Stephen Schwartz and Friends at the Old Globe 3/9

Old Globe Executive Producer Lou Spisto recently announced that the theatre will present a special one-night engagement of Stephen Schwartz and Friends.. This delightful event, featuring the Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning composer/lyricist of the smash Broadway musicals Wicked, Godspell, Working, Pippin and many others, will be performed in the Old Globe Theatre on Monday, March 9 at 7:30pm.  Schwartz will be center-stage for an evening of unforgettable music and memories, with some of Broadway's best singer/actors, including, Debbie Gravitte, Liz Callaway and Scott Coulter, performing Schwartz's most beloved songs.

"We are truly honored to be able to present this special evening with Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz. With the Globe producing Stephen's seminal musical Working this season, the opportunity to have him perform on our stage was too good to pass up.  This is a real coup for San Diego audiences," said Spisto. "With only 600 seats, the Old Globe theatre will offer patrons a unique and intimate evening that is truly up close and personal with the legendary composer and show stopping performances of his work by this well-known Broadway cast."

Stephen Schwartz is one of Broadway's most prolific and popular artists, his current smash hit Wicked is a global sensation.  At one point, three of his musicals, Godspell, Pippin, and The Magic Show, were all running on Broadway simultaneously.  His film work includes his collaboration with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features, Pocahontas, for which he received two Academy Awards and a Grammy, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame He also provided songs for DreamWorks' first animated feature, The Prince Of Egypt, for which he won another Academy Award for the song "When You Believe".Mr. Schwartz provided music and lyrics for the original television musical, Geppetto, seen on The Wonderful World of Disney and lyrics for the 2007 Disney feature film, Enchanted.

Tickets for this exciting special event range from $49 to $79. The Globe is also offering 50 special tickets at $139 each, which includes admission to the show and an exclusive "meet and greet" event with Stephen Schwartz after the show. Tickets are currently available for 2009 season subscribers and will go on sale to the general public on February 8 at noon at (619) 23-GLOBE or online at www.TheOldGlobe.org.

Stephen Schwartz was born in New York City on March 6, 1948. He studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in Drama. Upon coming back to live in New York City, he went to work as a producer for RCA Records, but shortly thereafter began to work in the Broadway theatre. His first major credit was the title song for the play Butterflies are Free; the song was eventually used in the movie version as well. In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for Godspell, for which he won several awards including two Grammys. This was followed by the English texts, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein's MASS, which opened at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The following year, he wrote the music and lyrics for Pippin and two years later, The Magic Show. At one point, Godspell, Pippin, and The Magic Show were all running on Broadway simultaneously He next wrote the music and lyrics for The Baker's Wife, followed by a musical version of Studs Terkel's Working, to which he contributed four songs, and which he also adapted and directed, winning the Drama Desk Award for best director. He also co-directed the television production, which was presented as part of the PBS "American Playhouse" series. For children, he has written a one-act musical, Captain Louie, and a children's book, The Perfect Peach. He then wrote music for three of the songs in the Off-Broadway revue, Personals, lyrics to Charles Strouse's music for RAGS, and music and lyrics for Children of Eden. For films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the scores for the Disney animated features Pocahontas, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt, for which he won another Academy Award for the song "When You Believe".  He provided music and lyrics for the original television musical, Geppetto, and has released two CDs of new songs entitled Reluctant Pilgrim and Uncharted Territory. Mr. Schwartz's most recent musical, Wicked, opened in the fall of 2003 and is currently running on Broadway. Under the auspices of the ASCAP Foundation, he runs musical theatre workshops in New York and Los Angeles, and serves on the ASCAP board; he is also a member of the Council of the Dramatists' Guild.

