When songwriter Stephen Schwartz sits at the piano, he feels the music. “When I was a kid and playing my Beethoven … I would play that bar over and over again, and cry. It’s very embarrassing! Beethoven, living in a world that has nothing to do with ours, but he writes, and it speaks to us across the centuries.”

Schwartz knows a little something about speaking to audiences. He’s the composer and lyricist of “Wicked,” the blockbuster stage musical-turned-two-part movie musical. Part two, “Wicked: For Good,” opens Nov. 21.

The prequel to the classic “Wizard of Oz,” “Wicked” tells the story of Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo), who grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West. The bubbly Glinda (played by Ariana Grande) becomes the Good Witch of the North.

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo perform “Popular,” from “Wicked”:

Schwartz has been telling stories through song for over five decades. “My sort of glib joke where people say, like, how do you write a song? I just say, tell the truth and make it rhyme,” he said. “And if I can be honest enough, then that’ll speak to other people.”

“Wicked” opened 22 years ago, making it the fourth-longest-running Broadway show in history.

And where was Schwartz on the night of Oct. 30, 2003? “Well, that was the opening night of ‘Wicked’ on Broadway, and therefore, I was not at the Gershwin Theatre, because I don’t go to my own openings,” he said. “It’s too nerve-wracking for me. I don’t like the opening night parties where everybody is just waiting to hear what reviews come in.”

Kristin Chenoweth originated the role of Glinda on Broadway. She and Schwartz have reunited for the recently-opened new musical, “The Queen of Versailles.” “I’m working with my Rodgers and Hammerstein; it’s just packed into one person,” she said of Schwartz. “There’s not five of him. There’s one. He’s original. He’s singular. And there’s nobody else like him.”

Schwartz grew up on New York’s Long Island. A prodigy, he attended the prestigious Juilliard School as a high schooler. Just after college, he collaborated on the musical that became his first big hit, “Godspell.” The musical features a ragtag group who help Jesus tell various parables.

I asked, “It’s a musical with Jesus as a central character. You’re a Jewish guy. Did you think, well, alright, I’ll give it a go?”

Schwartz replied, “I think one of the things that made ‘Godspell’ work was the fact that I didn’t know a lot of those stories. So, I think I came to it with a kind of fresh eye about not preaching to the converted, so to speak.”

In 1972, Schwartz brought that fresh eye to the story of “Pippin,” a young man searching for the meaning of life in the Middle Ages. Hit #3, 1974’s “The Magic Show,” starred magician Doug Henning. Schwartz was 3-for-3, with all three playing simultaneously on Broadway when he was just 27 – a theatrical trifecta that Schwartz described as “very dizzying.”

“The truth is, when you are very young and unprepared for a success, it can be difficult to handle,” he said. “It was difficult for me to handle. I think I got very, quite full of myself. I got kind of difficult to deal with. I kept thinking, well, why isn’t everybody just doing exactly what I say? I lost somewhat the ability to collaborate. You know, it took some failures to kind of learn how to deal with both success and failure.”

The failures came in short order, a “four-fecta” of flops”: “Working” (which closed after a month), and ‘Rags” (which closed after four performances), while “The Baker’s Wife” and “Children of Eden” never made it to Broadway.

I noted, “You haven’t always been critic’s choice.”

“I’m almost never a critic’s choice,” Schwartz said.

Why? “I have no idea,” he said. “I’ll be frank about it, you know, I wish I got Steve Sondheim’s reviews.”

“But listen, as great as he was, his shows didn’t run the way yours have.”

“Yeah, the grass is always greener,” Schwartz replied.

In the early 1990s Schwartz stepped away from the piano. Had he quit Broadway? “Absolutely, a hundred percent,” he said.

“Did you worry that you were out of juice?” I asked.

“Totally, yeah. And in the ’90s, I actually went back to school. I was pursuing a degree in psychology. I was gonna become a therapist.”

Studying to become a therapist turned out to be quite therapeutic. “I think that time away reminded me of how to behave myself and how to collaborate and how to deal with other people, and not just come in like a bull in a china shop,” he said.

When he returned to songwriting, it was not for Broadway, though, but for Hollywood, writing songs for “Pocahontas,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” “Enchanted,” and music and lyrics for “The Prince of Egypt.” He picked up three Academy Awards along the way.

“The Colors of the Wind,” from “Pocahontas”:

But Stephen Schwartz’s home will always be the stage. “I feel so blessed and so fortunate that work I’ve done has this ongoing life that I know is gonna keep going when I’m not here on this planet anymore,” he said. “Listen, I’m 77 years old, and they still let me do this!”

To watch a trailer for “Wicked: For Good” click on the video player below:

READ AN EXCERPT: “Defying Gravity,” a biography of “Wicked” composer Stephen Schwartz
Biographer Carol de Giere explores the creative career of the Grammy- and Oscar-winning composer of such treasured Broadway and movie hits as “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked.”

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Stephen Schwartz (Video)

For more info:

• “Wicked: For Good” opens in theater Nov. 21
• “Wicked,” at the Gershwin Theatre, New York City | Ticket info
• “The Queen of Versailles,” at the St. James Theatre, New York | Ticket info
• “The Baker’s Wife,” at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater, New York (through Dec. 21) | Ticket info
• stephenschwartz.com
• “Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked (2nd Ed.)” by Carol de Giere (Applause Books), in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org

     
Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Jason Schmidt. 

     
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