THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 128 lines
FOR A REGIONAL theater to debut a new musical is an event in any season. When it's a new musical by Stephen Schwartz, it sends a signal that stirs waves all the way to Broadway, and back.
``Snapshots'' is the name of the show, opening Friday at Virginia Stage Company, and new, with a capital ``N,'' is its risk.
Schwartz has quite the track record, though. He won two Oscars last year (for ``Pocahontas'') and is very much in the running again this year for his lyrics for ``The Hunchback of Notre Dame.''
He just completed the score for DreamWorks' first animated movie, ``Prince of Egypt,'' destined for movie theaters in two years, and is the major hope of the mighty Steven Spielberg and company.
So what's he doing in downtown Norfolk, fiddling around with a new song or two?
Schwartz, clad in T-shirt and jeans, took time out from rehearsal to contemplate the world premiere of ``Snapshots.''
``I don't think there has ever been a musical quite like this,'' he said. ``It's a mixture. Someone has called it a `revumusical.' It has some 28 of my songs, taken from other shows, and put into a new show. It's a hybrid show. There are two new songs and a new book. Will it work? Well, that's what we've come here to find out.''
Schwartz has been on a roll for most of his adult life. When he was just 23, he hit it big with ``Godspell,'' a musical about the New Testament that ran for almost a decade and won him two Grammy Awards. ``Day by Day'' was sung throughout the land.
He followed up with the Broadway hit ``Pippin.'' On a more serious level, he collaborated with Leonard Bernstein on ``Mass,'' the work performed at opening night of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
Michael Scheman and David Stern came to composer Schwartz with the idea of doing a revue of Schwartz's music three years ago. Revues, glorified medleys of songs unhampered by plot, were doing well off-Broadway, especially those themed around a single composer's work.
Schwartz wasn't particularly taken with the idea.
``I didn't think the theater really needed another revue,'' he said. ``I suggested we take some of my songs and try to tell a story with them.''
The result is ``Snapshots,'' with some 30 songs chronicling 30 years in the marriage of a middle-aged couple. Sue and Dan, who are facing something of a crisis in their marriage, are played, at varied stages of their life, by six actors. The most prominent of them are Cass Morgan, co-writer of ``Pump Boys and Dinettes,'' and Michael DeVries, who recently starred with Carol Channing in ``Hello Dolly'' on Broadway. Stern is the writer of the book and Scheman is directing.
Sitting at the synthesizer in the lobby of the Wells Theater, Schwartz broke into the familiar strains of ``Day by Day,'' to which his fellow musicians added spontaneous lyrics and a clap-along urge for an imaginary audience. The composer then switched to the strains of ``Snapshots,'' the title song, and one of two new melodies written for the new show.
``It's a show about a marriage that is in trouble,'' he said. ``The couple met when they were 11 and they've been together since, but they question things they would have done differently. There isn't a lot of plot. It covers their years from 11 to 40 but the emphasis is on the music.''
Songs will be used from such varied Schwartz works as ``Pippin,'' ``Children of Eden,'' ``Godspell,'' ``Life with Mikey,'' ``Personals,'' ``Rags,'' ``The Magic Show,'' ``The Trip'' and ``Working.''
Many of the tunes are not widely known. ``The Trip'' was a one-act musical for children. ``Life With Mikey'' was a now-forgotten movie. ``Personals'' was an Off-Broadway revue.
The more unfamiliar, the better, according to Schwartz.
``I didn't want songs that were from other shows that didn't fit into this plot,'' he said. ``Consequently, I've rewritten the lyrics for some of the songs - to make them fit here.''
Perhaps the most familiar song, ``Corner of the Sky'' from ``Pippin,'' will be ``a fresh and different way of hearing that song.''
Schwartz, who looks much younger than his 48 years, was born in New York City and studied piano and composition at the Juilliard School for Music while still in high school. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 with a degree in drama and worked in summer stock. ``From the beginning, I was aimed at musical theater,'' he said.
His first major credit was the title song for the play ``Butterflies Are Free'' which was eventually also used in the movie version.
Fame and fortune hit in 1971 with``Godspell.''
``I was 23 years old and all that happened,'' he remembered. ``It is not necessarily a good thing for that kind of success to happen that early. You can lose sight of who you are and why you wanted to be in the theater in the first place. Everyone starts asking what you're going to do next and every move you make is judged. There's nowhere to go and hide, and just try new things.''
His selection to collaborate with Leonard Bernstein on ``Mass'' was a surprise, even to him.
``Lenny is one of the great talents of the 20th century,'' he said. ``He's a larger-than-life individual. I feel I was too young to do that project. If I was doing it now, I could do better.''
``Snapshots'' is not his first visit to Virginia. He came to Jamestown to do research for ``Pocahontas.''
``The research I did in Jamestown was very valuable,'' he said. ``I listened to Native Americans. I taped their music. I got the feel for the land and the time. The Disney creators are so thorough. They even took leaves from the trees back to Hollywood in an effort to recreate the look of Virginia.''
``Snapshots'' has been in development since its first reading at the Dramatist Guild in 1993.
The last time Virginia Stage Company premiered a new musical work, it was ``The Secret Garden,'' which went on to Broadway and to Tony wins. It was this factor which, partially, attracted Schwartz and co-creators Scheman and Stern to the company.
``The company is well respected,'' he said. ``It's become known as a place where plays can be tried.''
Charlie Hensley, VSC's director, said ``the birth of a new musical requires extraordinary collaborative effort, and is one of the greatest challenges any theater can undertake.''
Schwartz points out that he's spending more than a week in Norfolk to attend rehearsals ``merely as an onlooker. I'll contribute in any way possible, but the staff here is very competent.''
The composer, though, doubts if New York is a likely future for ``Snapshots.'' ``This is a show about ordinary people. Shows in New York aren't usually about middle-aged, suburban married people. It's not typical New York material. It might have more a home in theaters around the country,'' he said.
``Will audiences think `This is just an ordinary couple? Why should I pay money to see a musical about them?' '' he pondered.
``It's either a very good idea or a terrible idea. Audiences here will have a chance to make up their own minds.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by D. Kevin Elliott/The Virginian-Pilot
Stephen Schwartz practices at the Wells for the "Snapshots"
premiere.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE by CNB