NR: I read that you were born in New York and raised in Florida.

FW: I was born in Harlem and I was here until I was fourteen. Then I lived in Hollywood, Florida until seventeen, and since then California and New York, back and forth continuously.

NR: So you've spent some time living in New York. Do you think the city had a big influence on you?

FW: The city itself? Sure. Just given the multi-ethnicity of it, you get to hear so many rhythms. Yeah, absolutely.

NR: Did you write music as a child?

FW: No. I took piano lessons when I was nine years old for two weeks. I dropped that immediately because it was getting into my football time. I didn't pick it up again until I picked it up myself when I was fifteen.

NR: So, when did you decide you wanted to compose for a living?

FW: That happened the second I started teaching myself how to play the piano. I'm an ex-jock that writes songs. Writing, to me, is not an intellectual or a cerebral exercise. It's very much an emotional or sensual kind of thing. I always say that writing is like fishing. The songs are there. Some days I catch a big one...some days I don't catch much.

I'm a self-taught musician. I learned to play in Florida and soon thereafter I had my bands - rock and roll bands, jazz bands, R & B bands. But I was always writing original things for the bands while we were doing cover tunes. I really can't remember a day that I didn't play or that I didn't write.

NR: Did you set your sights on Broadway early, or did that come later on?

FW: First of all, it's theater, it's not Broadway. Broadway's a few blocks between a couple avenues...

NR: OK, that's true. I suppose I should have said "theater."

FW: But there's a huge difference, and it's that "Broadway mentality" that I kind of shy away from. I believe theater is a national and international world. It's for everybody. It's mostly for the people who pay their hard-earned money and come and want to go on a journey with you. I think the word "Broadway" unto itself is kind of limiting, and as a matter of fact, these days, as I'm sure you're aware if you read the press, it's a mentality that I would like to be much more than. I think it's a very closed mentality.

NR: OK, let's rephrase that. Did you set your sights on theater writing early?

FW: No. I just love music. I'm a composer. When I work in the theater, I'm a theater composer. When I'm writing for Whitney Houston or Kenny Rogers or Natalie Cole, I'm a pop composer. I've been commissioned by the Bolshoi Ballet to do a full length ballet, so I'm a classical composer when I'm doing that. I'm just a composer, and depending on the medium I work in, that's what I am that day.

NR: I've read a few interviews with you about the way you write, but I doubt that everybody else has read those. You said you do it differently...

FW: Well, I just never do it the same way twice. When I'm writing for an artist like Linda (Eder), my wife, or I'm writing for a pop artist, I'm very free. When I sit down, I'm free and I can go wherever the emotions or thoughts or feelings I have take me that day. I try to be as honest as I can be with the music. When I'm writing for the theater, then I have different responsibilities. I have responsibilities to the show and to where the show wants to go. So, whether it's to move a plot point along with my music, or for the music to give you insight into the emotions or feelings of the character, then all of a sudden I have some parameters. What am I looking for in that space? So, I write to that responsibility. It's different. It's always different.

NR: Is that a little harder when you have limits?

FW: No. Actually it makes it more fun because it's never the same way twice. In one single day of writing, I'll write for the theater and for pop or different things, and the reason I do that is to keep myself fresh. So many writers...if you write only one thing and you're so focused on one thing and nothing else, (especially when your hands are at the piano, they tend to go to the same place a lot), and I try to diversify that as much as I can.

NR: That was my next question. It seems like you are working on many projects at once.

FW: (big smile) I have to. I have a very short attention span. Right now I'm working on three or four shows. We've just finished Linda's new album. I'm getting ready to start a big new project here at Atlantic (Records) - an album project. I've got to do it that way.

NR: Does it get confusing at all?

FW: No, it keeps it exciting.

NR: That's great. Do you actively look for source material if you want to write a show? Or, do you just stumble on something and say, "Wow, this would make a great musical?"

FW: Again, it's really a combination of both. Sometimes somebody will bring me an idea and I will say, "That's worth exploring. Let me see if I can find the musical vocabulary for that." Scarlet Pimpernel is the best example of that. That project was brought to me by Jimmy Nederlander, Sr. in 1989. I had not seen the movie and I had not read the book. I didn't know what a pimpernel was, so I did my research. I read the books...there's many of them...it's a series actually. I saw the movie. Then I saw the mini-series and I tried to find the musical vocabulary that would work for me. I did and then we went from there. That's an example that came from an outside source, as opposed to Jekyll & Hyde which really was my idea. I wanted to do that.

