The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz – 54 Below, New York

The Wizard and I: Liz Callaway Sings Stephen Schwartz – livestream from 54 Below, New York.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The initials S and S factor looms large on the CV of Broadway star and cabaret great Liz Callaway – first it was Stephen Sondheim in her To Steve With Love tribute album and show, now her spotlight is turned on triple Oscar winner Stephen Schwartz, “my friend and tennis partner” and, of course, the composer of Wicked, hence the show’s title.

In a lovely 80-minute trawl through 21 of the prolific New Yorker’s vast catalogue at famed Manhattan nightspot 54 Below – a programme which embraced not only ten Schwartz musicals but also ‘Fearless’, a number he wrote especially for Callaway – she, in her quiet, even way, knocked it right out of Central Park with 77-year-old Schwartz himself in the first-night audience, and her plan is to do the same when she brings the new show to London.

The second night was livestreamed globally and I wasn’t the only one to benefit from modern technology as Liz’s singer-songwriter sister Ann Hampton Callaway tuned in too from her Arizona base. Totally different talents and totally different to look at, they are never apart for long and will be teaming up at 54 Below in January. My life has been made infinitely richer by the music they make.

While Liz is the Broadway baby, she is best known for her vocals in animated movies – among them Anastasia in Anastasia, Princess Jasmine in the Aladdin sequels, adult Kiara in The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, Odette in The Swan Princess and even as a dancing napkin ring in Beauty and the Beast, many of which matched Schwartz lyrics with Alan Menken’s music.

It was Schwartz who first made the connection in 1992, asking Callaway to make a demo of ‘Just Around the Riverbend’ when he was putting Pocahontas together – “a musical theatre great asking me to sing one of his songs? I was blown over” – and this was one of the many highlights of an evening where, wherever you looked, there was a great song to be sung.

‘Out There’, from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was another animated triumph on film before being turned into a stage show. Schwartz is a stickler for detail, Callaway recalling he traipsed up all 387 steps of the tower at Notre-Dame just to get a feel of Quasimodo’s lonely existence. Before putting pen to paper, it was the same diligence with the song ‘Fearless’ that led Schwartz to question Liz about childhood shyness that turned into a fierce determination to take risks.

Godspell, Schwartz’s first big hit in 1971 (and the first Schwartz show Callaway was involved in) sparked a trilogy of triumphs completed by Pippin and The Magic Show which ran simultaneously in New York in 1974 when he was only 26.

Until Wicked came along in 2003, they represented Schwartz’s peak and Callaway celebrated them with the wonderful ‘Corner of the Sky’ from Pippin, ‘Bless The Lord’ and ‘Beautiful City’ from Godspell and ‘Lion Tamer’ and ‘West End Avenue’ from The Magic Show.

For ‘Bless The Lord’ she enlisted the help of Ethan Carlson and Cole Wachman, the first backing singers she’s ever had at 54 Below, amusingly naming them The Lizbians!

Callaway makes singing look easy, perfect in pitch, never straining and with a fierce understanding of the lyrics, never better demonstrated than in her finale, ‘Meadowlark’ from The Baker’s Wife, a song she has loved ever since she first came to New York from Chicago as an 18-year-old and performed it nightly as a singing waitress. It was, she said, not only her favourite Schwartz song but her favourite song full stop. She was beautifully accompanied, as always, by her team of musicians, Alex Rybeck (MD and piano), Ritt Henn on bass and Ron Tierno on drums. Direction was in the hands of Dan Foster who doubles as Liz’s husband.

Naturally, there was plenty of Wicked, topically apt too with the success of the movie and the approach of the sequel Wicked: For Good which launches globally on 21 November – “I’m counting the days” enthused this committed fan who marked the show with ‘I’m Not That Girl’, ‘The Wizard and I’ and a fair dollop of ‘Popular’ and the iconic ‘Defying Gravity’ (naturally with a bit of audience participation) as part of a medley of some of Schwartz’s greatest hits. Also featured: ‘Day By Day’ from Godspell, ‘Colours of the Wind’ from Pocahontas, ‘When You Believe’ (the song that saved the otherwise-turgid Prince of Egypt) and ‘Magic to Do’ from Pippin. Gosh, weren’t we spoilt on a truly Wicked evening. Even with the encore ‘For Good’.

And that tennis reference at the start? They often play together in NYC – “Stephen’s better than me, he has a lethal forehand but I did beat him once in Barbados. He was very gracious about it but I made sure I didn’t do it again!”

Jeremy Chapman