lot of contemporary musicals, the songs are like a calling card: the action stops for them.
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I would say that Cynthia Nixon is somebody I admire, and Toni Collette as well. Those women - their work inspires me, whatever they do.
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As a teen, 'Thunder Road' was always in my head.
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When I was a kid, I wanted to be an actor in classics like Shaw and Shakespeare and Chekov and Ibsen.
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I'm kind of a double middle child.
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Part of the frustration of being bipolar is people don't understand what it feels like.
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Don't get me wrong: I love having my own song and being the center of attention, but I also love being part of the group and making the show work in a more anonymous way.
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I have fallen deeply in love with songs - musical theatre songs included - over the years, and this experience has taught me to hear and honor the writer's voice in my soul.
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My favorite thing as a performing artist is to get a pile of raw material from a writer who says, 'Will you help me make this real?' There's nothing like starting from scratch.
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I take musical theater seriously.
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My Mickey Mouse ears were given to me by a dear friend. They remind me of how I need to be silly.
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When 'Next to Normal' won the Pulitzer, that was the moment I felt the show was being defined. There's a certain confidence that comes with being selected.
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I was 14. I went to see a production of 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,' and when they got to that final song, 'If We Only Have Love,' it was like the top of my head had blown off.
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Nothing is hanging on my walls.
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It's hard being a Barbie doll all the time.
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Sometimes you're the only one who thinks you have a good idea.
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Any kind of grieving that is not allowed causes a break. In our culture, grieving in public is not encouraged, but in other cultures, it is done publicly. Some cultures have walls where people can cry. We don't have that. We have theatre where there's always the chance for you to face things within yourself.
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I just think Brian d'Arcy James is a dream come true. I've known of him ever since I saw him in 'Titanic,' and I fell crazy in love with him at that moment.
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I come from the Midwest, from the suburbs - growing up hanging out at the mall and looking at the corn fields across the street. I kind of was embarrassed by it for a long time. Then I decided, 'Hey, if everyone else can embrace their homeland and where they're from, I can do the same!'