‘Frighteningly of the moment’: Steven Sater on his emperor Nero musical and turning JFK’s assassination into a Greek tragedy

It took the Tony winner 20 years to bring his ‘showman’ tyrant to London. He reflects on its Trumpian parallels, the death of Spring Awakening’s Duncan Sheik and the horrific accident that led him to ancient classics

Before Spring Awakening won eight Tony awards in 2007, its dramatist and lyricist Steven Sater had “been struggling financially and professionally for quite a while,” he remembers. “Everyone said at the time: this is where it all starts!”

Sater and composer Duncan Sheik thought their next success would be Nero, about the Roman emperor who murdered his mother among many others, which had been produced in San Francisco in 2006. But only now, after two decades of workshops and showcases for potential backers, is Nero receiving its second full professional production.