Stephen Schwartz: Composer and Lyricist of Stage and Screen

Introduction

Stephen Schwartz is a composer and lyricist for musical theater in the United States who has worked in that capacity for more than 40 years. Many people are familiar with his work even if they have never heard his name. Anyone who has watched a major film or attended a major stage production in the last few decades has most likely encountered music, lyrics, or both that were created by Schwartz. While he tends to keep a low profile, he is an extraordinarily talented individual who continues to impress the musical community with his creations for major motion pictures and stage productions.

Early Life and Education

Born in New York, NY, Schwartz is the son of Sheila Lorna, a teacher, and Stanley Leonard Schwartz, who worked in business (Anderson, 1976). He grew up in Nassau County in the Williston Park area and graduated from Mineola High School (Anderson, 1976). While attending high school, Schwartz also studied composition and piano at Juilliard. In 1968, he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University (Anderson, 1976).

Personal Life

In 1969, Schwartz married Carole Piasecki (Schwartz, 2014). The couple has two children: Scott and Jessica (Schwartz, 2014). Schwartz was elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America in 2009 and still held that position in 2014 (Schwartz, 2014). Most of his private life remains exactly that — private — as Schwartz does not consider himself a celebrity.

Career Highlights

The most significant information about Schwartz concerns his career. He has worked on projects including Godspell, Wicked, and Pippin, and he created lyrics for a number of popular films such as The Prince of Egypt, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted, and Pocahontas. Schwartz's first serious professional work was as a producer at the record company RCA. He did not hold that position long before moving to Broadway, where he was chosen as the musical director of The Survival of St. Joan — giving him the distinction of working on the first U.S. rock opera (Anderson, 1976).

After that, he served as producer on a soundtrack recorded with the progressive rock group Smoke Rise, released on Paramount Records. His first major credit, however, came with a title song he wrote for a play called Butterflies Are Free. That play was later adapted into a film, and his song was retained for the screen version, bringing Schwartz modest success and a much higher degree of recognition than his earliest work had afforded him (Suskin, 1992).

The music and lyrics for Godspell were completed in 1971 (Stephen Schwartz Biography, 2014). They were widely acclaimed, and Schwartz won two Grammy Awards for the work. In 1972, when Godspell was to be produced in Toronto, Schwartz asked Paul Shaffer to serve as its musical director — a decision that launched Shaffer's career and eventually made him a household name. Once Godspell was complete, Schwartz contributed to Mass, a work composed by the legendary Leonard Bernstein (Stephen Schwartz Biography, 2014). That production officially opened the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (Suskin, 1992). Pippin premiered on Broadway that same year (Stephen Schwartz Biography, 2014). Schwartz had begun writing songs for that show while still in college, though none of those early compositions made it into the final Broadway production.

Both Godspell and Pippin are produced frequently even today, decades after their debuts. They remain popular for many reasons, not least because of the music and lyrics that Schwartz so artfully crafted for each. His dedication to his craft shines through in everything he undertakes, reflecting his abilities, his commitment to quality, and the public's continuing desire to hear what he will create next.

Two years after Pippin debuted, Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for The Magic Show. That production ran for nearly 2,000 performances, and by the time Schwartz reached his mid-20s he had three major hit musicals playing simultaneously in New York (Schwartz, 2014). Next came The Baker's Wife, for which he again wrote both music and lyrics. It toured out of town on a tryout circuit and closed before reaching Broadway, yet it found considerable success in the markets where it was performed (Stephen Schwartz Biography, 2014). The cast album achieved a kind of cult status that is difficult to replicate in today's market and proved so popular that it inspired several new productions — one in New Jersey in 2005 and another in London in 1990.

Even without a Broadway run, The Baker's Wife gave Schwartz another credit he could be proud of. He then turned to a musical adaptation of Studs Terkel's Working, which debuted on Broadway in 1978 and earned Schwartz the Drama Desk Award for Best Director (Suskin, 1992). He had adapted and directed the show and written four of its songs. The production was later adapted for television as part of the American Playhouse series on PBS, and Schwartz was fortunate to co-direct the television version as well, earning him a broadcast credit he might not otherwise have received (Stephen Schwartz Biography, 2014).

Around the same time, Schwartz also became an author, writing a children's book titled The Perfect Peach (Schwartz, 2014). His interest in work for younger audiences continued into the early 1980s, when he wrote songs for a children's one-act musical called The Trip. That show performed well and was later expanded and revised, re-emerging some 20 years later under the title Captain Louie (Schwartz, 2014). He subsequently wrote music for three songs in Personals, an off-Broadway revue, and provided lyrics to Charles Strouse's music for a musical production called Rags (Schwartz, 2014).

Conclusion

Although he is in his 60s and his schedule is lighter than it once was, Schwartz remains in demand and continues to write music and lyrics for significant productions throughout the country. If he is passionate about a project, he commits to it fully until it is complete. That drive and dedication have sustained a career spanning more than four decades, and they are the qualities that will ensure he is remembered as one of the great composers and lyricists of his era. With an extensive catalog of plays, musicals, and films to his credit, Schwartz stands as a model for anyone aspiring to a similar career in musical theater.