Oh do we have to ponder that question again? The occasion this time isn’t “Porgy and Bess” or “Sweeney Todd” but a panel preceding the New York premiere of Stephen Schwartz’s “Séance on a Wet Afternoon” at City Opera on April 19. The question is a bit more piquant than usual because Schwartz isn’t your Gershwin or Sondheim, but the guy who’s given us “Godspell,” “Pippin,” “The Baker’s Wife” and “Wicked.” In fact, the panel — which also includes Rufus Wainwright, Adam Guettel, John Kander and David Henry Hwang — takes place April 10 at the Gershwin Theatre, aka The Home of “Wicked” Now and for All Eternity. I predict that nobody will agree on anything but that it’ll be fun — I’m counting on Wainwright here. I’m also going to put something up for discussion right now: We should call those hybrid shows operasicals. And then City Opera should bring back Marc Blitzstein’s brilliant and undervalued “Regina,” stat.
To drive whatever the point is home — and maybe, just maybe, fill seats (it’s okay, I josh because I love) — City Opera presents “Defying Gravity: The Music of Stephen Schwartz” on April 21. The concert takes place at the Koch Theater but the cast is drawn from the Broadway (La Cheno, Raul Esparza, Victor Garber) and cabaret (Ann Hampton Callaway) worlds.
Schwartz’s new operasical — see, it just flows! — stars City Opera’s own diva Lauren Flanigan (here performing an excerpt backed by Schwartz himself) and is based on Bryan Forbes’ spooky 1964 movie — just check out its brilliant trailer.