Broadway By the Bay Complete's 43rd Season With Schwartz in DEFYING GRAVITY

Broadway By the Bay, the largest theatre organization on the Peninsula, completes its 43rd season with DEFYING GRAVITY: Stephen Schwartz AND FRIENDS featuring Stephen Schwartz live, composer and lyricist of Broadway hits including Wicked, Godspell, and Pippin.  Broadway by the Bay promises a delightful musical experience with the award-winning songwriter as he accompanies on piano his talented friends and musical stars Liz Callaway, Scott Coulter, and Tony Award-winner Debbie Gravitte.  The production will feature songs from Wicked, Godspell, Pippin as well as from the movies Enchanted and Pocahontas.  DEFYING GRAVITY plays November 6 (press night November 6) through November 9 – for a limited 6 performance engagement - at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center, 600 N. Delaware, San Mateo. For tickets ($17-$45) the public may call (650) 579-5565, or visit www.broadwaybythebay.org. 

Stephen Schwartz (music and lyrics) began his musical career studying piano and composition at the Juilliard School of Music while in high school. Upon graduation from Carnegie Mellon, he became a producer for RCA Records, but soon began to work in the Broadway theatre.  His musicals include the hit Wicked as well as earlier groundbreaking works Godspell, Pippin, The Magic Show, The Baker’s Wife, and Working.  Stephen Schwartz has won three Academy Awards and three Grammys.   For the silver screen, Schwartz collaborated with composer Alan Menken on the scores for the 2007 Disney animated feature Enchanted, which received three Academy Award nominations, and the features Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, for which he received Academy Awards. He also provided songs for DreamWorks’ first animated feature, The Prince of Egypt, bringing him another Academy Award for the song “When You Believe.”  In 2008, Schwartz was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Debbie Gravitte has had a varied career taking her from the Broadway Stage to the Symphony Hall and many points between. She won the Tony Award for ‘Best Featured Actress in a Musical’ for Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, along with a Drama Desk Award Nomination as well as the New York Showstopper Award.  Debbie has taken  her nightclub act worldwide and had the honor to perform with notable talents such as Jay Leno and George Burns. Debbie has sung with numerous symphony orchestras, both domestic and overseas including The Boston Pops, National Symphony (with Marvin Hamlish), Stockholm Philharmonic and RoyAl Scottish National Orchestra.  On television, Debbie co-starred on the CBS series Trial and Error and NBC’s Pursuit of Happiness as well as starred in several PBS specials.  She recently returned to Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the NY Pops.

For his work in cabaret, Scott Coulter was awarded both the 2001 Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) Award as well as the 2001 Bistro Award for Outstanding Male Vocalist. TimeOut NY picked Coulter's "Unexpected Songs" as one of the ‘Best of 1999”. Coulter's self-titled debut CD won the 2003 MAC Award for Outstanding Recording and was chosen as the best recording of the year by Scott and Barbara Siegel of TheatreMania and Jeff Rosen of Cabaret Scenes Magazine.  Since 1997, Scott has performed around the country with the award-winning songwriting duo Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich in their many revues.  Composer Stephen Schwartz has said: "One of the best things that can happen to a songwriter is to have his or her material interpreted by Scott Coulter”.

 Liz Callaway made her Broadway debut in Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. Other Broadway appearances include Baby (Tony Nomination), The Three Musketeers, Miss Saigon, Cats, and The Look of Love. She recently appeared in Bill Finn’s Elegies at Reprise in Los Angeles. The award winning show Sibling Revelry (created with sister Ann Hampton Callaway) was presented to great acclaim at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Liz has performed extensively in concert, most recently on tour with The Boston Pops, and in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Kennedy Center and in Toronto.  Liz has provided the singing voice for many animated films including the title character in the Oscar nominated Anastasia and many other beloved children’s films.  She received an Emmy Award for hosting Ready To Go, a daily, live children’s program on CBS in Boston.

DEFYING GRAVITY: Stephen Schwartz AND FRIENDS will be the fourth and final production of the company’s 43rd season. Broadway By the Bay, the largest theatre company on the Peninsula, has won numerous awards, including 41 Theatre Critics Circle Awards, and has garnered acclaim throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as a destination for professional-quality musical theatre.  Under the leadership of Artistic Director Brooke Knight and Executive Director Jim Gardia, Broadway By the Bay produces three full-scale musicals and one intimate composer/lyricist series each season, presented to over 40,000 audience members at the 1,600 seat San Mateo Performing Arts Center. Lauded for its efforts in education, the Youth Theatre Conservatory, for young people 4-17, gives younger students solid foundations in acting, singing, and dancing for the musical theatre. For those 18 and over, the Musical Theatre Conservatory offers professional classes to adults of all ages. Students aspiring to achieve a professional level of performance skills are taught by instructors who have excelled in their specialties. Musical Theatre Conservatory’s intensive summer program is offered in conjunction with Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont

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