contemporary music Stephen Schwartz Born in 1948 in New York City Studied Piano and Composition at The Julliard School while still in High School Attended Carnegie Mellon University and began writing “Pippin” while there Wrote for stage, film, television, contemporary popular music, children’s book One of only four composers to have at least three shows last over 1000 performances on Broadway (Jerry Herman, ALW, Richard Rodgers) Schwartz Shows Written for the stage Written for the screen GODSPELL THE PRINCE OF EGYPT PIPPIN POCOHANTAS THE MAGIC SHOW ENCHANTED THE BAKERS WIFE GEPETTO WORKING JOHNNY & THE CHILDREN OF EDEN SPRITES (theme song) WICKED HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME CAPTAIN LOUIE GODSPELL Written in 1971 – Premiered Off-Broadway (First Broadway production 1976) Film released in 1973 Major revival in 2011 Tells the story of Christ from the Book of Matthew thru non-Biblical character/actors portrayal “Clown” theatre – confused with Hippy culture Rock opera – similar to Jesus Christ Superstar PIPPIN Originally written while Schwartz was in college (none of original material is in Broadway version) Premiered in 1972 with Bob Fosse as the director Major revival in 2013 Show within a Show – Story of Pippin, son of Charlemagne Similar to Godspell – use of theatre troupe THE MAGIC SHOW Premiered in 1974, ran for 1920 performances Starred Doug Henning, magician One act show WORKING Opened in Chicago in 1977 and moved to Broadway in 1978 and ran for 24 performances Based on the Studs Terkel book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do Revised many times including 2009 which included 2 new songs by Lin Manuel Miranda CHILDREN OF EDEN Originated in 1986 as “Family Tree”, written for a summer camp – full length version adapted from there No Broadway premiere. Opened in London at Royal Shakespeare Company and ran for 4 months in 1991 American “version” of the recording at Paper Mill Playhouse in 1997 Based on the Book of Genesis, with Act I telling the story of Adam and Eve, Cain, and Abel, while Act II deals with Noah and the Flood. WICKED Opened on Broadway in 2003; Still currently running on Broadway Surpassed A Chorus Line in 2013 as the 6th longest running Broadway musical Surpassed Phantom of the Opera in 2017 as the 2nd highest grossing musical world-wide (Lion King is #1) Based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Film version announced for 2021 MUSICAL FILMS * The Prince of Egypt * Pocohantas * The Hunchback of Notre Dame * Enchanted One of the most versatile modern composers of musical theatre, film music and contemporary music