What better way to close out Center Stage at the Neil Simon than a follow up interview with Nan Knighton - the woman who was largely responsible for making it all happen, and for keeping The Scarlet Pimpernel on Broadway for what will be a total of 772 performances when it closes on January 2, 2000? SP was Nan's first Broadway show and it earned her a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical in 1998. She is also responsible for the stage adaptation of Saturday Night Fever, which is currently doing spectacular business in Pimpernel's former house, the Minskoff Theatre.

A note about the pictures - the photos I took of Nan for this interview did not come out well, so thanks to Renee Girard, I have included pictures of Nan with Douglas Sills from last February. Coincidently, these shots were taken the night I was introduced to Nan for the first time, so they hold special meaning for me.

NR: Here we are at yet another milestone in the SP story. What are you feeling right now?

NK: Oh, my God! Vis-a-vis Pimpernel, I suppose of the 25 emotions that I have, the one at the top is gratitude. It's primarily gratitude to the producers and I include in that the original producers as well as the current producers. This is a show that could easily have died after two months and it's here in its third year, and yes, it's about to close, but how astounding that it's run for all this time. I was thinking the other day, "What am I going to do when it closes?" and my first thought was I'm going to write letters to the producers and thank them again, because it's rare. The typical scenario in the theater when a show isn't doing well financially, and/or gets bad reviews, it's got a really limited life and "bye-bye." This show has been so lucky, and I feel like I've been so lucky that we've had such amazing producer support and I've never appreciated more in my life how crucial that is. I think most artists going into the theater just kind of put the idea of a producer on the back shelf - "Oh, I've got to find a producer." I don't think they realize that that's critical. That's your life blood, whether you're going to be able to run or not. You can have the best show in the world, if you don't have advertising, no one's ever going to know or go see it. You could have a producer who interfered or who dictated artistic decisions. You could have producers who didn't believe in it. It's an extremely important element and I feel enormously lucky that we've had the producers we've had. That's my number one emotion.

My number two emotion is "Thank God it's going on the road." I think that my sorrow is really mitigated by the fact that I know it's going to keep living, that it's going to be going town to town and people who've never seen it will be able to see it. That makes me really happy. It may be that the bulk of the tri-state area that was going to see this show, has seen this show. So fine. That happens with some shows. It sort of plays itself out within the area. But there are all those people, all around the country, who haven't seen it and that makes me really happy that they're going to see it.

I guess those are both positive emotions. I'm not feeling too much sadness about the closing in New York. I would be if there was no future beyond that. Then my feelings have also been completely entangled with Saturday Night Fever. I've been spending much more time over there at the Minskoff in the last six months than I have at the Simon. It's funny because it's like I've developed a real emotional attachment to the Minskoff. I think my ghost will come back and haunt the Minskoff because I've had such happy times there. It feels like home. I go in the stage door and there's Mike or Nathan. I go up and I talk to Helen (ladies room matron) and the ushers, Mike the electrician. It's like a second home and I love it. When Pimpernel left the Minskoff, I stayed there, and I think if Fever had been at a different theater, that I might not have felt quite the emotional attachment to Fever that I felt with it coming into the Minskoff.

NR: Really? That surprises me.

NK: It's possible. I don't know. It's just that I already thought of the Minskoff as home, and then Fever came into my home, so I was still home. Pimpernel went to the Simon, which I never really got to know.

NR: What's your worst memory from the show?

NK: That's really easy. It was the night that Pimpernel 1.0 opened. I had so many friends try to prepare me, friends in the theater who tried to prepare me for bad reviews. Bob Avian, who was Michael Bennett's partner (he co-choreographed Dreamgirls and Chorus Line and all those shows) was brought in to help with choreography in the last two weeks of previews before Pimpernel 1.0 opened. He was already a friend and I would go out to dinner with Bob between rehearsals and the preview that night. Bob is the gentlest man in the world and he would say, "You know, when bad reviews come out, it really hurts." And I would say, "Oh, yeah, I can imagine." Then he'd kind of look at me and think, "No, she doesn't get it at all." Then he'd try again. He'd take a deep breath and he would say, "And the pain kind of goes on for several weeks because the reviews keep coming in. You're through with the newspaper reviews and the television reviews, but then the magazine reviews come in, and then the regional newspaper reviews come in, so the pain kind of goes on for awhile." I would just go, "Uh huh." I would hear people saying things like this to me, but I thought, "It's not going to happen." I knew there were problems, but night after night of seeing preview audiences on their feet, cheering, and having such a good time...I did not yet know that that can be very deceptive. It's not deceptive in terms of the show - people genuinely loved that show. It's very deceptive in terms of what kind of reviews are going to come in. The thing that I didn't realize, which I think really does hold true, is that there are an enormous number of people out there who choose what show they're going to see based on the reviews. I've had a lot of times when I have trounced around saying to people, "It isn't true. Nobody pays attention to reviews" and that's bull. They do, they just plain do. I went into Opening Night feeling that it was going to be wonderful. I can remember that one of the first things that happened Opening Night was that I saw Bill Haber backstage and I said, "Do we know anything yet?" He said, "I know we've got at least two unqualified raves." I thought, "Oh, my God!" As it turns out, they were the only two good reviews that we got. One of them was from Michael Sommers of The Star Ledger. God Bless Michael Sommers. He's the best. There was one other good print review but I can't remember what it was. Earlier in the day I had seen the Variety review, which was horrible, so I had a quiver in my bones already. But I still thought after Bill mentioned the raves, "Well, maybe we're going to be OK."

