It was certainly no surprise when, in 2009, Stephen Schwartz was inducted into the American Songwriter Hall of Fame. He’s been much awarded and has written some of my favorite shows in musical theatre (Godspell, Pippin and, of course, Wicked) as well as songs for the films Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Enchanted and Geppetto. I was asked by Disney Theatrical to produce the recording of Stephen’s stage adaptation of Geppetto, My Son Pinocchio, so after much prep work, arranger/orchestrator David Weinstein, vocal contractor Lori Casteel, Stephen and I settled into The Tracking Room Studio in Nashville for the orchestra recording dates.
Tracking went really well. David’s orchestrations were great and the smallish orchestra (only 19 players) sounded pretty huge. We are recording two versions of the show at the same time, the full-length show and a Jr show, meaning that may cues had to be recorded in two different keys and often with different forms to accommodate added or reduced dialog sections. Stephen was a pleasure to work with, tireless and helpful with his close attention to details throughout.
The project then moved back to my studio for a couple weeks of vocal production. Mixing is still in progress 😉
