Benefit Concert at Met Opera Celebrating Stephen Schwartz

[inception]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 5:41pm

Is anyone going to the "benefit concert" (edited from "gala" ) tonight (Dec 11) at the Met celebrating Stephen Schwartz?

Updated On: 12/11/23 at 05:41 PM

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 6:59pm

To be more accurate, this is a benefit concert at the Met honoring Schwartz (which is a great honor).  But there's only one Met Gala -- and that's Anna Wintour's annual March shindig!

 

[Fosse76]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 7:05pm

JSquared2 said: "To be more accurate, this is a benefit concert at the Met honoring Schwartz (which is a great honor). But there's only one Met Gala -- and that's Anna Wintour's annual March shindig!"

I really wish the Met would preserve it's dignity and stoo whoring itself out to this irrelevant event.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 7:14pm

Fosse76 said: "JSquared2 said: "To be more accurate, this is a benefit concert at the Met honoring Schwartz (which is a great honor). But there's only one Met Gala -- and that's Anna Wintour's annual March shindig!"

I really wish the Met would preserve it's dignity and stoo whoring itself out to this irrelevant event."

That irrelevant event is a fund raiser that raises millions annually for The Met. It may be nonsense to you, but IF you’re invited to attend, your ticket is $30,000 and fashion brands buy full tables triple that amount. It’s not some free silly costume party. Fashion icon Diana Vreeland saved The Met in the early 1970s when she started doing these lavish fund raisers. Anna Wintour took the realms as a way of continuing Vreeland’s successful fund raising tactic. Also, those ridiculous costumes are for the red carpet. Guests change into more comfortable formal wear once inside. Just a heads up as apparently you are one clueless simpleton.  

[TaffyDavenport]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 7:16pm

And it's in May, not March.

[Globefan]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 8:00pm

This gala is at the Metropolitan Opera. 

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 8:52pm

TaffyDavenport said: "And it's in May, not March."


Thanks, doll. Your corrections are always welcome here! 

[inception]

Posted: 12/11/23 at 9:53pm

My apologies for the confusion. I have edited the thread title. 

But did anyone go????

[SKOC211]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 1:04am

Hi! I am a long time lurker, but was there tonight. Here's the set list from the Playbill:

 

"Corner of the Sky" and "Morning Glow" from Pippin - Ben Platt

"Stranger to the Rain" from Children of Eden - Adrienne Warren

"Spread a Little Sunshine" from Pippin - Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Lost in the Wilderness" from Children of Eden - Joshua Henry

"West End Ave" from The Magic Show - Micaela Diamond

"Wondrous Things" and "Lucky" from Séance on a Wet Afternoon - Brittany Renee

"Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (music by Alan Menken) - Raúl Esparza

"Bravo, Stromboli!" from My Son Pinocchio - Paulo Szot

"All for the Best" from Godspell - Leslie Odom, Jr.

"I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked - Trisha Yearwood

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked - Alex Newell

(Intermission)

"When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt - Sutton Foster

"It's An Art" from Working - Bonnie Milligan

"Children of the Wind" from Rags (music by Charles Strouse) - Angel Blue

"Beautiful City" from Godspell - Nick Jonas

"Jackie and Marie" from The Queen of Versailles - Kristin Chenoweth & Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Happy for Me" from Making Magic - Kristin Chenoweth & Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife - Cynthia Erivo

"We Are Lights" - Shoshana Bean

"Bless the Lord" from Godspell - Shoshana Bean

"What They Mean by Christmas" from Marley - David Phelps

There was also an encore where Schwartz, Chenoweth, and Yearwood sang "For Good"

 

It was a wonderful evening and, for me, the highlights were Esparza, Newell, and Erivo. Happy to answer any questions anyone might have!

[Impeach2017]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 5:51am

lol this thread represents a new low on this site: confusion, wrong information, bitterness, immediate off-topic veering, boneheaded commentary - will someone please take the "realms"?

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 6:33am

Complain all you want, but this was a beautiful night with a mix of pop, Broadway, and opera stars honoring a prolific songwriter. The talent on the stage was fantastic, but Miss Cynthia Erivo’s effortless Meadowlark was the night’s best performance. Literally pitch perfect and done with such ease. It was stunning.

[JSquared2]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 11:08am

SKOC211 said: "Hi! I am a long time lurker, but was there tonight. Here's the set list from the Playbill:



"Corner of the Sky" and "Morning Glow" from Pippin - Ben Platt

"Stranger to the Rain" from Children of Eden - Adrienne Warren

"Spread a Little Sunshine" from Pippin - Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Lost in the Wilderness" from Children of Eden - Joshua Henry

"West End Ave" from The Magic Show - Micaela Diamond

"Wondrous Things" and "Lucky" from Séance on a Wet Afternoon - Brittany Renee

"Out There" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (music by Alan Menken) - Raúl Esparza

"Bravo, Stromboli!" from My Son Pinocchio - Paulo Szot

"All for the Best" from Godspell - Leslie Odom, Jr.

