Gravity-Defying Musical Spells Cast for the Wizard of Broadway, Stephen Schwartz

When it comes to the songbook of an iconic, living master of the American musical theater, there are times when you want to defy gravity, and other occasions when it makes more sense to remain within gravity’s grasp. Both aspects of the music of Stephen Schwartz have recently come to the fore, the first in a spectacular concert by the New York Pops, the second in a marvelous new album, “The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz.”On Monday at Carnegie Hall, the Pops devoted their annual gala, an 80-minute all-star show drawing from Broadway’s biggest names and featuring the biggest orchestra in the world, to Mr. Schwartz’s repertoire. Ms. Callaway’s project, contrastingly, is a highly intimate affair, a one-woman show taped live at 54 Below with a trio helmed by pianist and musical director Alex Rybeck with bassist Ritt Henn and drummer Ron Tierno.The Pops did what they do best, namely imbuing theater music and the Great American Songbook with a sense of spectacle. Their gala events are even more so than usual: during the segment of two songs from Mr. Schwartz’s first hit show, “Godspell,” the stage was flooded with literal flower children, a huge chorus of kinder in vintage 1971 style fringe vests, singing and dancing around the principles, Telly Leung (singing “All Good Gifts”) and Shoshana Bean (“Bless The Lord”).Sherie Rene Scott. Rebecca J. MichelsonConductor Steven Reineke led us dutifully through the chronology of Mr. Schwartz’s career, moving on to “Pippin,” with “Corner of the Sky” by Ben Platt, “Meadowlark” from “The Baker’s Wife” by Tituss Burgess, and “It’s an Art” from the anthology show “Working” by the formidable Mary Testa, illustrating how Mr. Schwartz knows his way around a comedy waltz. We then reached the era of Mr. Schwartz’s animated musicals, most famously “Pocahontas,” with the original singing voice of that Disney princess, Judy Kuhn, telling us to paint with all “The Colors of the Wind” and Aisha Jackson and Jasmine Amy Rogers — the latter famous for playing cartoondom’s greatest heroine, Betty Boop — crossing a cadenza on “When You Believe” from “Prince of Egypt.” “Out There,” by Kyle Dean Massey at Carnegie and Ms. Callaway on her album made me yearn to see Mr. Schwartz and Alan Menken’s stage version of Disney’s “Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which has yet to make it to Broadway. (Fingers crossed.)To me, it’s not a proper Stephen Schwartz show unless you have Debbie Shapiro Gravitte singing “No Time at All” (check out Bing Crosby’s amazing version on YouTube) and Ms. Callaway doing “Meadowlark.” The Pops left out the former, but did something unexpected with the latter. When Ms. Callaway sings “Meadowlark,” as I’ve heard her do a thousand times, including on her 1995 album “The Story Goes On” as well as the new “Wizard,” she fully convinces us that she is the baker’s wife, a young woman standing at the crossroads of life, making a tumultuous decision inspired by the fable of a mystical bird. Contrastingly, when Mr. Burgess sang it, he became the meadowlark itself, trilling away in an ornithological falsetto. I didn’t think anyone could make me love the song as much as Ms. Callaway — and her new version is even more moving than the one from 30 years ago — but Mr. Burgess comes close.Stephen Schwartz, with Brittney Johnson and Mary Kate Morrissey. Rebecca J. MichelsonThe Pops show touched on Mr. Schwartz’s more recent works, like an impressive aria from his opera “Séance on a Wet Afternoon” (2009) by baritone Emmett O’Hanlon, and the plucky Sherie Rene Scott with a number from last season’s “Queen of Versailles.” But no one was surprised that the concert concluded with roughly 15 minutes from “Wicked,” the most successful musical of our time. Britney Johnson was funny on “Popular” and Mary Kate Morrissey was thrilling with “Defying Gravity.” Joined by Mr. Schwartz himself, singing in a voice both rough and tender, they brought the evening to a satisfying finale, with “For Good.”The New York Pops brought the extravaganza, and at the curtain call, I too was on my feet along with everybody else, yelling my head off; but Liz Callaway brings the heart. “Lion Tamer” is only the third song on the album, but I rarely get past that third track without going back and playing it more than once. An underappreciated song from virtually the only Schwartz show, and a blockbuster hit at that, never to be revived, “The Magic Show,” “Lion Tamer” brings us a withdrawn, self-effacing woman. She has no illusions about her abilities yet nonetheless aspires to tame lions — I love how she finesses that high note on the word “cats” — both literally and metaphorically, using that act as a symbol for dealing with the vicissitudes and vagaries of life. As always, Ms. Callaway is sweet, funny, and tuneful. Just like in “Wicked” itself and at the Pops concert, Ms. Callaway couldn’t argue with a perfect ending song, and she too closes with “For Good.”The force of the two presentations more than establishes how Mr. Schwartz, in creating songs about witches, wizards, waitresses, wannabes, bakers, and birds, is a composer both for our time and for all time.

Gravity-Defying Musical Spells Cast for the Wizard of Broadway, Stephen Schwartz

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