Ally Carter's first YA book, I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You, is SO SO MUCH FUN.
Teenage girls train to be superspies at elite boarding school. Girl falls for normal un-super-spy boy, but can't tell him about her top-secret life.
The sequel, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, comes out this fall.
So I asked Carter to submit to the Dramarama Musical Theater Interview, and she said Yes! Below, she channels her inner Julie Andrews for us.
1. You were in a play in high school, weren't you? Tell me all about
it.
Yes, my mother was the speech and drama teacher at my small high school, and every year
her class would write and perform their own play. It was awesome and probably helping her
with those plays was the first real creative writing I ever did.
My year we penned and performed the instant classic "The Cow Moos at Midnight."
I was breathtaking as Agnes, the nun.
2. Give me song lyric that makes you laugh. Preferably from a show,
but I'll cut you some slack if whatever you quote is funny.
No doubt, hands-down, this honor goes to the line from the Gaston song in Beauty and the
Beast that goes "I use antlers in all of my decorating."
Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that my office is next door to this guy
3. If you've seen a show on Broadway, what was your first one? Whom
did you go with, who was the star, what did you think of it?
My first big show wasn't on Broadway, actually. It was in London's West End, and my family
was on a tour with a group from my school. We saw Me And My Girl, and it was fabulous.
We bought the tape and to this day I find myself walking around singing some of the songs.
4. What's your showbiz fantasy?
Well, when Disney optioned I'D TELL YOU I LOVE YOU BUT THEN I'D HAVE TO KILL YOU
they optioned the rights to everything from ice performances to feature films, so I'd have to
say Gallagher Girls, the musical, is my fantasy. (With me playing Mr. Solomon's love
interest, of course!)
5. Which Broadway diva are you, deep inside? And why? Ethel Merman,
Carol Burnett, Nell Carter, Kristin Chenoweth, Bernadette Peters,
Julie Andrews, Bebe Neuwirth, Audra McDonald, Carol Channing, Mary
Martin, Barbra Streisand? Or someone else?
I've got to go with Julie Andrews, not because I am so much like Julie Andrews but because I
really, really want to be like Julie Andrews and that's got to count for something.
6. Write me a nice little song lyric for the book you're promoting
right now. Please.
One of my readers actually composed a song for the Gallagher Girls musical, and if I may, I'd
just like to share her tremendous creation.
I'd Tell You I Love You... By Chris:
not to tell you i love because things could go so wrong
id tell you i love you, but i have to be strong
id tell you i love you because its true
but if i told you i love you, then id have to kill you