"I'm Not That Girl" from Wicked - Trisha Yearwood

"Defying Gravity" from Wicked - Alex Newell

(Intermission)

"When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt - Sutton Foster

"It's An Art" from Working - Bonnie Milligan

"Children of the Wind" from Rags (music by Charles Strouse) - Angel Blue

"Beautiful City" from Godspell - Nick Jonas

"Jackie and Marie" from The Queen of Versailles - Kristin Chenoweth & Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Happy for Me" from Making Magic - Kristin Chenoweth & Anthony Roth Costanzo

"Meadowlark" from The Baker's Wife - Cynthia Erivo

"We Are Lights" - Shoshana Bean

"Bless the Lord" from Godspell - Shoshana Bean

"What They Mean by Christmas" from Marley - David Phelps

There was also an encore where Schwartz, Chenoweth, and Yearwood sang "For Good"



It was a wonderful evening and, for me, the highlights were Esparza, Newell, and Erivo. Happy to answer any questions anyone might have!"

 

Amazing set list!  Does anyone know if this was filmed for PBS?

 

[inception]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 11:54am

Thanks so much SKOC211!  I'm tearing up reading that set list.

Wish I had traveled to NYC this week instead of next week.

[dan94]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 2:29pm

DramaTeach said: "Complain all you want, but this was a beautiful night with a mix of pop, Broadway, and opera stars honoring a prolific songwriter. The talent on the stage was fantastic, but Miss Cynthia Erivo’s effortless Meadowlark was the night’s best performance. Literally pitch perfect and done with such ease. It was stunning."

Erivo sounded stunning but I would have to lightly push back on having such ease. I was in a side box very close to the stage - she read off of the teleprompters more than any other performer that evening.

There were some thrilling performances. It's really something to hear all of those Schwartz songs back to back. He has such a knack for exciting tuneful vocal music.

But there were a few performers that should not have been on that stage. It's one thing to do this event at the Met. By all means do it. Honor Stephen Schwartz. It's another matter to have some of those people come onto that stage and sing as poorly as they did. 

I'm sorry but even at his current best Nick Jonas is not in any conceivable way an acceptable vocalist to step onto that stage. And last night he was not at his best - short clipped phrases and constant yelping. Somehow managed to get lost during his song even though there were teleprompters there. Yearwood also had a particularly poor showing.

Nice evening. Would have been better if they cut it down to the best 4 or 5 performers handling more material with Chenoweth headlining and doing the most.

[DramaTeach]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 7:04pm

I meant an ease in her singing, not the lyrics. Many were pushing for big notes and I didn’t feel her push. I was sitting right under the teleprompter and they really were all using their lyrics.
 

And I agree that while it was a nice mix of pop, opera and Broadway talent, the pop acts, Trisha and Nick, definitely struggled most with their singing and their lyrics. Nick Jonas was the biggest disappointment as his song was very repetitive and he still got lost in the words and didn’t hold out a single note. I appreciate his appreciation for theater though. Always nice to have a pop star give props to the theater world to broaden its appeal.

[halfhourcheckwithmerman]

Posted: 12/12/23 at 7:23pm

How was the Queen of Versailles number?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 12/13/23 at 3:02pm

I've seen some of the video clips on social media, but none were for the songs I was most curious about.

I know Anthony Roth Costanzo from his great performance in the Glass opera Akhenaten, and know he's a counter-tenor, so I guess it makes sense that he seems to be singing songs written for women (Spread a Little Sunshine...)  He has two duets with Chenoweth, and I know nothing about the Queen of Versailles one, but I realize Happy for Me must be the current English name for "Happy" from Schikaneder, which is a female duet in the show.  I absolutely loved Schikaneder when I saw it in Vienna but it took me a second to remember from that program posted that its current English title (if an English production ever happens, sigh...) is the incredibly bland Making Magic.  Honestly, at first I thought that this might be a song from the unfinished Houdini project (which a past Schwartz cruise show revue used.)

So how were those duets?  More about Queen of Versailles song?

The only other songs I don't recognize is the one from Marley, which I assume is a version of Christmas Carol that was being worked on at some point (along with Wicked and Gepetto, another Schwartz version of a classic told from a different character's POV?)  and We Are Lights which I know he wrote for Hanukkah performances of choirs.

Anyway, while the performances sound like a mixed bag, I am a big fan of Schwartz (I genuinely love a lot of his work, and a lot of it I love in a more guilty pleasure way...) and wish this had been filmed.

E

[dan94]

Posted: 12/13/23 at 5:04pm

The Queen of Versailles number was short and gave little to no info about the show or score. Jackie/Cheno sings "I imagine what Marie Antoinette must have sounded like" and then ARC as Antoinette does some coloratura that Cheno joins. It seems random to put literal Marie Antoinette in the show, and I hope it turns out to be a more an overarching comparison that weaves through the show than a one off gag.

But there was really no info in the number to say anything or draw any kind of conclusions.