Maria Friedman

I mean, he's a great collaborator, so he wouldn't step on the toes of the staging, but the staging is only part of directing.

There's a kind of reverence about Steve which he hated.

So they had the published score and I was being made to sing like it was Charlie.

Like...

Down here.

Because it was printed in that score.

So I was like, Charlie... Anyway, he came into the rehearsal room and he just looked at the musical director and Terry said, why is she singing down there?

And they said, well, it's in the score.

He said, I write for people.

I don't write an idea that...

So up it went by a fifth and suddenly it was, guess what, in my key.

And I had been saying to them, he won't mind, but they were like, he's coming in, it's got to be in this thing.

So that was the first thing.

I tore up the, it's got to be in this key.

So when an actor arrives with me and it's out of there, we change the key.

We make it fit them.

Second thing is...

It's all about the detail.

So if ever you skimmed past a thought or an idea or a subtext, he would sit cross-legged looking into my eyes, maybe two foot away, and just going, nope, what are you thinking?

Nope, what's that?