From DGIF 6.3

Q: What direction are you heading with SBK?
A: Back to basics. SBK believes in me as a songwriter, pianist, and producer. This album will lean more towards ballads.

Q: Do you regret any career decision you ever made?
A: Everything I've done has been from the heart. I have no regrets.

Q: Will your next album say your preferred name? (Deborah)
A: I'll stick to Debbie for a while.

Q: I noticed your albums have become more "hi-tech". Will your next album be more like that?
A: The next album will focus more on songs, less on production. I've been there, tried it, and all that sampling and programming stuff isn't for me.

From Hello (April 16, 1994)

"Grease" has been such and overwhelming success, yet you've decided to quit the show after just nine months?

• "At the beginning I asked for an even shorter contract because I get bored doing the same thing for a long period of time. Also, I knew there would come a time when I'd be itching to get back to my music. Nine months was their minimum and my maximum."

Has playing the role of Sandy lived up to your expectations?

• "Yes, in every way. I was delighted when I originally saw the stage script because it appeared to have more room for comedy and guts than the film script. In the film the role was much wimpier and far less spicy."

Do you sometimes feel you've metamorphosed into Sandy - on and off stage?

• "Well, first of all I'd NEVER put on a pair of black spandex pants to get a man. I suppose in life I'm somewhere between Sandy at the beginning and Sandy at the end. I'm not quite as prissy as the one at the beginning and not as vampy as the one portrayed at the end!"

Having played to an ecstatic crowd for some 300 performances won't you suffer a terrific anti-climax when the curtain comes down on April 9?

• "No, not really. It's a concept you deal with every night. One minute you're in front of a screaming crowd and the next you're sitting alone in your room reading a magazine. When I go on my own tours I'm dealing with even more hysteria because I am the show, whereas here, the star is Grease, not me. So I think I'm well adjusted to cope because my whole life has been like that."

What will you miss most?

• "The cast, without a doubt. I've made some really good friends and it will be sad leaving them."

Is there anyone in the cast more important than the others?

• "How did you guess! There is someone special, but I don't want to say too much. People might get funny with him about it. It started a few months ago more as a companionship so goodness knows what will happen when I go back to the States."

You seem to have a very good rapport on stage with Craig McLachlan (Danny). That must make the part even more entertaining and fun?

• "He makes me die sometimes, he's so funny. We have a very good rapport on stage and the funniest things always happen during the show when our mikes are turned down. He'll bring up something to do with my personal life and I'll crack up. When my Grandma was in town I asked him to come and say 'Hi' to her after the show. He appeared in my dressing room dressed in a G-string and playing his guitar. Luckily, I have a very hip Grandma!"

Has your successful run on the West End stage led to a plethora of other offers?

• "There have been a couple of instances when I didn't realise film directors were in the audience, then I'd hear they wanted to come backstage. And yes, there have been some exciting offers. There's one role I'm currently in discussion over which would be wonderful. It's a romantic comedy and what appeals most is that it's very much along the lines of 'Funny Girl' - my favourite movie. My sister Karen and I also had a meeting recently with Henry Winkler over a screen play we finished writing last year, so hopefully something should come of that."

You have also been invited to tour South Vietnam at the end of the year - isn't this quite an unusual invitation?

• "Yes. It's the first time an American performer has been invited to tour the country since the war. I feel very honoured. I was told the Government wanted to have a big concert and the reasoning for them to invite me is that they regard me as a positive person with a positive image."

Are you nervous about old emotions being stirred?

• "I'm not too nervous about that, no. But I do realise that everyone's going to have an opinion about it because there were so many people who were anti the war and America's involvement. It's probably still quite a touchy subject. The only way I feel I should look at it is I'm a performer and they are people in need of entertainment. We're all human beings no matter what's happened in history."

At just 23 years old, you've produced three albums, two number one hits, a string of top tens, played Broadway and the West End - is there anything left to aspire to?

• "Plenty! I think of all my plans for the future and think 'Oh God, I hope I have enough time for all of them'. My base is classical music and I'd love at some point to get serious about my classical piano again. I'd like to try my hand at conducting and do more scoring. I also want to direct for stage or screen."

You recently signed a lucrative recording contract with EMI - what does that entail?

• "It's a multiple worldwide album contract which is tremendous. I've been working with EMI in publishing for years but the second they got wind that I might be moving away from Atlantic records they hopped on a plane to London and asked to see everything I'd written while over here. What appeals to me is the company's enthusiasm. They're into music - image and all the rest of that stuff is secondary, which is so refreshing."

What was the very first piece of music you wrote?

• "I was five and wrote a wonderful piece called 'Make Sure You Know Your Classroom'! It was the only experience I had to draw on. I still have the original piece of music!"

Through all your obvious hard work and determination, have you now achieved millionaire status?

• "It's hard to say but in investments yes, I suppose I have. My first big chunk of money really went on my 48-track recording studio at home in Long Island. I built it on to the house - but when it comes to cash, I don't have a million dollars lying around waiting to be spent!"

Do you have any particular weakness when it comes to spending money?

• "Yes. My real weaknesses are clothes and studio equipment. I also love buying gifts for my family. I've just bought my cousin Monica a car for Christmas - she's just started at college and I know how difficult it can be for college students to scrape together enough money to buy their own. And I bought my mum a special Hungarian cross of sapphires and turquoises. My philosophy is if something costs $5 or $5,000 it doesn't matter - if it's the perfect gift for someone then I have to get it for them."

Apart from shopping, what are your other hobbies?

• "At the moment I'm taking a philosophy course at the College of Economic Science. I love it as it gives me the opportunity to get my mind round something other than music and performing."

To date what do you believe has been your greatest achievement?

• "I'm most proud of knowing in my heart that I've remained the same throughout all the ups and downs. Being thought of as a nice person is far more important than being a star and I think if you can combine the two then to me that's probably my ultimate goal."

And what of the future - do you see yourself touring ad infinitum or do you think you'll settle down?

• "I definitely want to marry and have kids. Three of my own and three adopted. When I toured South East Asia I saw children living in such horrendous conditions - you'd be in the car on the way to a concert and literally hundreds of kids would come out of the woodwork and gather around begging. I want to take some of those kids out of that environment because who knows what they could do or be if given the opportunity. My father was an orphan and was never adopted. I know how much I get from my mum as far as emotional support goes. To be without that would be like the worst thing in the world."

From Newsday (June 24, 1994)

• "You know, if you start young, you're pigeonholed automatically."
• "I love people like Bette Midler, because she can have a radio hit, and she can go and do a film, and then she can go and do a show. To me, it means being versatile."
• "It's so hard to get musical music played on the radio right now. Everything's got to have a groove under it ... some kind of hip-hop, R&B base."

(about playing Sandy in the London production of Grease)

• "I'm somewhere in between. I don't think I'm quite so prissy as Sandy in the beginning, but I definitely don't walk around in black spandex either."
• "The year in London was just great. I had actually never gone away to college, so that was like my college year, only a little later in life."

(about how she's not a "city person")

• "I'm not really a city person, but it's a lot more convenient for what I do. To me, Long Island is so real. I went into a salon the other day to get a facial, and there was a woman there complaining about the lack of air-conditioning in just the thickest Long Island accent, and I thought, 'This is great. This is why I live here.'"

(about her father, Joseph, who spent a large portion of his childhood at the St. Mary's facility)

• "My dad never had a family. He just met his real father for the first time this year. And my dad turned out OK, so there you go."

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