All for the Best

The musical-theater wünderkind who just a couple of years out of college had three blockbusters on Broadway simultaneously was honored in grand style last night by the New York City Opera.

In 1976, at the age of 28, Stephen Schwartz had Pippin, The Magic Show and Godspell all playing on the Great White Way. It was an auspicious start to a career that would later include work for Disney (Pocohantas, Enchanted, The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and the long-running Broadway show Wicked.

Headliner at last evening's musical tribute was Kristin Chenoweth, the woman who sprang to superstardom through her delicious turn as Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked. Among others offering musical homage included Raúl Esparza and Victor Garber--who in the early 1970s played Jesus in Godspell both on stage and on screen).

Also wowing the audience was Ann Hampton Callaway, who sang the show-stopper "Meadowlark," and Lauren Flanigan and Todd Wilander stars of the brand-new Schwartz opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon, which had its Lincoln Center premiere at New York City Opera earlier this week.

Schwartz, who at 63 could easily pass for ten years younger, seems to have kept age at bay through a life teeming with thoughtful, glee-filled production numbers. As he sat down to the piano and sang to close out the night, Schwartz proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he and his musicals will--to borrow from one of his most successful shows of all--long remain "pop-u-lar."