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Entertainment
Footlights
‘Wicked’ composer paves way for others
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By Terry Morris,
Staff Writer
3:58 PM Friday, April 24, 2009
Being part of a monster hit like “Wicked” changes a person’s life, although success hasn’t spoiled composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
He still spends a lot of time at the other end of the spectrum — working with students and dreamers.
He’s been artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theater Workshop for several years, gives master classes around the country, schedule permitting, and was in Dayton on April 18 for the finals of the second annual musical theater scholarship competition that bears his name.
He borrowed Human Race Theatre Company executive director Kevin Moore’s office to talk before eight high school and college contestants took The Loft Theatre stage.
“ ‘Wicked’ is a very good show,” he said in what seemed to be a considerable understatement, but who’s going to argue with him. “It’s understandable that it became a hit. But no one knows why a show goes from being a hit to becoming a phenomenon. I’ve been involved with two.”
They were 28 years apart.
The first was “Godspell” (1976), his first musical. “I had nothing to compare it to then,” he said. “With ‘Wicked’ I do. Its success is a continual source of amazement for everyone involved. I don’t know how you could ever get used to that.”
Although Schwartz spends much of his time in the entertainment capitals of Hollywood and New York, he said there are “less regional differences in the quantity and quality of young musical theater talent than you might think. You find surprising depth all over the place. That’s why events like this one (The Human Race Theatre Company’s annual Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Scholarship) are so important.”
Jason Slattery, a West Carrollton High School graduate majoring in musical theater at Baldwin-Wallace College, won the $3,500 college scholarship. James C. Blanchard of Cincinnati Christian High School won the $1,500 scholarship for current high school students.
Although Schwartz was born “with a musical theater gene,” it took a friend of the family to call attention to it.
Composer George Kleinsinger used to play some songs from the Broadway show he was working on when he came to visit.
“I would then go and try to pick out those tunes on the piano. After two or three times like that, he told my parents they needed to sign me up for piano lessons,” said Schwartz, who is still learning.
He’s getting close to finishing his first opera, “Seance on a Wednesday Afternoon.” Opera Santa Barbara will present the premiere in September.
“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. The learning curve has been steep, particularly the orchestrations,” he said.
Once that’s finished, “a couple of theater revivals and maybe a new film” are in the works.
Besides his theater scores and/or lyrics for other shows including “Pippin,” “The Magic Show,” “The Baker’s Wife,” “Working,” “Personals,” “Rags” and “Children of Eden,” he has collaborated with Alan Menken on songs for Disney’s “Enchanted,” the animated features “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and written songs for “The Prince of Egypt.”
He is the subject of “Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz,” by Carol de Giere (Applause Books), a volume he said “is actually pretty good.”
Asked if he has advice for Dayton area students considering a musical theater career, he offered these tips:
“Get some training. Work on perfecting your skills. You were born with a certain amount of talent. There’s nothing you can do about that, but you can maximize and come to understand your particular area of specialness. What is it that sets you apart?”
Schwartz said show business “is a very difficult entry-level profession. What it takes to become a doctor or lawyer is documented. The route for theater is less clear. Every success story is different. But it takes training and persistence. Unknowns who have that make it every day.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2377 or tmorris@Dayton
DailyNews.com.
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