and someone gave a copy to tommy kail, some mutual friends, john mailer and neil stewart. >> hinojosa: john mailer being the son of norman mailer. >> yes, and... and so he had two years with this cast album that i'd recorded, and he'd listened to it over and over. and so, you know, he... he said to me, "hi, we've just met but your third song needs to be first." ( laughing ) and luckily, you know, i think any young writer gets very precious about their material, but since it had... i'd had two year's distance on it i was like, "well, those are good ideas; what else do you have?" and that was the beginning of the process. >> hinojosa: the ability, though, to trust broadway to take this show-- well, off-broadway at first, right? >> oh, well, before that a basement in a bookshop. i mean, that's where.. >> hinojosa: that you would go to after... >> ...that's where tommy kail and i met. i mean, there were... it was literally a storeroom that they converted into a black box theater. it was being painted when we met in that basement. so this was not, "trust me to take it to broadway," this wa