Matthew Sklar, composer for the current Broadway musical The Prom and earlier Broadway shows The Wedding Singer and Elf, has often turned to Stephen Schwartz’s work for inspiration. He remembers practicing with the sheet music for Pippin as a pre-teen and he now follows in the tradition of pop-oriented songwriters like Schwartz, Alan Menken, and others. Sklar and his collaborator Chad Beguelin received a jump start at an ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, receiving feedback from Stephen Schwartz, who directs the workshop, and his panelists.
The Prom, with music by Sklar and book by Bob Martin and Chad Beguelin, opened on November 15, 2018 to rave reviews. It includes several delightful references to Godspell and Wicked, so Schwartz fans visiting New York City may enjoy it. www.theprommusical.com. After seeing The Prom myself and enjoying the cast recording, I was eager to interview Matt and discover his story. We met up at a Manhattan restaurant on March 8th. The following are a few points from our conversation.
GETTING STARTED ON BROADWAY
Matt Sklar: The connection for [the first show] The Wedding Singer was through The Rhythm Club that almost came to Broadway in 2001. We developed The Rhythm Club at the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz who was incredibly helpful getting the show on its feet. Chad and I submitted two shows in 1998: one was fully done and also The Rhythm Club on sort of a whim, and it turned out they chose that. We had to present 45 minutes of the show and we didn’t have much ready, so we wrote a lot of The Rhythm Club just for the ASCAP workshop presentation. We got a lot of feedback. Stephen was amazing.
From that workshop we got commercial producers. They were people I knew and so I invited them to ASCAP saying, ‘We’re going to do a presentation of this show; I’d love to know what you think.’ The producers brought Billy Rosenfield who used to be at RCA so the three of them came. Right after that they optioned the show, and we got busy completing it. Then we did a bunch of readings and did it at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA. For Broadway we got as far as having a theatre booked, our artwork and billboard in Shubert Alley, and a company ready to begin rehearsals. And then the money fell through. It was awful. But one of the people who attended one of our readings was Margo Lion, and after that she approached Chad and me and said, ‘I think you guys are very talented; I would love to find something to work on with you.’ …. [that eventually led to the New Line Cinema project with Margo Lion and Mark Kaufman.] New Line Cinema had the rights to The Wedding Singer movie and they thought they could possibly make it into a musical. They wanted a team that grew up in the 80s, as I did.
Carol de Giere: So, the moral of the story is to work your connections? And be in the right place at the right time?
MS: Well, that part was the lucky part, but you can draw a straight line from the ASCAP musical theatre workshop to The Prom. For every single project, I met somebody that came along for the ride or introduced me to somebody else. It’s all stepping stones….
GODSPELL, PIPPIN, AND WICKED INFLUENCES
CD: You have a lot of Elphaba, Glinda, and Godspell references.
MS: Of course. We love Stephen Schwartz.
CD: Were you listening to him as you grew up?
MS: Oh yeah, absolutely. One of the first shows I fell in love with was Pippin. I remember buying the vocal score to that at Colony Music in junior high and just practicing it over and over again. I was in a couple of productions of Godspell in high school, and I music directed a production of Godspell at NYU, which is how I met Chad. I met him through someone who saw me music direct that show and said, ‘Do you ever write songs? I think you should meet this guy Chad.’ Stephen’s music has always been a big part of my life, so meeting him at ASCAP was great. He’s like the best teacher in the world. A lot of us are very grateful to him.
CD: You and Chad put Godspell in the show. [There’s a scene in which cast members from a touring Godspell production come on stage. It also features a song “Love Thy Neighbor” that covers Bible passages as interpreted in modern times. “Love thy neighbor trumps them all” is a refrain of this piece led by the character Trent who has been on the Godspell tour.]
MS: The choice to have Trent star in Godspell was made because we wanted to write a song about people who are hypocritical about the Bible and how they cherry pick which parts they want to believe. That’s where the story had to go. We wanted Trent to be the one who gets through to the kids in this small town. We had to figure out how to do that and do it in a way that was fun and also made sense for him to be interacting with them. So, we decided he had to be playing Jesus Christ in a musical, so that he’s very familiar with the Bible. I think we were in a work session one day and Chad and I both said, ‘I literally know everything I know about religion from Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Children of Eden, and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.’ So, we had to pick one of those shows. And the one that seemed the most fun was Godspell, which has so many wonderful different styles of music that we could explore, so that’s why we decided to go that route.
CD: And then the makeover scene is obviously Wicked-related.
MS: Exactly. Chad literally put it in the lyric: you be Elphie, I’m Galinda. [Wicked characters.]
MORE NOTES ABOUT THE PROM
The Prom is richly entertaining with a near constant stream of witticisms and comic moments. It also has quiet scenes, one of which features the song “Unruly Heart,” that offers a similar message to “Defying Gravity” only in ballad form. And watching the full cast perform the finale “It’s Time to Dance” is a bit like watching the Ozdust Ballroom slip out of Wicked‘s Oz into contemporary America.
(To read more points from this interview, see my article with tips for musical writers from Sklar at Musicalwriters.com – From Pizza Readings to Broadway)
View The Prom highlights on this video:
Carol de Giere is the author of Defying Gravity: the Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked (first and second editions) and The Godspell Experience: Inside a Transformative Musical. Visit caroldegiere.com to find out more about the books.
Matthew Sklar wrote the music and co-wrote vocal arrangements for the currently running Broadway musical The Prom. He is the Tony, Emmy and Drama Desk Award-nominated composer of the Broadway musicals Elf and The Wedding Singer (Tony nomination for Best Original Score, Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Music). He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction for the critically acclaimed NBC stop-motion animated TV special “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.” Additional TV/film credits include “Sesame Street,” “Wonder Pets!” and PBS’s “American Masters.” Awards include the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, the Gilman/Gonzalez-Falla Theatre Award and the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation. Visit matthewsklar.com
