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The Music of ‘Wicked’: Stephen Schwartz and Arranger Stephen Oremus on What It Took to Make a Classic Broadway Song Score Even More Popular
The music of 'Wicked' is discussed by composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz and the arranger of the Broadway show and hit movie musical, Stephen Oremus.
Beyond having been the primary instigator behind turning “Wicked” into a stage musical (drawn from Gregory Maguire’s book), Schwartz is renowned for winning six Tonys and three Oscars as the composer and/or lyricist of the shows “Pippin” and “Godspell” and films like “Enchanted.” Oremus, meanwhile, is a Tony winner for his orchestrations on “The Book of Mormon” and “Kinky Boots,” and has also taken the lead on fleshing out the scores for Broadway shows like “Frozen” and “Avenue Q” and the film “Frozen 2.” (They collaborated closely with a non-Stephen, music producer Greg Wells; look for a separate interview with him coming in this space.) No one at the time seeing the show or listening to the original cast album said, “Oh, this doesn’t sound full.” But now, to have choices of orchestration that are unlimited — no allusion intended — did you feel like, “OK, now we get to do what we finally always wanted to do in our dreams, this very full version”? (L-R) Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Marc Platt, and Stephen Schwartz speak onstage at Universal Pictures presents a special screening of “Wicked” at DGA Theater on November 14, 2024 in New York City.
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