NR: Now with Pimpernel, I know you and Nan (Knighton) had a concept CD long before you had a book.

FW: Yeah. That comes from my relationship with the record companies. We're sitting here at Atlantic Records and I always walk the corridors of the record company as much as I walk theater. In fact, my life gets out of balance when I'm not making as many records as I'm doing theater. That's why I'm kind of taking a breath right now.

NR: It took you so many years... Jekyll & Hyde was a long journey.

FW: Seventeen years.

NR: Seventeen - wow! Getting it to Broadway, what did it feel like on Opening Night?

FW: It was great, but as all journeys are, never what you think the ending is going to be. That's why I'm a person who doesn't pay much attention to the endings of things. Songs I wrote that I thought were going to be hits, nobody liked. Songs I thought were "eh" made millions of dollars. Jekyll & Hyde, because it took so long, there were so many times that people said, "Frank, give it up. It's just not going to happen." But, no matter where it played and no matter who heard the music, the reaction was always such that I put my faith in that reaction and in the people. I wouldn't take "no" for an answer and the reason we're sitting here today is because of Jekyll & Hyde. I didn't have to do theater. In fact, I do pop and I'm a record guy too. It was the love affair I had with theater because of Jekyll & Hyde that even let me go to another project. Then, through Jekyll & Hyde I figured out I can make records and do theater at the same time in the same project. I can combine my pop sensibility with a theatrical sense, so I said, "This is fun. Let's explore this further."

NR: Were those the biggest surprises? First of all that you can do both and...that you really can't tell what people are going to like?

FW: Yeah, I'm a regular guy. I'm a man of the people. If I'm nothing else, I'm that. So, when I sit down at the piano and I write something and it moves me, or I get excited by it, then my faith will always be that it will move most people. Thank God, so far, knock on wood...

NR: It's doing very well. I understand the one thousandth performance is coming up soon.

FW: It is and after this year we'll have nine Jekyll & Hydes around the world. We're going to have Tokyo and Madrid next year. We're about to open in Sweden. Germany's doing great. We're talking with Australia. We've already done Holland and Belgium. You know, we're getting there.

NR: How about London? I received a question about that.

FW: It's on its way. It is absolutely on its way. I hope very much after Pimpernel opens in September that Pimpernel follows in those footsteps. It's a very different way, very different show, very different kind of thing, but I am putting my faith in Pimpernel that it will also have an international scenario.

NR: Are you amazed at the journey that Pimpernel has taken?

FW: Yeah, but you know what? After Jekyll, because of so many years, and just being in the entertainment business, nothing surprises me anymore. I think the thing about Pimpernel that is so amazing...I always say this...the most any artist can ask for is that their voice get a chance to be heard and then you have faith that it will work. With Pierre Cossette and Bill Haber, Ted Forstmann, Kathleen Raitt, Hallmark - they gave me that chance. The fact that it went through the life that it did, and then for Ted Forstmann with Dave Checketts and Madison Square Garden to come in and give us a second chance for our voice to be heard, and probably in a way more like what we would have liked the first time, that's amazing, and it is surprising. In fact, it was so amazing that I didn't think Pimpernel was going to have a life because of all the struggles, so I said to my kids, "If this happens, whatever I make from it goes to you" and I've done that, because it's such a gift and I'm very grateful for the gift.

NR: That's wonderful. And here we are, you're about to open SP3.

FW: Yeah and I think, given from what I've seen and heard of the show so far, if we just get over the first hump, and we educate the public that we are here, I can't see any reason why we won't run for a long time. The show works. It's entertaining and it's a lot about what theater's supposed to be and it's great.

NR: You had this great thrill of being the first American composer in, I think it was twenty years, to have three shows run at the same time. Then, not too long after that, Civil War closed and Pimpernel temporarily closed. What was that like? That's such a huge difference.

FW: No, it's fine. If the goal was just to have shows on Broadway then I might have thought differently. But, like I said to you, I've always been very consistent on what my goals are. My goals are to write shows that I love, do them with people I love to make music with, and hopefully share them with the world. The fact of the matter is Civil War starts a two year tour in Cincinnati in January. Pimpernel, even if it wasn't about to open, starts a two year tour in February in New Haven. The shows now have lives and the copyrights have lives. The albums sell great. When you add up Jekyll with Pimpernel and Civil War, a couple million people have seen this stuff and experienced it. In fact, with Jekyll, something like eighty thousand people a week see Jekyll between the tours, Broadway and the international productions. That's what it's about. I don't get into that mentality. That's something you should know about me. I've always been consistent. I'm a music guy who works in the theater and I don't get carried away with things like that. The theater is a wonderful life and a wonderful place to work in, and you work with wonderful people. It's also a very small, envious, jealous, back-biting strange world of which...that part of the world I try to keep a distance from. I keep a distance from it by being true to myself and just being a musician.

