Early career After returning to New York City, Stephen Schwartz went to work as a producer for
RCA Records, however shortly afterwards, he began to work in
Broadway theater. He was asked to be the musical director of the first American
rock opera,
The Survival of St. Joan. He was credited as the producer of the two-record concept recording with the progressive rock group
Smoke Rise on
Paramount Records. His first major credit was the title song for the play
Butterflies Are Free; the song was also eventually used in the movie version. In 1971, he wrote music and lyrics for
Godspell, for which he won several awards including two
Grammys. For the musical's
Toronto production in 1972, he asked
Paul Shaffer to be the musical director, thus starting Shaffer's career.
Godspell was followed by the
English language texts, in collaboration with
Leonard Bernstein, for Bernstein's
Mass, which opened the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in
Washington, D.C. In 1972, the long-running
Pippin premiered on Broadway. Schwartz had begun writing songs for
Pippin while in college, although none of the songs from the college version ended up in the Broadway production. Both
Pippin and
Godspell continue to be frequently produced. In 1974, Schwartz wrote music and lyrics of
The Magic Show, which ran for just under 2,000 performances. By mid-1974, at age 26, he had three smash hit musicals playing in the state simultaneously. Next were the music and lyrics of ''
The Baker's Wife'', which closed before reaching Broadway after an out-of-town tryout tour in 1976. However, the cast album attained cult status, which led to several subsequent productions including a
London production directed by
Trevor Nunn in 1990; one at the
Paper Mill Playhouse in
Millburn, New Jersey in 2005; and another at
Classic Stage Company in 2025. In 1978, Schwartz's next Broadway project was a musical version of
Studs Terkel's
Working, which he adapted and directed, winning a
Drama Desk Award as best director and for which he contributed four songs. He co-directed the television production, which was presented as part of the
American Playhouse series on
PBS. In 1977, Schwartz wrote a children's book called
The Perfect Peach. In the 1980s, he wrote songs for a one-act musical for children,
The Trip, which 20 years later was revised, expanded, and produced as
Captain Louie. He then wrote music for three of the songs of the
Off-Broadway revue Personals, and lyrics to
Charles Strouse's music for the musical
Rags.
Later career In 1991, Schwartz wrote the music and lyrics for the musical
Children of Eden. He then began working in film, collaborating with composer
Alan Menken on the scores for the
Disney animated feature
Pocahontas (1995), for which he received two Academy Awards and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). He provided songs for
DreamWorks' first musical animated feature,
The Prince of Egypt (1998), winning another Academy Award for the song "
When You Believe". He wrote music and lyrics for the original television musical,
Geppetto (2000), seen on
The Wonderful World of Disney on
ABC. A stage adaptation of the musical premiered in June 2006 at The Coterie Theatre in
Kansas City, Missouri and was titled
Geppetto and Son. It is known as ''
Disney's My Son Pinocchio: Geppetto's Musical Tale. A version created for young performers, titled Geppetto & Son, Jr.'' had its world premiere on July 17, 2009, at the
Lyric Theatre in
Stuart, Florida. It was presented by the StarStruck Performing Arts Center. In 2003, Schwartz returned to Broadway, as composer and lyricist for
Wicked, a musical based on the novel
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West telling the story of the
Oz characters from the point of view of the witches. He won a Grammy for his work as composer and lyricist and producer of
Wicked's
cast recording. On March 23, 2006, the Broadway production of
Wicked passed the 1,000 performance mark, making Schwartz one of four composers (the other three being
Andrew Lloyd Webber,
Jerry Herman, and
Richard Rodgers) to have three shows last that long on Broadway (the other two were
Pippin and
The Magic Show). In 2007, Schwartz joined Herman as one of only two composer/lyricists to have three shows run longer than 1,500 performances on Broadway. After
Wicked, Schwartz contributed music and lyrics for a new musical which was commissioned to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of
Hans Christian Andersen. The production, titled
Mit Eventyr or "My Fairytale", opened at the Gladsaxe Theatre in
Copenhagen, Denmark in the fall of 2005. The American premiere of
My Fairytale took place in the summer of 2011 at the PCPA Theatrefest of California and was directed by Stephen Schwartz's son, Scott Schwartz. Stephen Schwartz returned to
Hollywood in 2007 and wrote lyrics for the hit Disney film
Enchanted, again collaborating with Menken. Three songs from the film, "Happy Working Song", "That's How You Know", and "So Close" were nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Original Song. He wrote the theme song for the
Playhouse Disney show
Johnny and the Sprites, starring
John Tartaglia. Schwartz wrote
incidental music for Scott Schwartz's adaptation of
Willa Cather's
My Ántonia. On several occasions prior to 2008, Stephen Schwartz had reached out to
Tim Dang who was the longtime artistic director of
Asian-Pacific Islander theater company,
East West Players (EWP) in
Los Angeles. The collaboration led to the conception of a new version of
Pippin, aesthetically inspired by Japanese
anime and musically inspired by
hip-hop. The production was a record-breaking hit and remained the highest grossing production in EWP's history On March 22, 2012, the
San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus released "Testimony", composed by Schwartz with lyrics taken from submissions to
Dan Savage's
It Gets Better Project. In March 2015,
Princess Cruises announced a partnership with Schwartz for the development of four shows over three years. The first will be a magic themed revue of Schwartz's music, titled
Magic To Do, including a new song written for the show. Schwartz returned to write the lyrics for a sequel to
Enchanted, titled
Disenchanted, and will do the same for a live-action remake of
The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In April 2020 he participated in a fund-raising video called
Saturday Night Seder which featured an "all-star" cast of performers, composers, and religious leaders broadcasting from their home computers and cellphones due to the practice of "social distancing" heavily practiced in response to the
coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. The video was about the history of
Passover through stories, song, comedy and memories. It raised money for the
CDC Foundation. In 2023, the
Metropolitan Opera celebrated Schwartz's 75th birthday with a special benefit concert featuring popular Broadway and opera stars. In 2025, it was announced that Schwartz would receive the
Johnny Mercer award at the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in Los Angeles. ==Personal life==