From Newsday (January 7, 1992)

• "Actually, my first goal in life was to do Broadway. From the age of five to fifteen, all I did was theater."

(about how she kept auditioning for "Annie" as a child [about 10 times])

• "But I got too tall, and finally I had to stop. I remember standing on stage with nine other girls and noticing I was bending my knees."

(about her original audition for "Les Miserables" at age 15)

• "I got called back four times, but it never worked out. I wanted it really badly, but, looking back, my voice wasn't strong enough for it."

(about being called back to audition for "Les Miserables" when "Electric Youth" was big)

• "Once my recording career started taking off, Richard Jay-Alexander, producer and associate director for the show, sent us a letter basically saying, `We'd like to hear you again now.' My mom called him back," said Gibson, "and told him we're in the middle of such craziness, there's just no way I could do it now."

(about Debbie singing for Ja-Alexander after seeing her on the "One Step Ahead" tour)

• "You know, just to make sure what he was hearing was real, because obviously you're swallowing a microphone when you're doing a concert. So I went to his office and formally auditioned."

(about "formally auditioning" for Jay-Alexander)

• "I don't like to toot my own horn, but they don't exactly give away Broadway roles as gifts! I mean, recording an album, and doing eight, nine performances a week. That's two totally different things."

(appearning as Eponine might help change her image)

• "Some people who see me as this cheesy, fluffy pop singer, might hear about me doing `Les Mis' and say `Oh, that's kind of strange. Let's go check it out.' And if it's just curiosity that brings people to the theater, then that's great. But those are people who see me one-dimensionally. Who basically know me from the radio. But what's funny is when I performed the song `On My Own' in concert, I found that my audience was very familiar with it. Which means that they're into theater, as well."

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