Advice from Stephen Sondheim to Jason Robert Brown (paraphrased by JRB):
"Nobody cares what you think. Once a creation has been put
into the world, you have only one responsibility to its creator: be
supportive. Support is not about showing how clever you are, how
observant of some flaw, how incisive in your criticism. There are other
people whose job it is to guide the creation, to make it work, to make
it live; either they did their job or they didn’t. But that is not your
problem.
If you come to my show and you see me afterwards, say only this: “I
loved it.” It doesn’t matter if that’s what you really felt. What I need
at that moment is to know that you care enough about me and the work I
do to tell me that you loved it, not “in spite of its flaws”, not “even
though everyone else seems to have a problem with it,” but simply,
plainly, “I loved it.” If you can’t say that, don’t come backstage,
don’t find me in the lobby, don’t lean over the pit to see me. Just go
home, and either write me a nice email or don’t. Say all the catty,
bitchy things you want to your friend, your neighbor, the Internet.
Maybe next week, maybe next year, maybe someday down the line, I’ll
be ready to hear what you have to say, but that moment, that
face-to-face moment after I have unveiled some part of my soul, however
small, to you; that is the most vulnerable moment in any artist’s life.
If I beg you, plead with you to tell me what you really thought, what you actually, honestly, totally believed, then you must tell me, “I loved it.” That moment must be respected."