I didn't watch the show Opening Night. I would just sort of go in and out of the back, but mainly I stayed out in the lobby and paced around and smoked. Adrian Bryan-Brown and Michael Hartman (SP's publicists at the time) were out in the lobby. Adrian looked like he had just lost his entire family on the Titanic. He just sat there. Michael was at least making attempts to smile. I finally went up to Adrian and I said, "What is it? Do you know things? Is it really bad?" Adrian said, "Oh, no, I always look this way Opening Night," which of course was not true. So, I sort of began to have a feeling.

After the show was over we went to the party. It was sort of this whirlwind. I had dreamed for so many years of the Opening Night party when it would be my Opening Night. It's inevitable, particularly for someone like me who's been to so many Opening Nights because of my husband's business, that I would have that dream. Everything was different from what I thought. I never got any food. I wanted a drink so badly.

NR: It sounds like when you're getting married.

NK: Exactly. That's exactly what it was like. I wanted a drink so badly. Nobody was saying anything about reviews so I was starting to get really nervous. I went downstairs where it was setup like a French cafe and that was where all the smokers were. I went down there and that's when I found out that the reviews had started coming in and that they were bad. It was like being walloped in the stomach with a mallet. I just don't know how to describe it because it was the shock and the pain all together. I went up to James Judy who had become a really close friend. I sat down in his lap and I said, "They've crucified us." He said, "Oh, honey, no" because none of us could believe it. We were all such a happy family.

(laughs) Then we started drinking. Dave Clemmons gave an impromptu last minute party at his place after the Opening Night party. About fifty of us went to Dave's apartment and stayed till about 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning. The pain just kept building and building. We were all trying to keep each other buoyed up and it was getting harder and harder. Nick Corley was with me - dear Nick - sort of babysitting me. I finally turned to Nick around 3:30 and said, "I have to leave now because I know I'm going to cry." Nick and I left and we got about 20 steps and I burst into tears. We were standing on a corner and I sobbed for about fifteen minutes in Nick's arms. The strange thing was that a man came up, whose face I never saw. He was homeless or a drunk and he started talking to Nick. He said, "Why is that girl so sad? That girl shouldn't be so sad. That girl should be happy." I just kept sobbing into Nick's shoulder and Nick said, "Well, she's just a little sad right now but she'll be OK." The man kept talking and he was saying, "When I was in the Second World War..." and he started talking about his war experiences and he kept returning to this thing of "Why is that girl so sad? She should be happy." Then he went away and I pulled back from Nick and said, "Do you think that was some angel?" He said, "Well, the thing is, Nan, he really looked like my father who was in World War II and died."

NR: Wow!

NK: So Nick and I both decided he was an angel, who wandered up on the street to say, "Don't be sad." Then Nick took me home in a cab and it was now 4:00 in the morning. My husband was asleep in bed. I had sent him home because I just needed to be with the cast. I went over to his side of the bed. I sunk down on my knees by his side of the bed and burst into tears. I just said, "It hurts. It hurts so much. I don't understand. Why did this have to happen? It just hurts so much." It really, really, really hurt. He got up with me and we went into my office. I sat down on the floor and started going through the bag with all my Opening Night presents that people had given me - all the actors in the cast. I took out each little thing from the different actors and I cried some more. Those moments of pain, particularly crying on the street with Nick and then crying at home with John, are probably my worst memory of the show. The pain was so excruciating.

