In 1995 he starts studying the musical, putting on stage Webber and Rice’s "Jesus Christ Superstar", which is very successful, followed by "Evita", still by Lloyd Webber and Rice, and "The Who's Tommy" by Pete Townshend.
In 2001 he directs "My fair lady", the new musical of his company, the "Teatro della Munizione" (Ammunition theatre). In the 2001-2002 season, at the Teatro Nazionale di Milano, he puts something new on stage: the stage version of "Saturday Night Fever".

You have been working in all fields of show business, what have those experiences given you?
I was lucky, because I was able to build in a short time a contact with the highest levels of screen and stage. I have had this passion since I was eight years old, then I had the opportunity of working with Carlo Cecchi, Nanni Moretti, Gabriele Salvatores. Not that you can learn anything directly, but you understand the mechanism of communication in show business.

How come you dedicated yourself to the musical in particular?
I have always had a great passion for music. Between the 70’s and 80’s I devoured it: in London I would skip meals and walk to save money to buy tickets for the musicals. It is a genre that reunites all my passions: music, dance, theatre. Since I couldn’t do it as an actor, because I didn’t have adequate training, I tried to do it from the other side. I was 25 years old, even if I did something wrong nobody would notice. I had nothing to defend and all to gain. Everybody expects more, everyone expects a confirmation.

Doesn’t the comparison with London’s sceneries worry you?
No, the important thing is to be aware of Italian communication codes. The musical in London is an established industry, there are great financial holdings who, to diversify, invest in the musicals. In Italy we are still in the time of the "carrozzoni" (travelling theatre) but we still succeeed in terms of emotionality, energy, talent. I was more worried about the comparison with the great cults, but by now I have made it past “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “My fair lady”, “Tommy”, and “Evita”.

Wasn’t it difficult to be accepted in Italy with a genre that is apparently by tradition not very Italian?
We have made it become a not very Italian tradition. Anglo-Saxons have taken an idea of ours – melodrama and light opera – and transformed it in an industry, in a mass communication event, tourist. The countries of song and dance are Italy and France. The musical is the only genre that can bring people back to the theatre: prose has failed, in the opera everyone is dying, without heris, light opera has become a mask ball.

What are the strong points of “Saturday night fever”?
It is an American scenery musical, very 70’s in the setting, the music, the costumes. The musical depth of “Fever” has no comparison, with songs that are still danced in clubs today. It is evrybody’s show: my generation’s, who experienced it in full, the slightly older ones that saw their children go to it, and the kids that inherited. It is a show where there are some important youth themes, there is a drama, troubled and bitter love stories: it can be a fun game, but that leads to reflect as well.

Plans for the future?
I will put on stage “Cats” and “Dott. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in the next season.

September.2001