Show Notes

#14: The Gateway Drug to Musical Theatre – Magic to Do

Click here to listen to our fourteenth episode and the first part of our Stephen Schwartz conversation!

Join us! We’re kicking off a new series, “Name-Dropping Broadway,” highlighting the people who have built Broadway from the Golden Age to our modern Hamilton era. We’ll talk all about our chosen person’s career through the lens of our favorite two shows associated with them, and at the end of a pair of episodes, we’ll have made our case for why each of these people are Broadway cornerstones.

We start with a composer/lyricist we affectionately call “the gateway drug to musical theatre,” whose career opened with Godspell, had an 11 o’clock number at Wicked, and is still going strong. Host Sally Fuller and special guest host Madison Garrett take a look at the young beginnings of Stephen Schwartz’s career through the lens of his most “extraordinary” piece- Pippin.

Next week, we take a look at Wicked.

Shout-outs

  • Pippin rocks our socks off. We recommend you listen to the original Broadway cast recording but definitely also check out the revival cast’s versions of “Corner of the Sky,” sung by Matthew James Thomas.
  • You know what else rocks our socks off? The Center for Puppetry Arts. Check them out on https://puppet.org/
  • Our favs: Ben Vereen, Bob Fosse, John Rubinstein, Jonathan Freeman, Ann Reinking, Tim Curry, Elle Crawford, Jerry Orbach, Clive Barnes, PATINA MILLER, Pippin Australia, Miss Saigon, The Heat is On, Disney, Pocahontas, The Prince of Egypt, Enchanted, The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  • Special thanks to Peachy Corners Cafe, Crazy Love Coffeehouse, Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee, Ground & Pound Coffee, and Noble & Main for being the best editing offices.
  • For more about Stephen Schwartz (and spoilers for the next episode!), check out his biography, currently at the top of my wish list, Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked.
Click here to purchase it from Amazon!

Bonus Videos

For the budding theatre fans

For the fangirls

Please enjoy this compilation of classic Ann Reinking performances!

For the die-hards

And if you’re really curious, here’s Stephen Schwartz’s The Magic Show

Addendums

In describing the 2013 revival ending, we referred to Theo becoming “the new leading player,” by which we meant he doesn’t become the Leading Player character, but he fills the role Pippin has had for the whole musical.

We had to cut our elaboration on where the new ending came from, but we wanted to share that it was done by a regional theatre in the ‘90s, and Schwartz came across it and loved it. This is the main reason it was used in the 2013 Broadway revival.

My heart broke when I had to cut a section that featured Madison using the phrase “poetic panache.” Just wanted everyone to know that’s how she talks, and hopefully we’ll get to keep the next piece of perfect alliteration she gives us.

How to Broadway Corner

Today’s term was “Sitzprobe,” my favorite theatre term ever! 

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