We began our second year with a double issue, which included the continuation of our Frank Wildhorn interview, and interviews with J&H's Luba Mason and Anastasia Barzee (and the ever-present excerpt from Rob Evan), Scarlet Pimpernel's Rachel York and Bill Evans, Civil War's Dave Clemmons, Greg Boyd and Jack Murphy, and the unclassifiable Jeremy Roberts. Here are a few excerpts:

Both J&H's Luba Mason (Lucy) and SP's Rachel York (Marguerite) play characters who do not recognize the dual identity of their leading men. We asked them whether they believe their characters had a clue as to who they were dealing with.

Headshot courtesy of Luba Mason

Luba Mason said: I do, actually. And that's not something that I ever really planned. It sort of, I think, developed in performance. I thought an inkling of it might come to her at the end, in her bedroom, the death scene, where he starts to sing, "Sympathy, Tenderness" to her when he first comes in. And then he starts talking about "Henry." And then I say, "You know Doctor Jekyll?" I think it's definitely subconscious. Or even when he just enters the room and he lights the match. The fact that they still sort of look alike, regardless of what their hair is. When I get startled, I look up at him, and all I have is a match for reference of who he is. The voice throws me off, but when I look at him, I'm not quite sure if it's Dr. Jekyll or Hyde. So I think that's what starts, possibly, the process in her mind. And then "Sympathy, Tenderness" happens, that's two. And then he starts talking about "Henry," and he says he knows him. And then before you know it, she's dead. So, yeah, I think, maybe. But it's never like, "Oh, it's you."

Headshot courtesy of Rachel York

Rachel York told us: I don't think she's completely clueless. At certain moments, she'll have double takes. Like, for instance, in the portrait scene, when Armand and Percy are exchanging looks, I see these looks, and I don't quite know what's going on. I see it but I don't have anything to back it up. And then I get another clue when I'm on the footbridge. And so it's in there. At the end of the show she says, "I always recognized you." I think that's the way I have to play it. Obviously I can't be 100% sure in my choices because, otherwise, there wouldn't be a story. But I think that's the way it is in life. A lot of times you'll have an intuitive thought, and you'll think, "Is that . . . ? Is that what's going to happen?" or "Is that who that . . . ? It's Percy? No, no, couldn't be." So, I think it's in the back of her mind, but I think she thinks, "Oh, there's just no way that it could be him."

Greg Boyd and Jack Murphy co-wrote Civil War with Frank, and they are currently working on their next three-way collaboration, Havana. Wildhorn Side met with Greg and Jack to find out how, exactly, three guys can write together.

Greg Boyd: It helps that you get along. It helps that you're on the same page in terms of the things that you like.

Jack Murphy: And it helps that you can be stupid in front of one another.

GB: Right.

JM: Inestimable. Because, when you have three people, or two people, who are trying to impress one another, it doesn't work, because everybody's very safe, and everybody says things that they know will not make them sound foolish. As opposed to, you say the first thing that comes into your head, and, as it's coming out of your mouth, you realize this is the stupidest sentence ever uttered by a human on the planet. But you say it anyway, just to get it out of the way. I guess the point is, you're not afraid to be wrong in front of one another. And from that, because you're not afraid to be wrong in front of one another, everybody sort of recognizes when it's right, and there aren't judgments made about it.

We asked Anastasia Barzee what she did to prepare to play the role of Emma in J&H.

Well, for me vocally it was very different from what I'd been doing--I'd been doing a lot of belting. I belted for Saigon. "Screaming on pitch," I call it. So I had to prepare my voice a lot. As far as the period goes, I had done work in this period, so was fairly familiar with it, as far as, you know, the carriage--

I also watched a couple movies of that period, just to sort of get "the look" more than any sort of character stuff. Just makeup, and carriage, and different things that they did with their hands at that time-- just very aware of things like, putting your hands down here [hanging at sides] your veins show, and you notice they're always doing this sort of stuff [holding hand up, as if admiring a work of art] which to us would look so weird, but that's what they did. So, just to pick up little tricks, stuff like that, I watched some movies.