Fall projects: Tom Stoppard’s Rock ’n’ Roll, a play about communism (opens November 4); The Seagull and King Lear at BAM (September 6 to 30).
On not catching The Coast of Utopia here after having directed it in England: Having seen the play about 25 times in London, I didn’t feel that I was missing out on anything—especially since Tom told me he cut it quite a bit.
On directing plays versus musicals: I’ve never seen a division. They’re both wonderful ways of communication. I think it’s only certain critics of the latter part of the twentieth century who started to get into a state about the differences. One is a lower form of human life—that’s just nonsensical. Shakespeare wrote lots and lots of songs into his plays!
