“She was the first person to suggest I direct ‘Angels in America.’ I was on President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities because of her. Lion had her share of failures, perhaps none bigger than “Triumph of Love,” a musical that died on Broadway 85 performances after opening in 1997. But it wouldn’t be long before she was struck by the brainstorm that would become her biggest hit. Lion had seen the movie “Hairspray” (1988), directed by her fellow Baltimorean John Waters, soon after it came out, but admitted that she didn’t embrace it initially. “Halfway through,” she recalled in the 2002 interview with The Times, “I literally said: ‘Yes, this is it.

Source: New York Times January 25, 2020 14:26 UTC