Feature: Stephen Schwartz's DMV Connections are Truly Extraordinary Things.
Three area events will highlight the multi-Award winning composer/lyricist this May and onward.
Multi- Award winning composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz has had a long and distinguished career in writing for both theatre and film. He is probably best known nowadays for his work on Wicked, but his career goes far beyond that one hit show.
The shows he has worked on are as versatile as his scores. A few examples include The Magic Show where the lead actor, magician Doug Henning, never sang and Rags where his lyrics (to Charles Strouse’s music) required a coloratura soprano in the original Broadway production. Of course, Godspell and Children of Eden have become part of the American Musical canon and are produced all over the world.
His latest work The Queen of Versailles recently released it’s cast recording and trust me, if you missed seeing the show, please give this recording a listen.
On screen Mr. Schwartz’s collaborations with composer Alan Menken are truly legendary. These are the men responsible for Disney’s Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted, and Disenchanted. The team also wrote the songs for the long forgotten film Life With Mikey.
Stephen Schwartz has a long history with the DMV. Pippin had it’s original tryout at the Kennedy Center and The Baker’s Wife closed there on its way to Broadway. More importantly, he wrote the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein’s Mass which opened the Kennedy Center. Read on to see what that experience was like.
This May, three DMV arts happenings will all highlight the work of Stephen Schwartz.
On May 2nd at 7:00pm at The Music Center of Strathmore Young Artists of America (YAA) will present a staging of The Prince of Egypt. The show will feature over 200 artists from YAA’s Company, Orchestra, Junior and Kids divisions. Mr. Schwartz has been serving as a guest mentor for the production and will be in attendance at the event.
Beginning May 12th Signature Theatre will present Schwartz’s classic musical Pippin. The production will run through July 26th in The MAX and features a cast led by Olivier Award Winning performer Cedric Neal and local powerhouses Awa Sal Secka, Maria Rizzo and more. The production is helmed by Signature Theatre’s genius Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner.
On May 16th Washington National Opera (WNO) will host its 70th Anniversary Gala at the National Building Museum. Mr. Schwartz will be honored alongside Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Jamie and soprano Susan Graham.
I urge you to consider attending one or more of these events. By doing so you are helping the performers of tomorrow, supporting the top area theatre for musicals, and supporting a company that needs as much love from us as possible right now.
All this while celebrating the work of the modern musical theatre treasure known as Stephen Schwartz.
When you were approached to write the songs for the film version The Prince of Egypt, what was the first one written?
“Deliver Us”. I was approached very early in the formation of DreamWorks. I went in and met with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen. and they said that they wanted me to do the songs for their first animated feature. While waiting for the rest of the team to form, I thought to myself I think I know how it should open and I could write that song. So, “Deliver Us” was around for about a year before we really started working on the rest of the movie.
Who came to you with the idea of turning The Prince of Egypt into a stage piece?
I was working in Denmark and one of the guys who wrote the screenplay Philip LaZebnik was living there. He had heard about a pirate production that was being performed and we went to see it. They just took the songs from the movie and made their own show out of it. Little knowing that the authors of the movie would hear about it and get there to see it. It made us think, well, as long as people are trying to do this on their own, maybe it would be a good idea to make a real stage version. I got in touch with DreamWorks and of course Katzenberg, who was still involved, was very happy to move ahead with the idea.
production of The Prince of Egypt.
Photo by Elizabeth Cunha.
Is the version of The Prince of Egypt that Young Artists of America will be performing on May 2nd the one that was seen in London?
Essentially, we've done some work on it since then and actually are probably going to continue to do a little bit more work on it to try and get a really definitive script and score So to speak, , but yes, it’s essentially what was done with some of what we think are improvements.
production of The Prince of Egypt.
Photo by Elizabeth Cunha.
Is this the first time The Prince of Egypt will be performed with all students?
No. I think a thespian festival last summer that I saw did the full version. A lot of schools and student groups like to do the show for many reasons. I think some of them do the junior version and some of them obviously do the full version.
Along those same lines, your musical Captain Louie was written to have all young performer voices. Do you find writing for that range of voice harder than writing for adults?
Not really because it's more something to be careful about. For junior versions, not only do we alter the keys sometimes alter notes as well. Particularly, for the harmonies or when there are group vocals, et cetera I think one just has to be careful and Limit the range a bit more than with adult singers and obviously the specific key changes for younger voices.
