About Steven Schwartz
In a 2018 discussion titled "An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: The Early Years," Schwartz described his childhood introduction to musical theater. He said he grew up on Long Island and was interested in musical theatre from a young age. He recalled that his parents were friends with composer George Klein Singer, who had written a concept album in the 1950s that was being turned into a musical. Schwartz stated that he would listen to Singer play songs from the work and later try to pick them out on the piano.
Schwartz also described his early creative process, noting that he would take scripts for musicals he had not seen from the library. He said he would put the scripts up at the piano while he was supposed to be practicing, look at the lyrics, and write his own tunes for them. He added that when he later heard the original music, he often felt he had done "much, much better."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Steven Schwartz's recent appearances.
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Transcript (1 segments)
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Steven Schwartz0:04
Well, I grew up on Long Island and was basically interested in musical theatre since I was a little kid. My parents happened to be friendly with a gentleman named George Kleinsinger, who was a composer, and he had written what we would now call a concept album back in the 50s called 'Archie and Mehitabel,' which he was turning into a musical when they first met him. That musical was eventually premiered on Broadway. While he was working on the musical, he would play songs from it for friends, and I would sort of sit over on the side and listen, then go to his piano and try to pick out the songs. He suggested to my parents that maybe I had some musical ability and maybe they should get me a piano, so they did. A couple of years later, they took me to see the show, which was called 'Shinbone Alley.' It's a show about a cockroach named Archie who falls in love with an alley cat named Annabelle. Many of the cast members were portraying cats, so it's a little bit ahead of its time. It didn't actually succeed, but that's when, you should pardon the pun, I sort of got the theater bug. I really didn't sit and plan to say that I'm sorry. Just slip down. Yeah, my folks had them, and I listened to them over and over again. I used to go to the library and take out the scripts for musicals that I hadn't seen, and I would actually put them up at the piano when I was supposed to be practicing, look at the lyrics, and write other tunes to them. Then I would go and get the cast albums and hear what the real tunes were, and so often I felt I had done much, much better.
