David Stone is currently represented around the world by Wicked.  In addition to Wicked, he is also currently producing Next to Normal on Broadway.  He has produced The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Three Days of Rain, Man of La Mancha, The Vagina Monologues, Fully Committed, Lifegame, The Diary of Anne Frank, Full Gallop, The Santaland Diaries and Family Secrets.  David serves on the boards of The Broadway League and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids.  He also serves on the advisory boards of V-Day and Second Stage Theatre.  David has lectured on theatre at the Juilliard School, NYU, Yale, Columbia and his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania

1) In March 2001, you went to the first full reading of WICKED in Los Angeles.  What made you want to get involved with the show?
 
Marc Platt and Stephen Schwartz invited me to this reading and they had both prepared me for how entertaining it would be, with great performances and a great story and score.  But when the two lead characters sang the song “For Good,” I was taken completely by surprise.  I was not prepared for how moving the show was, even at that early stage, and it was really at that moment that I couldn’t imagine not being a part of it.
 
2) You had worked with Joe Mantello many times before and you suggested him to direct.  Why did you feel he was right?
 
I think that Joe has the best eye in the business.  He has such great taste.  He had never directed anything of this size before, but it felt like he was ready.  He just seemed the right person to connect with a show that has a pop culture sensibility with some very deep and serious themes underneath.

3) After 3 1/2 years in development, Wicked had its first public performance on May 28, 2003 at the Curran Theatre. The show that San Francisco theatergoers saw then was different from the one that opened on Broadway and has since become an international phenomenon. Joe is quoted as saying, “To an outside eye, the tweaks we made in San Francisco probably look minor; to us, they were enormous.”  What did he mean by that? How did the show evolve?
 
We really the spent the time between San Francisco and New York looking at every department. There were changes in set design, costume design, choreography, direction, casting, and even some major new scenes and songs.  But, without question, the most important thing we did was strengthen the character of Elphaba.  In San Francisco, in all of her scenes (not her songs), she was fairly passive and reactive.  The work done over the summer made her more active and, thus, made it possible for her character to be the true catalyst of the show.  Some of these changes involved a line here or there, but they had an enormous effect.  Glinda still goes through the biggest change, but now Elphaba could be the character to drive the action forward.
 
4) The musical has taken on a life of its own, breaking box office records and speaking to audiences of all ages. Why do you think it has such universal appeal?
 
I think that each audience group responds to the show in different ways based on their age, experience, and view of the world.  I believe the defining thing, the deepest theme, is the idea that “there is more to the story.”  We see that if the Wicked Witch of the West is not who we imagined her to be, if she is more complicated than that, than so are we all.  We all want to believe that we are more than what people might think we are.  It is a big idea, but something that has very deep resonance, especially in America at this time.

5) What was the first Broadway show you saw and when?
 
My mother took me to see her favorite show, Man of La Mancha, at the Martin Beck Theatre for my 5th birthday.  Years later, I produced a Broadway revival of the show starring Brian Stokes Mitchell at the Martin Beck Theatre.  I dedicated it to my mother.  And, she loved it.

6) Your aunt and uncle were the head counselors at a camp that focused on theatre, music, and dance in upstate New York.  What was that like? What was your favorite activity at camp?
 
I went there just to be with my cousins, but they got me to audition for a show.  And then I got the lead.  I was Wilbur the Pig in Charlotte’s Web when I was 7. And then, in addition to swimming and arts and crafts, I mostly did theatre there, acting and directing for the next 10 summers.
 
7) What character in WICKED do you most identify with?
 
Elphaba. Don’t we all?



8) Who inspires you, either in the theatre industry or in the world in general?
 
Anyone who listens to their heart and not all the people around them telling them “no.”
 
9) Other than WICKED, what is the thing you are most proud of?
 
I produced The Vagina Monologues, which started out in a tiny little theatre and grew to become an international phenomenon.  When we started, they wouldn’t even say the title of the play on CNN.  And, if the world couldn’t say the word, it certainly was not going to be able to deal with the issues in the play – rape, self-hate, female genital mutilation, etc.  Beyond the fact that we forced the public to confront the word and all the issues around it, we created a campaign to raise tens of millions of dollars to stop violence against women and girls around the world.  It started as a play, and I think it ended up as a social movement.

For more on the return of Wicked to San Francisco, click here.

Production Photos by Joan Marcus

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