Twelve Days of Christmas: WICKED Creators Stephen Schwartz & Stephen Oremus

The holidays are upon us and BroadwayWorld is continuing our favorite annual tradition of celebrating the holiday season with a Twelve Days of Christmas countdown. This year we are featuring some of our favorite members of the 2024 Broadway scene to share their most cherished holiday songs, films, and performances. This year's countdown is sponsored by Elf The Musical- running on Broadway through January 4 at the Marquis Theatre.

Elf The Musical is the hilarious and heartwarming tale of Buddy, a young orphan whose life is changed forever when he mistakenly crawls into Santa’s sack of toys one Christmas Eve. Raised by elves at the North Pole, Buddy’s enormous size and limited toy-making abilities make him realize he may not quite fit in! When he discovers he is actually human, Buddy embarks on a journey to New York City to find his birth father, and in turn, helps the Big Apple and the people he meets rediscover the true meaning of Christmas. Featuring a mistletoe-tapping score and a knockout cast – including a "terrific" (Deadline) Sean Astin (The Lord of the Rings) as Santa Claus and a "delightful and exuberant" (The New York Times) Grey Henson (Mean Girls, Shucked) as Buddy – this is one holiday charmer you won't want to miss. 

Stephen Schwartz and Stephen Oremus have had much to celebrate on 2024 and even more to look forward to in the new year. The Wicked creators (Music/Lyrics and Arrangements respectively) are getting ready to return to Broadway in 2025- Schwartz with The Queen of Versailles and Oremus with Smash.

When they hit the red carpet for the NYC premiere of Wicked's smash hit film adaptation, both told us which holiday tune they couldn't be happier about.

"My favorite Christmas carol by far, which is from a movie, is 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,'" said Schwartz. "You know, I play at the piano and sing it and everybody sings along and we all cry together."

"My go-to holiday film is Elf," added Oremus. "In fact, we're going to see it on Broadway, actually very soon! For a holiday song though... I will always, always go back to 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,' as sung by Judy Garland. It's the best."

Schwartz has contributed music and/or lyrics to Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, Working (which he adapted and directed), Rags, Children of Eden and the opera Séance on a Wet Afternoon. For films, he collaborated with Alan Menken on the scores for Disney’s Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted and wrote the songs for the DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt. Mr. Schwartz is artistic director of the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshops and serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. He is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and has been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Awards include three Academy Awards, four Grammy Awards, the Isabelle Stevenson Tony Award and a tiny handful of tennis trophies. Defying Gravity, a book about his professional career, is available from Applause Books.

Oremus' Broadway credits include: Frozen; Kinky Boots (Tony Award for Best Orchestrations; Grammy Award); The Book of Mormon (Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Orchestrations; Grammy Award); 9 to 5: The Musical; All Shook Up, Avenue Q and Wicked. Off-Broadway: tick, tick…BOOM!; The Wild Party.  Vocal arranger and conductor for the Disney films Frozen  and Frozen 2; String arrangements/conductor for several of Lady Gaga’s television and film appearances, including “I’ll Never Love Again” from A Star Is Born. Music director/conductor for Rufus Wainwright’s concerts Rufus Does Judy and House of Rufus. TV credits include: music director of the 2015 Oscars, “The Wiz Live!” (NBC) and “Rent Live!” (FOX).

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