I take musical theater seriously.
— Alice Ripley
A likable character isn't one who does nothing wrong.
Sometimes a job comes to you, and you didn't ask for it. Your work in the past hires you, and that's nice.
When it comes to your creative life and what it's going to take, you will do a disservice to everybody if you just dabble.
Everyone has some sort of connection to mental illness.
My favourite roller coaster is the Millennium Force at Cedar Point in Ohio.
The selections on 'Daily Practice' are all what I consider standard rock songs that have been absolutely essential to keeping me alive.
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.
I love having a basement.
The musicals on Broadway have not necessarily been true musical theater. I'm speaking generally, of course: I saw 'Spring Awakening,' and I was completely inspired by that.
As long as a tune has the power to move me, I'm a lifelong fan.
'Closure' is the word used for a loss that's not acknowledged - and the habit this causes, physically and mentally, for anybody who is participating in that.
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!'
When you're 20 and you're in acting school and your teachers tell you that 95 percent of actors are unemployed for twenty years, you think it doesn't apply to you. But it does take twenty years to become real, because that's what you have to do to be an interesting actor.
I am always talking to students and telling them how you have to practice every day because you can't wait for someone to hire you. You need something you do for yourself, something that feeds your creative life.
'Tommy' was my first Broadway show. Long Pause. I don't know how you can surpass the excitement or get more excited or feel more on top of the world than when you are sitting in a room singing The Who, and Pete Townshend is sitting there tapping his foot.
I would say that Cynthia Nixon is somebody I admire, and Toni Collette as well. Those women - their work inspires me, whatever they do.
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.
Parents are destined to sin against their kids; it's inevitable. As is narcissism and the human condition. Everyone has their ego and their ambitions. Life happens in between.
Sometimes you're the only one who thinks you have a good idea.
David Mamet gives me great heart. When I ask myself, 'I don't know if I can do this again,' Mamet would say, 'Oh yes, you can.'
Making music has saved my life.
Knowing there is a capable back-up willing to give it a try always makes you feel better.
George Benson's 'This Masquerade' is my favorite version of Leon Russell's blue gem.
It's hard being a Barbie doll all the time.
I've always been inspired by Patti LuPone.
There is genuine healing in a beautifully crafted musical theatre song, like Stephen Sondheim's 'Losing My Mind,' or a pop music gem like Joni Mitchell's 'Help Me.'
I have learned that music comes in all shapes and sizes.
My Mickey Mouse ears were given to me by a dear friend. They remind me of how I need to be silly.
I'm kind of a dork at being able to dress myself.
Chrissie Hynde's from Ohio, and so am I. If there's a Cleveland sound, that's what it is.
I play the guitar every day.
'Next To Normal' is rock music. It's a rock opera. That, definitely, has a place in popular music.
Facebook and Twitter and Instagram are excellent ways to keep in touch with the audience and maintain your image an actor.
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.
With a lot of contemporary musicals, the songs are like a calling card: the action stops for them.
The really good stuff- the 'Hamiltons' - comes out after decades of writing and being committed.
I cry at Kodak commercials.
When you're an actor, you do get involved with your characters - your emotional life is tied up with theirs, and so is your physical life.
Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' and Carole King's 'It's Too Late' are examples of why I am a singer/songwriter. I practice these songs every day. The melodies are timeless in the rock world, the lyrics are words that I need to say, and they need to be heard again.
The audience fills me back up, definitely.
I sometimes write songs on the piano, even though I don't actually play the piano. I always hire someone to play for me whenever I decide to sing a song I have written on the piano. My song 'Rosa' is one.
I love New York City. I really do. I 'heart' New York.
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.
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.
You always kind of feel like you're rolling the dice as an actor.
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.
There were eleven kids, and we all shared a bathroom. It was enough to drive us all insane.
I take a lot of naps.
I've always looked to that play, 'Virginia Woolf,' for a cue - as far as any cue I might need as an actor for inspiration or as a writer.