Debbie Gravitte is celebrated from Broadway to symphony halls and all points between. She won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Jerome Robbin's Broadway along with a Drama Desk Award nomination and the New York Showstopper Award. After her debut on Broadway in the original cast of They're Playing Our Song, Gravitte went on to appear in Perfectly Frank, for which she received a Drama Desk Award nomination, Blues in the Night, Ain't Broadway Grand, Zorba, Chicago and Les Miserables. She also starred in the Encore series productions of The Boys from Syracuse, Tenderloin and Carnival. Gravitte has performed in such famous clubs as New York's Rainbow and Stars and London's Pizza on the Park, and with the New York Pops, National Symphony, Boston Pops, Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh symphony, London, Aalborg and Birmingham symphony orchestras, Stockholm Philharmonic and others. On television, Gravitte co-starred on the CBS series Trial and Error and NBC's Pursuit of Happiness, and starred in several specials for PBS, including Live from the Kennedy Center, Boston Pops Celebrate Bernstein, Rodgers & Hart for Great Performances, and Ira Gershwin's 100th Birthday Celebration from London's Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall. In films, she has appeared with Bette Midler in Isn't She Great? and as one of the voices in Disney's The Little Mermaid. In addition to her own recordings, she recently debuted with New York City Ballet singing in Peter Martin's Thou Swell.

Liz Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Other Broadway appearances include Baby (Tony Nomination), The Three Musketeers, Miss Saigon, Cats, and The Look of Love. She has appeared off-Broadway in The Spitfire Grill (Drama Desk Nomination), No Way to Treat a Lady, Marry Me a Little, and Brownstone. Other New York appearances include the legendary Follies in Concert (Lincoln Center), An Evening with Paul Williams and Jimmy Webb (Feinstein's), Fiorello! (Encores), and Hair in Concert (New Amsterdam Theatre). She recently appeared in Bill Finn's Elegies at Reprise! in Los Angeles. The award winning show Sibling Revelry (created with sister Ann Hampton Callaway) was presented to great acclaim at the Donmar Warehouse in London. The sequel, Relative Harmony, recently played in New York and Los Angeles. Liz has performed extensively in concert, most recently on tour with The Boston Pops, and in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Kennedy Center and in Toronto. Worldwide, she has appeared in China, Estonia, Iceland, Germany, France, Slovenia, and just about every major city in the United States. Liz has provided the singing voice for many animated films including the title character in the Oscar nominated Anastasia. She is also the singing voice of "Princess Jasmine" in Disney's The Return of Jafar, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves. Other film work includes The Swan Princess, Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, Beauty and the Beast, and The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars. She received an Emmy Award for hosting Ready To Go, a daily, live children's program on CBS in Boston.  Other TV credits include In Performance at the White House, Inside the Actor's Studio: Stephen Sondheim, and Christmas with the Boston Pops. Liz has released three solo recordings: The Beat Goes On, The Story Goes On: Liz Callaway On and Off-Broadway, and Anywhere I Wander: The Music of Frank Loessor. Other recordings include A Stephen Sondheim Evening, Unsung IrvingBerlin, Sondheim at the Movies, and The Maury Yeston Songbook.

For his work in cabaret, Scott Coulter was awarded both the 2001 Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Award as well as the 2001 Bistro Award for Outstanding Male Vocalist. He received a 1997 Bistro Award for the revue "Get Your Tickets Now!" and his debut solo show won the 1998 MAC Award for Male Debut. Time Out NY picked Coulter's "Unexpected Songs" as one of the 'Best of 1999'. Coulter's self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by Scott and Barbara Siegel of TheatreMania and Jeff Rosen of Cabaret Scenes magazine. Scott has appeared at Town Hall in the 1949, 1953, 1962 and 1968 editions of the popular Broadway by the Year series and can currently be heard on the Bayview recordings of the 1949 and 1953 performances. Other Town Hall appearances include Sentimental Journey: The Songs of World War II, From Brooklyn to Hollywood, All That Jazz: A Tribute to Kander & Ebb and Broadway Unpluggged.  Since 1997, Scott has performed around the country with award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich in their many revues. Currently, he is touring with composer Stephen Schwartz, Liz Callaway and Debbie Gravitte in the revue Stephen Schwartz and Friends. Schwartz has said: "one of the best things that can happen to a songwriter is to have his or her material interpreted by Scott Coulter."  Scott toured the country as "Jinx" in Forever Plaid and was in the world premiere of Floyd Collins, directed by Tina Landau at the American Music Theatre Festival. His regional theatre credits include Into the Woods, In Trousers, Cotton Patch Gospel, Pump Boys and Dinettes and As Bees in Honey Drown. He is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He can be heard in the upcoming Disney film, Enchanted.

 

Photo by Peter James Zielinski

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