Marsha Norman she could not have written it. According to an interview in "The New York Times", "Ms. Norman stayed away from the theater and turned to screenplays, including a 1986 movie adaptation of " 'Night, Mother" that starred Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft and failed to impress critics. She was in high demand in Hollywood, though not always for films that she liked, or that studios would approve." Norman wrote the book and lyrics for the musical "The Secret Garden", an adaptation of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel "The Secret Garden", and won the Tony Award for Best Book in 1991.
Frances Hodgson Burnett stressed the age difference—Townsend was ten years younger than she—and she referred to him as her secretary. Biographer Ann Thwaite doubts he loved her. She claims at that time the 50-year-old Burnett was "stout, rouged and unhealthy". Thwaite believes Townsend needed her to help with his acting career and support him financially. Within months, in a letter to her sister, she admitted the marriage was in trouble. She described Townsend as scarcely sane and hysterical. Thwaite argues Townsend blackmailed her into the marriage: he wanted money from her and he wanted to control her as a husband. Unable to bear