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Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz has been a major presence in American musical theater and film for more than 40 years. His first big Broadway success was Godspell which opened in 1971; Pippin won the Tony for Best Revival in 2013; Wicked is currently the 11th longest-running Broadway show and has broken box office records around the world; and in 1999 Schwartz won the Best Original Song Oscar for “When You Believe” from the Dreamworks animated musical The Prince of Egypt. To date he has won three Grammys and three Academy Awards and has been nominated for six Tonys.
Houston’s Standing Room Only Productions is currently staging Defy Gravity: A Stephen Schwartz Songbook at Obsidian Art Space in the Heights. The song and dance musical, featuring songs from Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, Children of Eden, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and more, was conceived by Michael Bobbit with arrangements of Schwartz’s songs by John Cornelius II.
Producer John Lazo, musical director John Cornelius and singers Eduardo Tercero and Sydney Roberts join Houston Public Media’s St.John Flynn in the Geary Studio to offer a taste of what Defy Gravity is all about.
Defy Gravity: A Stephen Schwartz Songbook runs through August 2nd at Obsidian Art Space in the Heights.