NR: That must have been awful. Now, there were good memories, lots of good memories. What are the best ones? Can you narrow it down?

NK: Wow. Most of the memories are good. All the rehearsal period with Pimpernel 1.0 was fun. Even when we knew there were problems, the cast was so close. We were all so close. Douglas was at the top of it and his mood and persona just filtered down through the whole cast so that we were always laughing. And Terry (Mann) too. Douglas and Terry got along so beautifully. And Christine (Andreas). I almost can't remember a day of rehearsal that we weren't all hysterical. There was the day that Douglas pulled his pants off in the middle of rehearsal and we all laughed for ten minutes.

I have an enormous number of happy moments with Doug. I think of little things - going into his dressing room and just sitting there talking to him and just feeling very happy. Opening Night of Pimpernel 2.0 was a very happy memory because it was the opposite - we found out we had gotten good reviews. That was wonderful. The lack of pain was wonderful. I loved the Closing Night of Pimpernel 2.0, even though I wept through the whole thing from the back of the theater. I hadn't known I was going to cry.

NR: I knew. I certainly cried.

NK: I didn't know I was going to because I knew what the plan was. The plan was to rehearse, go away for the summer and then come back to the Simon.

NR: Yeah, but that group was never going to be there again.

NK: That group was never going to be there again and Douglas was going. I stood in the back of the theater and found myself crying. Bryan (Batt) came up and held my hand for awhile and then I found Michael Hartman. Michael put his arms around me and Michael was sobbing. Michael and I were both standing there sobbing, but it was a happy thing too. It was a very happy night and I think we all felt we had done a really good job. Bobby (Longbottom) had come in and he had really made wonderful changes. The show was solid and we all felt proud of ourselves. We had lots of parties that night. I remember sitting with Michael Hartman and Bill Evans at Marlowe's at three in the morning, all laughing and having a good time. That was a happy memory. The Christmas party first year was so much fun.

NR: I heard about that. Terry Richmond told me about it in her interview.

NK: About eight or nine people in the cast played musical instruments and they formed a little band in the lobby. New Year's Eve, that first year, we all watched the confetti fall, looking through the windows of the Minskoff. I could probably name 250 happy moments.

NR: (laughing) No, that's OK. Would you do it again?

NK: Oh, yeah. I would but I would do it slightly differently and I wouldn't let myself be so stressed out. I was so extraordinarily vulnerable and I think that was why the pain was so enormous that first time. I didn't know what to expect. I was new to it. I would go into it a little more with my eyes wide open and a little less "Pollyanna." I would absolutely do it again...and again and again. Each time I would try to avoid mistakes from before.

NR: There aren't going to be any more rewrites for the tour, are there?

NK: Um...(pause)

NR: Are we into SP4 now?

NK: You will notice that Nan is hesitating with this answer. In the best of all possible worlds, there will be no rewrites because I'm working on a play and all kinds of things that I will need to be doing. It is possible that there will be some rewrites. I'm not going to get into specifics but it is conceivable that there may be some changes, in which case we would be looking at a Pimpernel 4.0.

NR: (incredulous) That big? You're kidding me, because 2.0 and 3.0 weren't really that different. There were modifications, but the biggest differences were in interpretation...and the lack of ladies' room stalls. (laughs)

NK: (laughs) I don't know. I can't say anything more right now because it's too up in the air.

NR: What legacy is Pimpernel going to leave Broadway? You've got the downsizing, corporate producers, casting an unknown as the lead...

NK: I would hope the legacy would be "Never give up." First of all, I hope that it lasts and lasts and continues to have life around the country and the world. In terms of its Broadway run, I would hope the legacy would be "Don't give up on a show too soon." There are shows that I think people have given up on too soon, and they could have run. They could have had audiences had they been handled correctly and I think we're a prime example.

NR: What about the downsizing? Do you think that was successful or not?

NK: We're not the only show that's downsized and I don't think Pimpernel per se is going to be connected with downsizing. Everybody is doing it, or going to be doing it, and that's a problem with the Broadway theater. There is a real problem with the Broadway theater today that has to do with money. The running costs per week are so high that people can't even break even. It's very real, and as long as this situation keeps up, if people are trying to do a show with the French Revolution or whatever, they're going to find that the only way to do it for any length of time is to do it downsized.

NR: Do you think it's going to have to be corporate producers, or will "old-school" producers still do a show?

