The actor who played the lead at the first table reading was someone the lyricist loved and had worked with - we saw no other real candidates at that time, and the author loved the kid's quality. I warned both then that I knew he was not good enough to pull off the role, and that proved to be the case for about half the reading. He's a good egg and a good singer, but any naturalness (essential in this character) always seems actory and forced. When Patrick came in and read everyone knew immediately just how right I was. I mean, they didn't even want to read other people at first and I told them I would not direct the show without having proper auditions for every role, and that means seeing more than one person.
