A-list cast helps deliver old kid on the block’s lesson in craft and style.

Theatre Royal, Sydney
February 12, 2016

Somewhere near the middle of this wonderfully swanky concert of his finest songs, the great composer Stephen Schwartz tells us that he’s often asked by young writers and actors how they can get started in a profession that’s always looking for the next big thing but seemingly never interested in anything new. It’s a salient point, especially coming from the man who burst upon the world of musical theatre 45 years ago at the tender age of 23 with the ground-breaking and off-Broadway box office record-breaking musical Godspell. The success of Pippin a year or so later cemented his reputation, but there were lean times too, as we learn from the stellar cast during some relaxed between numbers chat. It wasn’t until Alan Menken introduced him to Disney in the 1990s that Schwartz was catapulted into the multiple Oscar-winners’ enclosure care of a slew of hit animated musicals including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted.

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