Jonathan Groff

And Maria oftentimes in rehearsal would talk with us about how

The pauses are just as, if not more important than the notes.

The pauses in between the notes and understanding the life that happens in those pauses are so major.

And in that song, there's a kind of, because the character of Frank is trying to persuade, trying to...

manage Charlie's spikiness.

There's almost like a playfulness I find in the pauses, particularly in that one line where I'm waiting for him to break.

I'm waiting for him to melt a little bit.

And that tension is so fun to play.

It's so funny you ask that because like Maria, funnily enough, the success you could hear in the silence.

You could.

Yeah, there's some lines that happen two hours and 40 minutes into an evening after an audience.

One line that has been laid out.

One line that takes over the course of maybe three seconds to say.

And now you've had a whole show, a whole intermission.

And this reappears.

Several of these lines reappear at the very end.

And when you feel those land, it's like, whoa, these people are really listening and picking up that detail that starts with his writing.

Yes, I'm thinking about a specific dialogue line.

It's just after... I can't talk about it without crying.

The line comes after the character of Mary.