Stephen Schwartz Talks Wicked, Godspell, Pippin & More on the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame Podcast with Tom Needham

The Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame Podcast

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Stephen Schwartz joins Tom Needham for a conversation about his career and his induction into the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.
Stephen Schwartz was born in New York City and studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School while in high school and graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a B.F.A. in drama. Upon returning to New York, he worked as an A&R producer for RCA Records but shortly thereafter began to work in the Broadway theater. His first major credit was the title song for the play Butterflies Are Free, which was eventually used in the film adaptation as well.

In 1971, he wrote the music and new lyrics for Godspell, for which he won two Grammys, among other awards. This was followed by the English texts, in collaboration with Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein’s Mass, which opened 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 a Drama Desk Award for Best Director. He also co-directed the television production, which was presented as part of the PBS American Playhouse series.

Other work for the musical theater includes lyrics to Rags (music by Charles Strouse), music and lyrics for Children of Eden, and two musicals produced overseas, Mit Eventyr (My Fairy Tale) in Denmark and Schikaneder in Austria. He has also written songs for two musicals for young audiences, Captain Louie and My Son, Pinocchio. Compilation revues of his work include Snapshots and, for Princess Cruise Lines, Magic to Do.

For film, he collaborated with composer Alan Menken on the songs for Disney’s Pocahontas, for which he received two Academy Awards and another Grammy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Enchanted. 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.” The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt have both been adapted for the stage.

His most recent stage musical, Wicked, opened in the fall of 2003 and is currently running on Broadway and in several other productions around the world. He received another Grammy for the cast recording, and in 2008, Wicked reached its 1,900th performance on Broadway, making him the only songwriter in Broadway history ever to have three shows run more than 1,900 performances.

His first opera, Séance on A Wet Afternoon, premiered at Opera Santa Barbara in 2009 and was subsequently produced by New York City Opera. His frequently performed choral works include Testimony, based on the It Gets Better Project, Keramos, and part of the Tyler Clemente Suite. He has also released two singer-songwriter CDs, Reluctant Pilgrim and Uncharted Territory.

He has been awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and been inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2015, he received the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award for his humanitarian and mentorship contributions to the theater. A book about his career, Defying Gravity, was published by Applause Books.