“You have a candy machine in here???”

If you saw or know 13 the musical (my first Broadway producing credit), then you know that this line got one of the biggest laughs on Broadway that entire season. (It was shouted in utter disbelief by a 13-year-old male character who burst into the girl’s bathroom to talk to his girlfriend, only to be distracted by a certain type of feminine product vending machine mounted on the wall.)

The line was written by book writer Robert Horn, who is now getting even bigger laughs at his Tony-nominated musical Tootsie, which is being heralded as one of the best movie-to-musical adaptations . . . evah.

We talked about Tootsie, as well as 13, and . . .

• What makes something funny — and how he finds it.
• How he got his start writing by selling monologues to actors for $20 (you art-trepreneur, you!).
• How his success in TV helped him crack the code on Broadway — which is what he has wanted all along.
• Could a writer’s room work on Broadway (you’ll be surprised to hear this response)?
• When to cut something and when NOT to.

Enjoy!  And then go see Tootsie!