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Q: What are you working on now?

Stephen Schwartz: [...] Then there are ongoing meetings and discussions about a possible movie of "Pippin" and a possible movie of "Wicked," and also DreamWorks has been talking to me about developing a stage version of "The Prince of Egypt." So it's a lot to juggle.

Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the full cast for the premiere concert reading of the first act of DreamWorks Theatricals new stage adaptation of The Prince of Egypt. This reading is part of Bay Street Theater’s 24th Annual Summer Gala which will take place in Sag Harbor at the Long Wharf on July 11, 2015 to benefit Bay Street’s educational and theatrical programs. The Prince of Egypt features book by Philip LaZebnik (writer of Mulan, Pocahontas) and music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz (composer of Wicked, Pippin, Godspell); both authors will be attending the Gala. Bay Street’s Artistic Director Scott Schwartz will direct the reading, Dominic Amendum is Musical Director, and casting is by Stewart/Whitley.

The special concert reading will feature Broadway and film stars, as well as local talent, including Matthew James Thomas (Pippin, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) as Moses, Aaron Lazar (The Wolf of Wall Street, This Is Where I Leave You, J. Edgar) as Ramses, Tony Award winner Patina Miller (Pippin, Sister Act, Madam Secretary) as Tzipporah, Norm Lewis (Scandal, Porgy and Bess, Phantom of the Opera) as Jethro, Stephen Bogardus (West Side Story, Les Miserables, Man of La Mancha) as Seti, Julia Murney (Wicked, 30 Rock, The Wild Party) as Queen Tuya, Kyle Barisich (Phantom of the Opera, The Following) as Aaron, John Treacy Egan (Jekyll & Hyde, The Producers, Nice Work If You Can Get It) as Hoy, Ryan Knowles (We Will Rock You!, NEWSical: the Musical, Radio City Christmas Spectacular) as Hotep, Joanna Howard (Peter and The Starcatcher, National tour of Les Miserables) as Nefertari, Julia Motyka (Travesties,Richard III) as Miriam, and Anna Schiavoni as Young Miriam.

Along with the thrilling principal cast there will be a large chorus of local performers led by Choir Master Greg Wilson. The chorus includes: Gary Ducoihy, Marquez Catherine Stewart, Nataliz Fulqieri, Vivian Grizzle-Jaber, Pattiz Hulmes, Courtney Kossick, Matt Luca, Austin Myers, Elizabeth Oldak, Ariana Pazz, Katzlyn Piotrowicz, Zack Reily, Sarah Soltysik, Marquez Catherine Stewart, Matt Tursi, Amanda Tuscorella, Carlton Welsh, Christian Wern, Michelle Wern, and Greg Wilson.

“What’s happened is that DreamWorks has, over the years, with increasing frequency as they’ve gotten into the live theater business, gotten requests about [a stage adaptation of] The Prince of Egypt to the point that they thought it was time to make a live show,” says Schwartz. “The original movie, as with most animated features, has five or six songs, while the high teens are more common in a stage musical. I’m continuing to try and get some writing done on the new songs.”

“In the movie, the musical styles were based on ancient music styles and also hip-hop, modern and folk music. Obviously it’s a contemporary score inflected with those elements. That remains the same [for the stage adaptation],” Schwartz says. “If I were starting from scratch, I’d be doing the same thing. I have done a great deal of research for the music.”

“Hopefully The Prince of Egypt would be licensed out to regional and school theater groups. [Broadway] is unlikely in this case; it’s a pretty expensive proposition and in many ways, exceeds this. We’re not anticipating that.”

The Prince of Egypt remains in development, and Schwartz is excited about the ongoing project. “My hope is that The Prince of Egypt could have a wide appeal,” he says. “We’re very excited that we have the opportunity to have this reading at Bay Street.”

Q: Let's talk about the reshaping of The Prince Of Egypt for Broadway. What goes into bringing an animation like that to the stage?

Stephen Schwartz: First of all, the person writing the book for this adaptation, Philip LaZebnik, was one of the screenwriters. We’ve worked together before and we've actually done another project besides. We both worked together on the movie, so basically, the two of us sat down and went through the structure of the movie, talked about what we thought we could achieve, what we would need to change to work onstage, but also for the stage as opposed to an animated feature first of all it's longer, it's a two-act structure, you have the chance to go into the characters and situations in a great deal more depth, plus the stage musical will have a lot more songs.

The movie had six songs in it, five of which we are using in one form or another in the show, and then I think there may be another twelve or so new songs. There's quite a lot of music in it. Those songs have to be written, and then one goes through a development process of hearing it read and making adjustments with notes from the director and the DreamWorks folks, then putting it on its feet in a kind of staged reading or workshop situation and learning from that, eventually leading to the point where we feel it's finished and can go out into the world.

Q: What are some future endeavors we can expect from Bay Street?

Scott Schwartz: This summer, instead, we are going to be doing a free concert premier of the stage adaptation of the musical The Prince Of Egypt. This is going to be the world premier concert where the full show and full score is presented for the first time. I have been developing this for a while, so I am very excited about this. That is on August 13th and it is an amazing piece. And what better way to premiere it than outdoors in nature - since it is a story that takes place in nature - and on a wonderful summer night in Sag Harbor.

It already happened. It played in Denmark, California, and Utah so far. It's not coming to Broadway if that's what you're waiting for.

I don't believe they released a recording for the stage version, did they? At least I couldn't find anything on Amazon.