By Marilyn Lester***It was a 43rd birthday celebration, otherwise known as the end-of-season extravaganza, The New York Pops Birthday Gala, which capped off a series of consistently remarkable concerts led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke. This year’s Gala, Changed For Good: A Celebration of Stephen Schwartz at the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, featured
a 78-piece orchestra plus 22 student musicians from the Kids on Stage program, making for a big, beautiful sound to support an amazing lineup of performers including Shoshana Bean, Tituss Burgess, Aisha Jackson, Brittney Johnson, Rachel Bay Jones, Judy Kuhn, Telly Leung, Kyle Dean Massey, Lindsay Mendez, Mary Kate Morrissey, Ben Platt, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Sherie Rene Scott, Emmett O’Hanlon and Mary Testa.
More than a great evening of performance, the key purpose of the gala is to raise funds for the Pops, most particularly educational and outreach programs, such as the aforementioned Kids on Stage, Kids in the Balcony, Kids in the Stadium and PopsEd programs in which professional teaching artists provide instruction in chorus, musical theater choreography and instrumental classes. And then there’s Camp Broadway, whose kids performed at various points during the Gala. Each and every program, with significant reach, has support staff, making revenue that much more significant.
The evening’s honoree, Stephen Schwartz, brought his own extraordinarily high level of significance to the musical table. The native New Yorker precociously attended the Juilliard School while still in high school. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1968 and zoomed straight into a Broadway career: Godspell (1971), Pippin (1972) and The Magic Show (1974), all running simultaneously on the Rialto. Aside from Broadway, Schwartz has also contributed to film: Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Prince of Egypt. In his five-decade career he’s been awarded and fêted, earning three Academy Awards, four GRAMMY Awards and a special Tony Award for his commitment to fostering new talent. Schwartz has been inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And then there is Wicked… All of these accomplishments were succinctly and beautifully put into perspective and on display in Changed For Good: A Celebration of Stephen Schwartz.
From A to Z, singing a musical history of the honoree, the show began with Telly Leung and ShoshanaBean handling Godspell, with “All Good Gifts,” and “Bless the Lord” respectively. That durable anthemic wonder from Pippin, “Corner of the Sky,” fell to the capable Ben Platt; and Tituss Burgess performed the number that a legion of aspiring actresses used as an audition song, “Meadowlark” from The Baker’s Wife. The singular Mary Testa handled Working’s “It’s an Art,” while Lindsay Mendez forged forward with “Stranger to the Rain” from Children of Eden. By this time, for anyone in the audience who was not familiar with the genius of Stephen Schwartz, that knowledge gap was thoroughly corrected.
A series of performances from Schwartz’ film outings were offered by: Judy Kuhn, “Colors of the Wind” (Pocahontas); Kyle Dean Massey, “Out There” (The Hunchback of Notre Dame); and Aisha Jackson and Jasmine Amy Rogers, “When You Believe” (The Prince of Egypt). Could a musical genius not write an opera? Schwartz dipped his toe in those waters with Séance on a Wet Afternoon. Emmett O’Hanlon performed “You Didn’t Know Her” from that outing. And owing to the law of averages, from 
the recent Broadway production that was not a success, Sherie Rene Scott sang “This Is Not the Way” from The Queen of Versailles.
And then, the pièce de resistance: Wicked. Brittney Johnson performed “Popular” and then Mary Kate Morrissey rose high with “Defying Gravity.” It was now time for the honoree to appear. With a succinct speech of thanks, Schwartz offered that which he’s excelled at over his career—his music, as he manned the piano. In very fine voice, Schwartz and Michael McCorry Rose performed “No Place Like Home” from the film Wicked: For Good, and “Beautiful City” from the Godspell film. The cherry on the sundae came with accompanist Schwartz and Brittney Johnson and Mary Kate Morrissey singing the Wicked showstopper, “For Good.” With all hands on deck, and Camp Broadway Kids filling the aisles, another tremendous and successful birthday gala concluded with a robust “Dancing Through Life” from Wicked.
Photos by Rebecca J Michelson
