Being Alive - David Carroll

"There was one time when I saw the show where ["Being Alive"] worked, and I can’t tell you why, but it was an off-Broadway production at the York Theatre some years ago. Susan Schulman directed it, and the leading part was sung by a guy, now dead, named David James Carroll, and somehow, when he turned front and sang that song, it was as if the whole evening had led to it. I don’t know how he did it, but it was completely fulfilling. I thought, My God, we don’t need a transition if the right actor’s playing it." Stephen Sondheim