![]() ![]() I can’t really take any more credit for it than I can for my eye color, but it shows up very early if a kid is going to be musical, hence the large number of musical prodigies. The music gene, as we know, presents early. Leonard: How old were you when you started playing the piano? Then I went to Mineola High School, which is a public high school in the middle of Nassau County…. Stephen: If only I had known then, I could have gotten started a lot sooner. Stephen: I am a Long Island Jewish boy and grew up basically in a town, literally I grew up in a development of Roslyn Heights which was called South Park. Carol now knows more about me that I know about myself…. You know, it’s like drowning and watching your life pass before your eyes. Leonard: So did you think you might get some perspective on your own life in the process? Stephen: Yeah, and I really admired that, and I haven’t really read other biographies that have done that. Leonard: The creative process? How things get done? And more interesting to me, and what I like so much about the book that Carol ultimately wrote, is that she talks a lot about the process. Stephen: I did have a few, but…Carol told me what her approach was going to be, which was, as she put it, a creative biography, that is it wasn’t going to go poking around in the dark corners of my life, but instead talk about the work. So Stephen, you had no reservations when Carol approached you? Defying Gravity has just been published in an updated version by Applause Theatre and Cinema books and I’m very pleased that it brings Carol de Giere AND Stephen Schwartz for a show now…. In 2008, Carol de Giere charted the career of this remarkable composer and lyricist in a biography named after Mr. Along the way he was won a Drama Desk Award, Three Grammys, Three Oscars, and a special Tony Award in 2015 for his commitment for serving artists and fostering new talent. Songs for a number of hit movies followed and then another big Broadway hit Wicked, which opened in 2003 and is still going strong 15 years later. Leonard: Stephen Schwartz was just 21 when his song Butterflies are Free was performed on a Broadway stage and seven years later he had three shows running concurrently on Broadway: Godspell, Pippin, and The Magic Show. Introduction to Schwartz, de Giere, and the Book Lopate is a Peabody Award winner whose numerous honors include three Associated Press Awards and three James Beard Awards. Lopate is a long-time interviewer whose Leonard Lopate at Large show is presented by the Robinhood Radio Network. The full audio is posted here and can be downloaded: leonard-lopate-at-large-stephen-schwartz-carol-de-giere/ ![]() For readers who would prefer glancing through highlights from the interview transcript rather than listening to the hour-long program, I’m posting several sections here (edited down from 16 pages to 5). On December 17, 2018, Leonard Lopate interviewed Stephen Schwartz and me about the newly released second edition of Defying Gravity and Schwartz’s career story. ![]() Biography, Creativity, and Stephen Schwartz: Interview Highlights ![]()
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