We got to see Sondheim shows, 'Phantom of the Opera,' 'Cats' and all sorts of stuff. When you're 10 or 11 years old, it's just magnificent. The story-telling, the music - it lifts you out of your seat.
The time period I had in my life to look like an idiot and fail, and for no one to see that, came and went when I was 17. When you have early success, people are just lying in wait.
I first started listening to Sondheim's work when I was a kid.
In ballet class, I felt like Ralph Wiggum.
It wasn't that I got pinned against my locker, but I was intensely aware that the things I valued weren't shared by anyone. Girls didn't like me, and I had few friends.
When you have the chance to present yourself vocally, you realize a kind of brand develops around that vocal, and you start to see the public consciousness of you is only about one half of your brain.