NK: I think we need more "new old-school" producers. We need more brilliant, excited, younger people coming into this business saying, "I know how to do this better than it's being done. I know where to cut the costs and where to spend the money, and I know how to get a hold of that person with the extra million who wants to put it into this show." We need more of those because there are so few of those left. As for the corporate thing, I just hope the corporate people don't get disillusioned. I hope the corporate people are willing to stay around, because if they continue to take losses, then they're not going to be interested. Right now, the corporate people are a blessing to the theater. Who else would have taken on Pimpernel?

NR: They could afford to advertise, which certainly helped.

NK: They could afford to advertise, which is an extremely important part of it. It really is. I understand so much more now about the business part of it than I did going in. Before we went into rehearsals on Pimpernel 1.0, and people would talk to me about the weekly nut, I would just say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah...whatever." They'd say, "Well, we really can't have this." Do you remember in Pimpernel 1.0 when Marguerite came out and stood on her balcony in her nightgown?

NR: Yes.

NK: Well, originally there was a stairway coming out from the balcony that she walked down in her nightgown. They would say that had to be cut because we had to cut down on the weekly nut. I said, "OK" but I didn't get it. Now I get it.

NR: Do you think there's some unknown out there who may actually be cast in a show because Douglas did so well? That casting directors might be more willing to take the risk?

NK: Absolutely. There's no question in my mind about that. That certainly is a legacy that this show will leave as well. He came in, not only a total unknown but somebody who was on the verge of giving up acting, and he wasn't 24. He was 37 and just took Broadway by storm. He got those reviews that said "the best theatrical performance of the decade" or something like that. Biased as I am, he should have won the Tony Award. Absolutely, particularly now that Pimpernel's had a substantial run and it's now a part of Broadway annals. People will look back and say, "Why shouldn't we try this guy? Look what happened with Douglas Sills."

NR: As for the future, they're going to do the national tour, which Douglas told me will last for two years.

NK: It's a two year tour.

NR: It's confirmed only till August but I assume other dates are coming up. So, the people in other states will hopefully get a chance to see it.

NK: If they want the show, and it's not scheduled for their town yet, they have to get in touch with the theaters in their towns. Start writing letters and saying, "We want Pimpernel."

NR: And Douglas is only doing through L.A., correct?

NK: As far as I know. He's doing New Haven through L.A. I don't really know any casting beyond that.

NR: Is there a chance that Pimpernel will do a European tour?

NK: Yeah. There's interest in Australia, Japan, England, and Germany. And I may be leaving something out, but I know of those.

NR: When do you think the rights will be available for smaller groups like community groups or schools?

NK: I think you're better off asking somebody else than me. I know there are some kind of strictures and I'm really not sure.

NR: On to Saturday Night Fever - how do you go about adapting a movie?

NK: In this case, there was no question because the producer, who was Robert Stigwood, simply said, "I want the movie up there." Those were the parameters - always. There were some times early on when Arlene Phillips, the director, and I sort of dipped our toes into the water of reconceiving it for the musical stage.

NR: Well, you changed Monty by creating him from two characters.

NK: Yeah, things like that we had to do. There's an enormous number of changes but they're done in such a way that most people don't recognize them. I had to take information that fell in three or four different scenes and put them in one scene. Over and over again I had to put in new dialogue because of the transitions and those sort of things, but I don't think people know that either. But Robert really wanted the movie up there. There was a character of a grandmother in the movie and also in London. Arlene and I both felt that the second act was too gloomy, and also that the family was just left hanging. We really felt that we wanted to have a scene going back to the family, and to develop the grandmother more as a comic character. One of my drafts does that but Robert didn't want anything new or different from the content of the movie. In this case, it was really just take the content of the movie and try to make it as seamless as possible. For me, the most important thing was pulse, that you flew from one scene to the next, and that music be there all the time. If it wasn't there, it was there within the dialogue, and that there was never a feeling of stopping and going stale.

NR: You don't have camera angles like you have in a movie to transition scenes.

NK: Exactly. Essentially the show tries to capture that feeling of cross-cutting, and I think we do it pretty successfully. I think that when movies are adapted for the stage like Footloose or Big...every time you turn around, somebody's bought up another movie because producers today are really wary and they want to do a property that they feel has some sort of built-in guarantee. I think the mistake they make sometimes is thinking that just because something is a successful movie, it will be a successful show. That's just not always the case.

NR: Big is an example of that, but Footloose is hanging in there.

NK: Uh, huh. It is hanging in there, and Saturday Night Fever is doing extremely well.

NR: I know. There's always a line at the box office.

NK: It's really heartening because "my friends" the critics, were again...

