When I played with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings in Vegas, the guys used to go, 'Dick, cut it out, man! You're moving around too much on this stage. You're making us look bad!'
When I first did 'Moby,' I didn't realize how taxing it would be. I was climbing fifty feet up in the air and climbing down. Literally, it's so busy, you feel you're on a ship. You're always moving; you're constantly adding clothes or taking them off, and there are many people on stage all the time!
In productions such as 'Anna Bolena' and 'Rigoletto,' the costumes are tailored, and they're tight. In 'Moby,' it's like you're wearing pajamas, and you have more freedom. It's very comfortable on stage.
I'm really getting better at guitar. I'm not trapped behind a piano. You can get out and move with a guitar and still direct the band.
In my opening seconds, I would say, "It's great to be here," then move to several other spots on the stage and say, "No, it's great to be here!" I would move again: "No, it's great to be here!
My theory is that everything an actor does, from the way he looks at his watch to the way he moves across the stage, is in the service of advancing a story, and in that sense, it's all writing. In that sense we, while acting, write.
The first one I remember singing on stage was 'Somewhere Out There' from 'An American Tail.' I was around 7, and my choir teacher at school asked me if I would sing it. My parents told me that I needed to move around the stage, so for the entire time I just walked back and forth from side to side while I was singing - there's videotape of it.
I just want to be able to get onstage and move and move around.
I've always been accused of moving around too much when I play concertos. Sometimes, conductors ask me which of us is leading.
I do not work out regularly, but I do dance so much and jump around so much on stage, and I do it every day, so I feel like that's my exercise.
Cary Grant was wonderful to work with on stage. He would move downstage, so that as he looked at me the audience had to look at me, too. He knew a lot about the theater and how to move around. He was very secure.
When I got into comedy, which was really for acting, I would see the guys who would be considered great today. They were great, but after a few minutes I could get kind of bored because they wouldn't move around. The dress code was boring to me. I didn't want to see the guy next door when I'm watching a performer. I wanted to see someone I would pay a ticket for.
I've looked at photographs of myself during concerts and it sometimes looks as if I'm in a fencing move, with a guitar in my hands instead of a sword.
The Italians are not indulgent, as Americans are. They don't have the patience to teach young singers how to move. They think you should learn in school.
What I was drawn to the most about the Flying V was the weight distribution with the way I move on stage. The V just swings perfectly. It's a great way to stay balanced, because I like to dance, and I'm a bit of a flail-er. The guitar centers me, and for me, it's a really good balance.
Audiences are not interested in watching singers who stand stiffly and sing for three hours.
I probably bring four dresses on the road and rotate those. I always wear something light when I go onstage because I move around a whole lot. It's a sweaty business.
