Stephen Schwartz in front of his current Broadway shows

A Q&A with the superstar composer on Godspell, Wicked, and more

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Stephen Schwartz is one of the most influential forces in contemporary musical theatre. As a composer and lyricist, he’s created classics shows like “Pippin” and expanded the American songbook with tunes like “Meadowlark” and “Day By Day.”

At the moment, two of Schwartz’s defining works—”Godspell” and “Wicked”—are running next door to each other on Broadway, and he’s collaborating with Aaron Sorkin to create a musical about Houdini. Since Hugh Jackman is attached to play the legendary magician, there’s a good chance Schwartz will be celebrating yet another hit in just a few months.
Last week, Schwartz joined me for lunch in midtown Manhattan. We discussed his lengthy career, his thoughts on his current Broadway shows, and how being a team player doesn’t always mean what you think.

I’m delighted to present the highlights from our conversation.

– Mark Blankenship

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TDF Stages: Godspell, which stages the teachings of Jesus with a rock-pop score, has been produced thousands of times since it premiered Off Broadway in 1971, but until the current revival opened last fall, it hadn’t been on Broadway in over thirty years.

What’s it like to have your first hit back in the spotlight?

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The actor becomes Perón in Broadway’s “Evita”

Welcome to Building Character, TDF’s ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles

Michael Cerveris has recently starred in dark, brooding shows like Sondheim’s Sweeney Toddand the Kurt Weill bio-musical LoveMusik, but at the moment, he’s embracing grandeur and passion for the Broadway revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita.

According to Cerveris, playing Perón, the Argentine leader and husband to Evita, is not as much of a stretch as it may seem. “I think what people tend to think of with Andrew Lloyd Webber is big, romantic melodies and pop sensibilities, but Perón is the one character in this who sings not quite atonal, but very angular, quasi-opera sort of [music],” he says. “Of all the characters in the show, I think my vocal parts are probably closer to Sondheim than anything else. I feel like my experience with singing and learning how to sing Steve’s work has prepared me really well for some of the stranger writing that Andrew’s given to Perón.”

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We ask the director of “Rated P For Parenthood”

What does it take to direct a revue? A typical show follows one group of characters through a single story, but a revue, with its collection of songs and sketches, introduces new people and new situations every few minutes. How does a director make it all feel coherent?

That’s a question for Jeremy Dobrish, director of the musical-comedy pastiche Rated P for Parenthood. Running through April 8 at the Westside Theatre, the show gently pokes fun at parenting foibles, with four actors playing various parents and children. As Dobrish says, his challenge became, “How do you keep the audience following not just each protagonist for three minutes, but an overall sense of the journey of the show?”

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A concert at Joe’s Pub transitions into drama

Somewhere between its first workshop and its current production at Joe’s Pub, Ethan Lipton’s No Place to Go transformed from a snazzy concert into a full-fledged piece of theatre. Granted, the show still resembles a concert—it features a guy standing in front of his band —but it feels like more.

So what’s the difference? What makes something legitimate drama and not another night at the club?

It helps that there’s a script. Lipton has released several albums, but he’s also an accomplished actor and playwright. When Joe’s Pub, The Public Theater’s music and performance venue, commissioned him to create No Place to Go, he knew he could fuse his talents.

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Des McAnuff’s tackles the Broadway revival

Any director who revives Jesus Christ Superstar, the Passion-flavored rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, has to contend with the show’s final number, “John 19:41.” An orchestral piece that follows Jesus’ crucifixion, it’s a blank slate that demands imagination.

“If you look at the libretto, there are no suggestions for what to do there,” say Des McAnuff, who’s directing the current Broadway revival at the Neil Simon Theatre. “He dies, and you have two and a half minutes, and you have to decide what to do with those two and a half minutes. I generally love these challenges, but when the ideas aren’t coming, they can be kind of terrifying.”

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