Liz Callaway, a highly honored actress, singer and recording artist, will perform a new show dedicated to the songwriter Stephen Schwartz at 54 Below, the supper club in New York’s theater district, this week.
SANTA CLARITA, CA – MARCH 25: Composer Stephen Schwartz and singer Liz Callaway perform at Princess Cruises Partnership celebration with Stephen Schwartz at Princes Cruises Rehearsal Studio on March 25, 2015 in Santa Clarita, California. (Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images)
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The show will be performed nightly starting tonight, May 14, through Saturday, May 17; the last show also will be livestreamed.
According to 54 Below, the show, The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz, will feature “songs from an extraordinary career that has spanned nearly 60-years (and in every form of media), as well as a brand new song. . . Liz honors Stephen in her signature way, pairing his iconic songs with tales of their lifelong professional relationship and friendship. Featuring Academy Award and Grammy-winning tunes from Wicked, Godspell, Pippin, The Baker’s Wife and more, The Wizard and I is a personal celebration of the man who made a witch take flight and gave a bird sight.”
Musical direction will be by Alex Rybeck.
Speaking this week with Forbes.com, Callaway said she will perform Schwartz’s “Bless the Lord,” from Godspell, which she sang in her first show in New York, off-Broadway, in 1979; she said she hasn’t sung it since then.
Equally noteworthy, she will perform a song Schwartz wrote for her personally a few years ago, “Fearless,” that noone has ever heard before.
Callaway said she has loved Schwartz’s music since she attended high school in Chicago, when she saw the national touring production of Pippin three times.
She also will perform Schwartz’s song from “The Baker’s Wife,” “Meadowlark,” which she said is her “absolute favorite” song to sing. She said she began performing it as a singing waitress in New York, subsequently recording it. She also called it “one of my most requested songs,” describing it as a “story song. And it’s just like a three-act play. It’s so fun as an actor to get to experience that song and all the different emotions and the memories.”
Calling Schwartz a “brilliant composer and lyricist,” she also said “he’s loved by different generations.”
She added, “One thing I love and really appreciate about Stephen is that he really encourages people to put their own stamp on his songs. He’s just so happy for people to bring themselves to his songs.
“Another thing I love about him is he is such a champion of other writers, and he has helped so many young composers and encouraged them. It’s a real passion of his, and I think it’s incredible how he has given back to so many people,” she concluded.
Callaway is a Grammy and Tony nominee and Emmy Award-winning actress, singer and recording artist. She made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Baby, and, for five years, won acclaim as Grizabella in Cats. She also has provided the singing voice for numerous animated movies, including the Oscar-nominated Anastasia. Her latest album, To Steve With Love: Liz Callaway Celebrates Sondheim was nominated for a Grammy Award for best traditional pop vocal album last year.