A creative leap

One success of Stephen Sondheim’s [that was] little-noted in the U.S. was the London premiere of “The Frogs” in 1990 [“Just a Broadway Maybe,” March 13]. The show flopped on Broadway. Why? Lack of water.

The brilliant young British producer-director John Gardyne found a Victorian public swimming pool that was about to be demolished and put on a staging of “The Frogs” that was thrilling in its imagination and ingenuity. The critics drooled. It was sold out every night.

Sadly, after two weeks the bulldozers loomed and that was that.

I played George Bernard Shaw, dressed in an Edwardian swimsuit and keeping my balance on a pontoon while declaiming the lines from “Saint Joan.”

Not much in my career can match that.

Rory Johnston

Hollywood