Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz will host two events at the 2025 ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest, which is returning for a third year at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif., May 5-6. The fest offers a glimpse into the process and craft of musical theater with some of Broadway’s biggest composers.
On Monday, May 5, the fest will present “Songs From the Cutting Room Floor,” a look at unheard gems that didn’t make it into some of Broadway’s biggest shows. Schwartz, together with composers, lyricists and librettists Irene Sankoff & David Hein (Come From Away) and Karey Kirkpatrick (Something Rotten!, Mrs. Doubtfire), will perform and tell stories about songs that had to be sacrificed to better serve the musical. Additional performers will be announced.
The evening is presented with support from the Gary Geld Musical Theatre Foundation.
On Tuesday, May 6, Schwartz hosts The ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre & Librettist Workshop, featuring a double bill of new musicals. Composers will present excerpts from their new musicals. Following each presentation, Schwartz will host a feedback session with the writers and other masters of the craft.
The workshop will kick off with the creative team of Roslyn Catracchia and Peter Seibert, who will present an excerpt of their new musical Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled. For the second show, Julian Hornik, Khiyon Hursey and Mark Sonnenblick will present selections from their new musical, WEEKEND.
The concert and workshop double bill are free and open to the public. Reservations are required for both nights and are available at The Wallis’ website. The event is supported by the Kenward Elmslie Fund.
Schwartz, who wrote both music and lyrics to all the songs in Wicked, is set to receive the 2025 Johnny Mercer Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala on Thursday, June 12, at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.
The award presentation will come near the midpoint between the November 2024 release of Wicked, which quickly became the highest grossing film ever based on a Broadway musical, and the November 2025 release of a sequel, Wicked: For Good. Both films are based on the 2003 stage musical Wicked.
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