New Jersey Stage 2015 - Issue 11 | Page 20

New Jersey Stage spoke with the Bergen County native about the play, how he began writing musicals with David Bryan of Bon Jovi, and if he ever imagined winning Tony Awards and having the success he’s had so far in his career. I’ve heard you’re a bit of a political junkie; did you know about the story of Edith before writing this play? I’m a definitely a political junkie — more of a modern one than a histori- cal one. I was reading an article about female politicians a few years back and it said ‘many people believe that Hillary Clinton may be our first female president’ and then in parenthesis it said, ‘of course, many people believe that Edith Wilson was already the first female president.’ And I thought, ‘that’s interesting.’ I knew a little about Woodrow Wilson, but not a whole lot, so I immediately went back and did a little research. I became fasci- Laila Robins and John Glover. Photo by T. Charles Erickson NewJerseyStage.com 2015 - ISSUE 11 ARTICLES 20