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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You have been working on the show for about five years now.
How did the idea come to be?
Jimmy Buffett in 2018.Credit: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
She would always be in productions and she would take me to the shows when theyd come through town.
I never saw one in New York until many years later, but I just got infected then.
I always was interested in theater.
Matthew Murphy
And be careful what you wish for.
I was living on a sailboat then.
We did the show, probably 18 or 19 years ago in Miami.
I learned a lot of good things and I learned a lot of things not to do.
I followed them because I did not know what I was doing.
Ive learned to trust a lot of people.
What are some of your favorite musicals?My favorite of all time?
[Laughs]South Pacific.
I saw the last one when it was at Lincoln Center.
I went, I was meant to be here!
In addition to being a prolific songwriter, youve written novels, childrens books, and more.
How involved were you in writing process?The writers wrote the book.
I just wanted to let them pick songs.
You write on the moment and you jot something down.
Margaritaville was written five minutes after I was having margarita at a bar in Austin, Texas.
You never know whats going to work.
I was pretty insistent upon the choruses [staying] the choruses.
Thats just the way the process works.
When [director Christopher Ashley] staged that the first time, it was a real moment of magic.
The way he set it up was kind of the way I wrote the song.
I was just sitting there strumming.
The way it happens in the show really touched a chord with me, pardon the pun.
Every casting session I could be at if I wasnt working, I was there.
Because I love that part of the process.
I just knew it.
And it turned out that way.
Its changed where it needed to change.
Its just like building a boat and thats kind of what I go back to.
Being from a boat building family and knowing that its never finished.
Thats why they needed to meet the characters.
Is it weird for you?Yes, it is very weird for me.
Im not a good audience person because Im studying shows.
I go to see a lot of friends but Im usually backstage.
Its hard to relax sometimes.
But, here, its essential to study the crowd.
There was always the perception that there were two audiences here, which I kind of disagreed with.
There was a theatre, like a membership audience.
The shows got to reach them as well as it reaches your diehard fans.
That is the giveaway point to me.
Theyre going, It looks like weve got permission to have a good time here.
I think theyve got to come now.
What do you hope people leave the theatre with/take away from experience?A smile on their face.