NR: Do you think there was a way to make Civil War where it would have been more accepted? I honestly think it will do very well on the road.

FW: I think it's going to do great on the road. I think The Civil War not succeeding on Broadway had to do with things like...if Civil War ran at the same costs that Jekyll ran at per week, (which it probably should have), we wouldn't be having that conversation. It would still be running. The costs got a little out of hand to a place where it couldn't support itself. When we closed we were wrapping well and we had over a million dollars in the bank but we were just losing too much per week based on what the weekly running costs were. So, it had a lot to do with economics. That's number one. Number two - we really failed in the marketing research on Civil War. It was very hard for women, and mothers especially, to put the words "Civil War" and "entertainment" in the same sentence. Because women buy 70% of Broadway tickets, that was a tough hurdle to overcome. I think what we're probably going to do on the tour is that we'll have a lot of stars in the show. I think that will help the "entertainment" education of what it is and help bring people in. I do believe it's going to do great on the road.

NR: I do too. I think it will do better away from that closed community you spoke of.

Did you expect to evoke such strong sentiment from people? It seems that you either have people who adore everything you do, or they absolutely hate everything you do, no matter what.

FW: I look at it this way. We're making something. I'd rather have people react strongly to it because of something about it that touched a nerve, positive or negative, than walking by it and ignoring it. What's the point? So, I'm OK with that, as long as there are more people that love it.

NR: Do you feel like you're fighting an uphill battle with some critics?

FW: I don't even feel it's a battle. I'm not fighting anybody. That's a combative kind of...someone asked me the other day, "With the success you have, do you feel vindicated?" I said "No" because that means there's vindictive qualities in there. No, that's not who I am. I get too much joy and fun out of doing what I do. Whether I play in a band or I'm writing for these artists or I'm writing for the theater, I'm the same guy. You have to know that. If you know that and understand that about me, you'll know my disposition and why that stuff doesn't bother me much. What does bother me is the fact that people I love, like my parents or my kid, read that. They get exposed to it and then they worry about me because people are attacking their son, or attacking their dad. That's a tough thing to deal with because I have to tell them, "Don't worry about it. We're OK." Let's face it. Critics are in the business of criticizing. That's what they're in the business to do. They're going to do that. The fact that they didn't support Jekyll & Hyde, and it became so successful, just annoys them even more.

NR: Especially if you look at the Best Musical nominations for the `97 Tonys. They're all gone now and Jekyll is still here.

FW: Right. So, if you spend a lot of time thinking about that, you get bitter. I can't do that. I have too much music to make.

NR: The most popular question I received from everybody is the status of all the CDs. I have a list. People want to know when they're coming out. The SP compilation?

FW: That hopefully is coming out in September.

NR: The Civil War OBC - I guess that's not going to happen.

FW: No, I don't see that happening.

NR: That's a shame.

FW: It is a shame but it's a double edged sword. It is a shame, but if I didn't do the album that I did, with all of those stars, there wouldn't have been a Civil War. That was the calling card that made the show work. I apologize to the fans because I hear from them. The girls tell me people are mad at me that I'm not doing a cast album, but at the end of the day, we're talking here at Atlantic Records. I'm a theater composer. You don't know another theater composer who has a deal like I do at a major record label, that supports his or her theater work like Atlantic Records supports mine. I have nothing but appreciation, loyalty and gratitude to the fact that I come up with these ideas before they're ever shows, and Atlantic, just on the basis of hearing the music, and feels that they have a voice that should be heard, puts these records out.

NR: Linda's latest?

FW: Linda's latest is right here in my hand. This is the master that I just got today. I have to bring it home so I can play it for her when I get home. That will be out the end of September or beginning of October and Linda will be at Carnegie Hall February 2nd. What else can I tell you about Linda? We're about to have a baby in a couple weeks.

NR: Svengali?

FW: Svengali. I don't know. The answer is it will have a life - it's one of our favorite pieces. It was great working on it and I hope it will have its day.

NR: As a show or a CD?

