How are the American actors doing with the accents?
I think they’re doing remarkably well! Even for British actors, Geordie [the regional dialect in the show] is the accent we all dread. It’s such a combination of influences, from Scottish to Scandinavian, that it’s really odd. We’re not doing it quite as extremely as we did in London so it’s more comprehensible. It was weird the first time I came into the building and the cast was rehearsing one of the songs [using the accent]. It’s just weird to be on 42nd Street listening to that! Speaking of language, I understand you speak three? Well, yes—my French is pretty rusty. But I still speak Italian very well because I lived in Rome for five years teaching. How does one start out as a teacher in Rome and end up on Broadway? Well I had no idea I’d end up on Broadway—it took 20 years! The truth is, I resisted acting. I’d always enjoyed it as a student but I had other things I wanted to do. To cut a long story short, I was teaching at Rome University and during the last few years there I knew
