I wish she had been an Actor first and Singer second in SWEENEY TODD. Actually, I wish she would have been Mrs. Lovett first, and Patti LuPone second... but my experience of that revival was sadly the opposite.
Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.