VICTORIA CLARK
The New York Times Online
"Audio Slide Show: Leaving "The Piazza"
June 29, 2006

The thing I hope that people take from watching this show—whether it's the last shows we have here, or from holding the memory of the performance in your heart from seeing it previously—is to really value the presence of new work, so that we could start to produce our own history and our own body of work in the musical theatre. I would hope that this piece would join part of the canon as operas do, like Carmen and Barber of Seville, and those things that are performed over and over and over again.

"A lot of people who come to the theatre are not able to express... so it's sort of our job to do that for the audience, and to take them on a journey that will spark a memory or spark a conversation with someone that they love. And I always think that theatre is very close to medicine—it's a healing art."

"...[T]hey were so moved by the courage of this woman, of Margaret Johnson, and what she is able to give her daughter, through letting go. And, this whole love story about the two children falling in love is very moving; but, I think without the courage of Margaret; without her journey; and without her ability to release her daughter, I think that does make the story much more powerful."