NR: You got good reviews in London, didn't you? So, what was the difference?

NK: Yeah, we got good to mixed. Nothing bad.

NR: What was the difference between London and New York?

NK: I think a more unforgiving group of critics.

NR: Was it because it's a New York story and they're more familiar with it?

NK: In London, the critical system is different to begin with. Most critics come on Opening Night, the way that it used to be on Broadway, and they don't view their reviews as pieces of literature. They just view them as something that they're running home and dashing out and printing. They tend to be shorter and they tend to be more relaxed. A typical review that we got for Saturday Night Fever in London was, "Well, you know, you could quibble with this or quibble with that, but it's fun. It's great dancing. Go and you'll enjoy yourself." That's actually the kind of review we got from Time Magazine. I remember when I read the review that Time Magazine gave Saturday Night Fever, I thought this is what all the reviews here should have been, because actually Saturday Night Fever in New York is a better show in almost every way than it is in London.

NR: And it's not great literature. It is what it is.

NK: It is what it is. What I love about Saturday Night Fever is the dancing. I always stuck around for dance rehearsals. That was my favorite part. To watch these kids do these dances is so exciting. I never get tired of watching it - ever. They're just so dynamic and so good. I love Arlene's choreography. It's very sexy, it's very sexual, earthy choreography and I love it. I hope she gets recognized for that come Tony nomination time - God only knows if she will. I think her work is fabulous. I don't know. I feel a little bit cynical about the reviews for Saturday Night Fever. I feel most of the critics had decided what they were going to write before they walked in the theater and it's disturbing. I was just at the theater the other night. I go over about once every week to ten days, take a look, see what's going on, give some notes and stuff. I was sitting with Perry Cline, the Stage Manager, and at the end of the first act, I turned to him and said, "I totally do not understand how this show got such bad reviews." I really meant it. I hadn't seen the show for about three weeks at that point, and I looked at it and I thought, "This is entertaining. This is fun and it moves and it pulses. The dancing's great. Why rip this thing to shreds?"

NR: Personally, I don't think that you were going to win. I read one review that said your adaptation just took pieces of the movie and strung them together. Well, isn't that exactly what an adaptation is?

NK: Right.

NR: Then you were criticized for being too close to the movie, and in another one, you were criticized for not being close enough. You couldn't have won.

NK: No. I also think that there was a bit of an agenda going on in terms of critics thinking, "We have to fight this whole movement of bringing in these rock schlock musicals. This kind of show is a threat to what the Broadway musical is supposed to be, and we want to boot it out of town as fast as we can." I don't know. It's sort of the "intellectually elite" point of view. I didn't feel the kind of pain that I did with Pimpernel, for a lot of different reasons. It really did make me feel disillusioned, because even though I know now that things are not always fair, I still believe that they should be fair. I don't believe that this show got a fair rap. I think the reviews should have been like the Time Magazine review, or the London reviews. I think the reviews should have been "It ain't art, and it's the movie transferred to the stage - it's not reconceived, but you know, these are really attractive, fun, talented kids and they're dancing and they're singing. You'll enjoy it and at the end you get to stand up and dance along and it's a fun evening. Go and have fun." The thing that's interesting to me is that I have people in my building, "conservative investment banker-type" people, who will pull me aside and tell me, "I loved it." My whole feeling about the critics is that it's all Emperor's New Clothes and the critics tell the people what they should think. Then, even before the critics tell people what they should think, there's word of mouth on the street during previews that gets through to the critics telling them what they should think. And it's all Emperor's New Clothes. It goes both ways too. It will often be that way about a show that's supposed to be "the second coming" that isn't really that good. People will hear, "Oh, it's incredible. It is a masterpiece. It is brilliant." Then other people are afraid to say, "I didn't like it very much." When word is that a show is lousy, people are afraid to say, "I like it." So you're always dealing with that phenomenon, and I'm determined at some point to write a show or a play that's based on The Emperor's New Clothes because to me it's so much a part of life, people being unable or unwilling to stand up and say, "Hello. The emperor is naked." No one will do that and I feel that Saturday Night Fever is fun. It's entertainment. Want to have some fun? Go see it and have some fun. That's the way it should have been reviewed and it wasn't going to happen.

NR: Do they have a fan base like the League?

NK: They do have a fan base but I don't know if it could be anything like the League. Weren't some of the original actors very involved in the beginning of the League?

NR: No, not really, but a lot of people originally came from Jekyll & Hyde. The other point is that it was a lot easier and cheaper to get tickets for Scarlet Pimpernel than it is for Saturday Night Fever, so people could see it more often.

