Stephen Schwartz on Whitney Houston's Death: 'Shocked and Saddened'

Singer Whitney Houston died last night at age 48, and BroadwayWorld.com has been reaching out to those in the theatrical community who worked with the talented star.

Composer Stephen Schwartz wrote "When You Believe," performed by Houston and Mariah Carey for the 1998 DreamWorks animated film The Prince of Egypt. "Stephen Schwartz is a genius," Houston said in an interview that year. "Just a beautiful song." The song was awarded the Academy Award for Best Original Song in March 1999. 

We reached out to Schwartz and he tells BroadwayWorld.com that "I was shocked and saddened to learn of Whitney's death. I shared only a brief time with her when she was recording her vocals for 'When You Believe,' but she was warm, gracious, charming, and completely professional, and of course her talent was enormous.  To lose her so suddenly and at such a young age is very sad."

Houston's rep announced last night that she died yesterday at age 48. The singer died in her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel, where she was for Clive Davis' Grammy Awards party. No cause of death has yet been revealed. 

With over 170 million combined album, singles and videos sold worldwide during her career with Arista Records, Whitney Houston had established a benchmark for superstardom. 

Houston just recenty filmed the remake of the 1976 film 'Sparkle' playing the role of Jordin Sparks's mother in the film, which will feature the original score from composer Curtis Mayfield. Salim Akil and Mara Brock Akil served as writer and director.  SPARKLE is currently set to be released in theaters on August 24th by Sony Pictures. The drama is directed by Salim Akil and written by Mara Brock Akil.  It stars Jordin Sparks, Whitney Houston, Derek Luke, Mike Epps, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter, Omari Hardwick and Cee-Lo Green.

Houston's career has consisted of record-setting achievements in music: the only artist to chart seven consecutive #1 Billboard Hot 100 hits ("Saving All My Love For You," "How Will I Know," "Greatest Love Of All," "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," "Didn't We Almost Have It All," "So Emotional," and "Where Do Broken Hearts Go"); the first female artist to enter the Billboard 200 album chart at #1 (her second album, Whitney, 1987); and the only artist with seven consecutive multi-platinum albums (Whitney Houston, Whitney, I'm Your Baby Tonight, The Bodyguard, Waiting To Exhale, and The Preacher's Wife soundtracks, and My Love Is Your Love).

In fact, The Bodyguard soundtrack is one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all-time (at 17x-platinum in the U.S. alone), and Whitney's career-defining version of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" is the biggest-selling U.S. single of all-time (at 4x-platinum).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos