{"id":54701,"date":"2020-04-15T17:01:57","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=54701"},"modified":"2020-11-15T19:57:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T01:57:08","slug":"the-prince-of-egypt-composer-on-the-musical-theater-adaptation-his-career-and-his-familys-passover-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/the-prince-of-egypt-composer-on-the-musical-theater-adaptation-his-career-and-his-familys-passover-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Prince of Egypt\u2019 composer on the musical theater adaptation, his career and his family\u2019s Passover tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 \u201cThe Prince of Egypt\u201d is having another moment in the desert sun.<\/p>\n<p>The 1998 animated film on Moses and the Exodus story has been turned into a recent musical in London. It\u2019s streaming on Hulu. And in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the original movie\u2019s music is getting online love from fans who are being soothed by soundtrack tunes such as \u201cWhen You Believe,\u201d which won an Oscar.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54709\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54709\" class=\"wp-image-54709 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-768x568.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-1024x758.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/222;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54709\" class=\"wp-image-54709 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-300x222.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-768x568.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-prince-of-egypt-1024x758.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54709\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A scene from the London production of &#8220;The Prince of Egypt&#8221; (Tristram Kenton)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cHearing this amid the COVID-19 virus situation just comforts me,\u201d one listener wrote on the song\u2019s YouTube page.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou made me cry from joy; this is what we need to hear right now. Italy thanks you!\u201d another comment read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis song fills my heart so deeply in these times, and gives me strength,\u201d a young fan said.<br \/>\nThe song\u2019s prolific composer and lyricist, Stephen Schwartz, was moved by the remarks. He\u2019s&nbsp;written music for a range of other blockbusters, from \u201cWicked\u201d to \u201cPocahantas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the most gratifying thing a writer can hear,\u201d he said. \u201cWe write to communicate, to share our feelings and philosophies with the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of times you put stuff out there and don\u2019t know how it\u2019s being received. So if people have found something inspiring or comforting, there\u2019s just no greater gift a writer can ask for.\u201d<br \/>\nFor \u201cThe Prince of Egypt\u201d musical, Schwartz over the past five years has written 10 new songs that tell the Passover story. The play was at the beginning of a West End run when the pandemic forced it and all the other shows to close for now. An original cast recording of the songs was released shortly before Passover on Ghostlight Records.<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz, 72, said he\u2019s been \u201cvery aware of the dramatic implications\u201d of the Exodus saga since early childhood.<\/p>\n<p>Born in New York City, he and his sister were raised on suburban Long Island by their businessman father Stanley, who will turn 100 in June, and their mother Sheila, a teacher who\u2019s now 95.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always celebrated Passover and continue to with my parents every year,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cWhen my children Scott and Jessica were young, my father wanted to make the story more interesting for them, so he invented two characters named Charlie and Susie, who were stand-ins for them. They appeared in the Passover story, assisting Moses, and that went on for six or seven years when they were little.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54710\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54710\" class=\"wp-image-54710 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2.jpg 1080w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 200px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 200\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54710\" class=\"wp-image-54710 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-2.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54710\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephen Schwartz has won multiple Grammy and Academy awards. (Nathan Johnson)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Schwartz has been creating memorable music since his college days. While still in his early 20s, he had two massive hits on Broadway: \u201cGodspell\u201d and \u201cPippin,\u201d which ran for nearly five years and 2,000 performances.<\/p>\n<p>He worked consistently throughout the 1970s and \u201980s, creating lyrics and\/or music for various productions, including \u201cRags,\u201d about Jewish immigrants in the \u201cshmatta business\u201d (also known as the garment industry).<\/p>\n<p>By the 1990s, Schwartz was collaborating with Alan Menken on scores for Disney movies such as \u201cPocahontas,\u201d for which he received two Academy Awards, and \u201cThe Hunchback of Notre Dame.\u201d<br \/>\nIn 1998, he wrote five songs for \u201cThe Prince of Egypt,\u201d the first animated feature produced by Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg\u2019s DreamWorks studio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have to say,\u201d Schwartz recalled, \u201cwhen they first approached me about doing an animated feature, I didn\u2019t really see it, until Spielberg said the idea he had was to emphasize the relationship between the two [adoptive] brothers [Moses and Rameses, who became Pharaoh]. That really appealed to me, because I like to do stories where real human relationships are caught up in big events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz\u2019s 1991 musical \u201cChildren of Eden\u201d was actually his original interpretation of the book of Genesis. While it didn\u2019t run on Broadway, it has become one of the most frequently licensed pieces of theater around the world.<\/p>\n<p>He also wrote the lyrics to the 2012 choral piece \u201cThe Chanukah Song \u2013 We Are Lights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA friend of mine was directing a performance of Christmas songs at the Lincoln Center tree lighting and wanted to do a Hanukkah song as well,\u201d he said. \u201cI was very pleased to get an opportunity to contribute a Hanukkah song because I feel there aren\u2019t nearly enough of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz\u2019s place in the pantheon of legendary Broadway and film composers was well established before the 21st century, but he\u2019s perhaps best known for \u201cWicked.\u201d Some 60 million theater-goers worldwide have seen the clever Broadway musical take on \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d which has grossed $5 billion.<\/p>\n<p>He often hears from fans who tell him the show\u2019s song \u201cDefying Gravity\u201d has changed their lives.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_54708\" style=\"width: 160px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54708\" class=\"wp-image-54708 size-thumbnail lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-144x144.jpg 144w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-54708\" class=\"wp-image-54708 size-thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/4-13-20-stephen-schwartz-1-144x144.jpg 144w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-54708\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stephen Schwartz at the piano, age 7 (Courtesy of Schwartz)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cAll of us who worked on \u2018Wicked\u2019 are astonished by what\u2019s happened,\u201d Schwartz said. \u201cObviously we were passionate about the idea and tried to do the best show we possibly could, but for it to have become such a cultural phenomenon was completely beyond our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Schwartz\u2019s parents and grandparents were all born in America, but his Jewish roots date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and many ancestors were from Vienna as well. While working in the Austrian capital, with the help of the Jewish museum there, he found records about relatives from both sides.<\/p>\n<p>Now Schwartz is looking forward to the expected release next year of the film version of \u201cWicked\u201d and the presumed reopening in London of \u201cThe Prince of Egypt,\u201d of which he\u2019s quite proud.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a very exciting experience theatrically, extremely imaginative, with athletic choreography,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"%E2%80%98The%20Prince%20of%20Egypt%E2%80%99%20composer%20on%20the%20musical%20theater%20adaptation%2C%20his%20career%20and%20his%20family%E2%80%99s%20Passover%20tradition\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":54709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,8382,7122],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54701"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57966,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54701\/revisions\/57966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}