NK: That's true. They have to wait till it opens at the booth or something.

NR: For that reason, I don't think you're going to get the repeat visitors as much. It's also a very different crowd. I've only seen it once, but I've been outside of the Minskoff after the show a few times and it's a totally different dynamic than the Pimpernel audience. For one thing, 1700 hundred people walk out of the theater, and only about five or ten wait at the stage door. In Pimpernel, you could have 500 people coming out of the theater, and 80 waiting at the stage door. It's a very different crowd.

NK: Yeah, you're absolutely right. I get very interested in what the ushers and Helen have to say. Helen Rogers, who has been my backbone for three years, never saw Pimpernel.

NR: Did she tell you what the buzz was on the line?

NK: Oh, yeah. She would say to me, "The ladies love it. The ladies say it's very good. They really love it." Every couple of months, I would say, "Helen, have you seen it yet?" and she would say, "No." But Helen Rogers has been in to look at Saturday Night Fever a multitude of times. She said, "I'm always going in there. I like to watch that dancing." She's much more enthusiastic about Saturday Night Fever than she ever was about Pimpernel, and so are the ushers. It's fascinating. It's like the ushers and Helen loved Pimpernel because of the familial thing and all of the actors and the struggle we went through, and overcoming adversity, but the ushers and Helen are crazy about Saturday Night Fever. They are all in that theater. Any time they can get a moment, they're standing in the back watching it.

NR: Plus, it will probably keep their jobs longer.

NK: That's interesting to me though.

NR: How has the response been now that you have your public email address? (NanKnighton@yahoo.com)

NK: It's been wonderful. I'm really grateful for it. I try to answer them in the order they come in, so hopefully everyone will be patient. I still have about thirty letters in the yearbook that I haven't answered yet, and I have about thirty emails that came into the yahoo account that I haven't answered yet. To anybody who I haven't written back to yet - I'm sorry, forgive me, please be patient, and I will write back soon.

NR: Are you really going to work with Frank (Wildhorn) again?

NK: I'm working with Frank on two things. He has two albums coming out entitled The Romantics. It's his music and lyrics by different lyricists, of whom I'm one. Each lyricist chooses a couple from history or fiction and does a fifteen to twenty minute musical that will be on one of the albums. I'm doing Camille Claudel and Rodin. Then, he and I will be doing another full-length musical together, but I can't give any details yet.

NR: Tell me about your new play.

NK: It's entitled Man with Two Hearts Found on Moon and it's a comedy, although it has a serious side. It's basically about a group of people on an island who love to play games, and have trouble dealing with love. I hope to workshop it sometime this spring. I'm also going to be doing several nights at Sam's - The Songs of Nan Knighton. I'll give you more details on that when it gets closer.

NR: Is there anything else you want to talk about?

NK: I just want to express my gratitude again to the League and everyone involved with Pimpernel. We were a little nervous going into Pimpernel 3.0, wondering if the fans would accept the new cast, but everybody was so warm and welcoming. There weren't any negative posts on the Message Board about the new show.

NR: It's a great group. I think there's a real sense where people try not to post something that they wouldn't say to the person's face.

NK: I can really appreciate that now. Before all of this I used to read comments in the press about how someone had put on weight, or they didn't put in a good performance, and I would think, "Well, they're in the public eye. They should be able to handle it." Then when it happened to me, I realized that it's extremely painful. I don't care how successful you are, the negative stuff really hurts. So, I'm grateful for that and for all of the support that we've had. I'm glad the show is going on the road and will continue to have a life, and that many more people will be able to see it.

NR: I'm very happy about that too. Nan, thanks so much for everything.

NK: You're welcome.

At the risk of being horribly redundant, I have to say that anyone who has ever enjoyed The Scarlet Pimpernel, who has ever been inspired by "Into The Fire," who has ever laughed themselves silly during "The Creation of Man" or the now famous "spelling scene," owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to Nan. Not only did she create the lines and lyrics, she stood by the show in those shaky early days and didn't give up. She's been there for me personally, and I am truly grateful for all of her support. I wish her nothing but the best with Saturday Night Fever and eagerly await her future projects.

Questions suggested by:

Kathleen Smith, Jan Combopiano, Jennifer Ahlborn, BarbaraAnne, Rebekah Sheffer, Beth Faunce, Amy Lovett, Andrew Reith, Anand Iyer, karen k., Di, Tom Robson, Vi Janaway, Rachael S.