1971 opening night of Mass at Kennedy Center.
Photo courtesy of the artist.
You are going to be one of three featured guests at this year’s Washington National Opera Gala on May 16th. One of the other featured guests will be Jamie Bernstein, the daughter of Leonard Bernstein with whom who wrote Mass for the opening of the Kennedy Center. Can you please talk about the experience of working with someone who arguably was and is still considered one of the greatest composer/conductors in the world?
I learned so much from him about music and about how to approach people in the world., I learned a lot both professionally and personally too. Of course, I was a bit in awe of him when we first began working together, as I think any sane human being would be. He was an enormously generous human being in terms of how he was aware of his awesomeness, if you will, of his celebrity. He went very much out of his way to try to make other people comfortable with him. That's something that I learned from him too. I’ve known other people half as famous who don’t do that, so I really came to admire and appreciate that.
When The Baker’s Wife closed out of town at The Kennedy Center, it had gone through both leads, the director being replaced plus producer David Merrick trying to remove the most famous song from the show “Meadowlark” and orchestrator Tom Pierson being replaced by Don Walker among others. If any other producer was in charge of The Baker’s Wife during its pre-Broadway tryout, do you think the show would have gone into NY?
I'm not sure because it was really Joe Stein and myself who encouraged, if that's the right word, David Merrick not to bring the show to New York. We didn't feel it was ready. It not as if we weren’t disappointed. In fact, I remember that David Merrick had an issue with some of his investors. I think he was kind of required to bring the show in and, had to go to them and ask for permission not to.
R- Cedric Neal as the Leading Player in rehearsal for
Signature Theatre's upcoming production of Pippin.
Photos by James Gardiner.
Signature Theatre in Arlington VA will be presenting Pippin starting in mid-May. As someone who is a fan of cut songs from musicals, can you please tell us about a song called “Marking Time?” Where did it fall in the show? Why was it cut? After all these years is there any chance of it being restored for a future production?
”Marking Time” was replaced by “Extraordinary” and there was also a song called “Just Between the Two of Us” for Pippin and Catherine that was replaced by “Love Song”. In the case of “Marking Time”, it seemed to be about the wrong thing. It was more about Pippin's ambivalence towards his relationship with Catherine. We just needed something with more energy and more on theme. “Extraordinary” works better in the show.
Some Wicked fans are hardcore and have a problem with change. If there was ever a production that asked that “Making Good” be restored and “The Wizard and I” be removed, would you approve the change?
I wouldn't approve the change because that replacement was made for the same reason as the songs from Pippin, although it happened much earlier. It just was not working as well. Um, and It was replaced during our developmental process when it just was clear that “Making Good” which as a standalone song works pretty well but it was not helping advance the story as it needed to. And not only did we replace that song, but we moved where the song happened. It came earlier before she gets to Shiz University.
The truth is that I could tell this song wasn't working that well and my son Scott Schwartz who is not only a terrific director but also an excellent dramaturg, came to a reading and I asked him afterwards, why isn't that song working? And he said it's too soon for that song. He said that the audience is waiting for something to happen. And when he first said it, I thought that he was completely wrong because Elpheba’s “I want” song would come quite late in the first act. But you know, we were in a development process, so I thought, all right, l we'll try that.
Then Winnie and I started discussing what her first song should be and realized that it should be about her getting to and be fixed by the Wizard.
What is the most gratifying thing for you about knowing that a group of up and coming performers is tackling The Prince of Egypt?
It's not so much the specific show, though of course, I'm delighted that so many theatre groups all over the world are doing The Prince of Egypt. I had pictures sent to me from a beautiful student production in Glasgow, Scotland.
I am a big supporter of sort of next generation theatre writers and theatre. It's very meaningful to me that young people are doing work of mine and hopefully it will inspire some of them to continue working in the arts. To have the sort of growth of empathy and understanding for people different than ourselves that the arts can engender. I think that's one of the most important aspects of why art matters in a society such as ours, which seems to be increasingly lacking in empathy. I think that's one of the things that the arts springs. If work of mine is helping to inspire young people to have that interest, that's very meaningful to me.
Special thanks to Michael Cole for his assistance in coordinating this interview.
Addtional photo support provided by Young Artists of America's publicist Kendra Rubenfeld and Signature Theatre's Publicist and Marketing Manager Zachary Flick.
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