Stephen Schwartz On Career Beginnings, Harry Chapin & FOLLIES

Versatile Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz discusses his career beginnings and much more as part of a new video interview.

"When I first came to New York, I had acquired an agent fairly early on... and she started taking me around to play the score for PIPPIN for various producers," Schwartz recalls of his professional pursuits prior to landing a job at RCA.

"My job at RCA was two-fold - one was to go around to hear acts that were performing at various clubs, et cetera, and if I thought they were potentially interesting to bring them in and have a little session in the studio where they could put their music down and the executives could decide whether or not to sign them," Schwartz remembers of his early A&R position at RCA.

"I did find Harry Chapin and his brothers, the Chapins, but RCA didn't sign them," Schwartz adds.

Additionally, Schwartz says, "I recommended that they do FOLLIES, the Steve Sondheim show - and they didn't want to do that. I still feel that if I was able to do that then I would have made a better cast album than the original cast album of FOLLIES, where they cut a lot of stuff out."

View the new interview with Stephen Schwartz below.