FW: Both. It will definitely be a recording and we'll see. A lot depends on...Linda and I are about to go through a change of life here. This is our first child and we have many projects - Havana, Svengali, Queen Christine, other things that Linda would like to do, but let's have the baby, which is our most important production, and let's see how she's feeling both mentally and physically, and how hard she wants to work after that, and how fast. Does she want to get back into the grind? Does she want to just do concerts for a year and support the new record, and then the year after do theater again? I don't know. She's the boss. She'll let me know what she wants to do.

NR: The Symphonic Wildhorn album?

FW: Yeah. As a matter of fact, I have the opportunity now to be an artist on Atlantic Records and do symphonic records, which will be ten or fifteen minute symphonic suites or ballets of all the shows, plus the music I wrote for the Goodwill Games, plus things from shows you haven't heard of yet. I'll probably do that this fall or winter, except that there is a new project which I cannot tell you the name of today, that has come into my life, that I'm very excited about, that I think in the next few weeks will come to reality here at Atlantic. It's records first and if that happens, I'm probably going to do that first.

NR: Then, I understand there's supposed to be an ultimate Jekyll & Hyde boxed set?

FW: Yeah, there will be. Basically it will probably be called "The Lab" or something like that. What we're going to do is take the best from the RCA album, the two Atlantic albums, the German album, the Spanish album that's coming out later this year, some demos, some things that nobody's ever heard, and put it all in one thing. The thing is that it needs a lot of my time, a lot of time to put it together and I've simply got to find the time. Atlantic is waiting for me to do it as well and I just need to find the time to put it together.

NR: What about Havana?

FW: Havana is an original, romantic musical comedy for Linda. There are four songs from Havana on Linda's new album that will be out so people will hear some of the stuff. Again, I think that the schedule for Havana will have a lot more to do with Linda's health and how fast she wants to get back into the theater. Don't forget - Linda's got an incredible concert career where you don't have to do it eight times a week, and you make a lot more money. She loves theater and we all want to do more of it, don't get me wrong. It's just a timing thing. We'll know later.

NR: So, what kind of music do you listen to?

FW: If you turned on my stereo in the car right now, you would hear John Barry's new album. He's the guy who does instrumental movie scores. You would hear the Schindler's List album. I think that score from John Williams is absolutely gorgeous. You would hear Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours. Hmm, what else is on there now? I think Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits or something like that. It's very eclectic. It constantly changes. It's all kinds of things.

NR: So, you really do listen to music to relax?

FW: Oh, yeah.

NR: Do you by any chance have a favorite song that you've written? Or is that too hard to pick?

FW: That's too hard to pick. That's like asking about your favorite child. I don't know. That's just too tough. I can't answer it. I have favorite songs from Pimpernel. I have favorite songs from Jekyll and things like that. That's an easier question to answer.

NR: Do you want to tell me a few?

FW: Yeah, from Pimpernel? Certainly. For different reasons, "Prayer," "Into the Fire," "Storybook," "I'll Forget You." "You Are My Home" - but the first version of that with Linda and Peobo Bryson. Then the song called "Home Again" that Linda did on the pre-cast version.

From Jekyll, it's "Someone Like You." That song kind of represents a whole chunk of my life with Linda, transcending the show itself. "In His Eyes," "A New Life," "Dangerous Game," "Once Upon A Dream" and "This Is the Moment." "This Is the Moment" for reasons because I'm an ex-jock and I love music and sports together, and the fact that "This Is the Moment" has had this entire life in the sports world...I watch that stuff and it gets to me. So, that's special to me.

NR: How about Civil War?

FW: "Sarah," "I Never Knew His Name," "If Prayin' Were Horses" are some of my favorites. It's almost different talking about Civil War because Civil War is such a song cycle. The song writer in me loves The Civil War score as a song writer. Knowing I was writing this for Hootie (and the Blowfish) and this for Trisha (Yearwood) and this for Linda...I love the fact that I was able to take that part of me and put it into the context of a theater project.

NR: OK. What do you do to relax? You have the craziest schedule I've ever seen.

FW: I play ball. I ride horses. We have a horse farm up in Westchester. I ski a lot in the winter. I hang out with my kids.

NR: Good for you. Frank, thank you so much for your time.

FW: Thank you. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for all of you.

NR: Well, I can return the compliment. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for you either. Thanks again.

FW: You're welcome.

I enjoyed speaking with Frank very much. He impressed me greatly with his ability to put things into perspective and not allow the world around him to remove his focus from what he feels is important. His music has given me and my family countless hours of enjoyment, and for that I am very grateful. I wish him and Linda the best with the upcoming birth of their child, and look forward to their new projects in the future.

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