Stephen Schwartz tells RadioTimes.com that he’s relished penning new songs for Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the beloved musical’s two-part film adaptation. <\/p>
From Defying Gravity to For Good, Stephen Schwartz\u2019s Wicked already includes several numbers beloved by musical theatre fans \u2013 and the legendary composer has penned some brand new tracks for the upcoming two-part filmed adaptation.<\/p>\n
And Schwartz has revealed that writing the new songs for stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo \u2013 who will play lead roles Glinda and Elphaba respectively in the movie \u2013 has been a \u201cprivilege\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to RadioTimes.com<\/a> for a Big RT Interview<\/a> to promote the digital release of The Prince of Egypt: The Musical, he explained that working on the film had been a \u201ccomplete joy\u201d before praising all of those involved in the project.<\/p> \u201cThe creative team, led by [director] Jon Chu, has been fantastic, and I have a great music team, many of whom came from the show originally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then we have this phenomenal cast \u2013 particularly our leading ladies in Cynthia Erivo and Ariana<\/span> Grande are such great singers, such great musicians and wonderful human beings to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n He went on to reveal that the decision to split the film into two parts had left \u201csome room for exploration that has led to a couple of new songs\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just been a privilege to be able to write with the voices of Cynthia and Ariana<\/span> in mind,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n That choice to release the musical as two separate films led to a few raised eyebrows when it was first announced back in 2022, but Schwartz insists that it would not have been possible \u201cto get the whole story into one movie\u201d, while also noting that it would not have made sense to have showstopping anthem Defying Gravity in the middle of a film.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it was hard to get past,\u201d he said. \u201cDefying Gravity is such a sort of definitive end of an act that no matter what we tried to do, it just felt as if, well, you know, at this point, the audience is going to want to take a break. And you could just hear the sound of footsteps going up the aisle!\u201d<\/p>\n He also revealed that the creative team had briefly toyed with the idea of adding an intermission, but ultimately decided that there was enough story that it \u201cwarranted two movies\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you know, I\u2019m very excited about that concept,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For more from Stephen Schwartz be sure to check out our upcoming Big RT Interview<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Prince of Egypt: The Musical is available on digital platforms now and Wicked: Part 1 will be released in UK cinemas in late 2024. <\/strong>Check out more of our\u00a0Film<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what\u2019s on.<\/strong><\/p>\n Try Radio Times magazine today and get 10 issues for only \u00a310 \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to\u00a0The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section> <\/body><\/html>\n Stephen Schwartz tells RadioTimes.com that he’s relished penning new songs for Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the beloved musical’s two-part film adaptation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41074,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande.jpg",1920,1280,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2023\/12\/wicked-creator-its-a-privilege-to-write-new-songs-for-ariana-grande.jpg",1920,1280,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Stephen Schwartz tells RadioTimes.com that he's relished penning new songs for Grande and Cynthia Erivo in the beloved musical's two-part film adaptation.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41073"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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