From the Samovar to the Wheelchair

So many gems in New York's Sondheim/Lansbury dialogue. One of my favorites is this, from Lansbury:

Now, I’m not a big audience-chaser. I don’t try to please them; I force them to pay attention to what I’m doing, and get them that way.

And there's this instructive insight into Gypsy's Rose:

I said to Arthur, “What you’re writing is so strong, I don’t know why it needs songs at all.” He said, “Oh, no, if I were writing this as a play, she’d be much more complex. When I write a musical it’s in broad strokes.”

The final Hermione Gingold anecdote is a corker, and there's also a great bit of trivia about the origin of the original Sweeney Todd illustration (pictured above, the British "Happy Families" card game).