Queen of Versailles
Alumni Connections Propel New Musicals and Careers in the Theater
School of Drama
written by
Shannon Musgrave
Stephen Schwartz is headed back to Broadway. The Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama alumnus (BFA 1968; HD 2015), known for his hit musicals “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked,” has teamed up again with Broadway legend Kristin Chenoweth on a brand-new musical, “The Queen of Versailles,” which had its pre-Broadway premiere in Boston last summer. Based on Lauren Greenfield’s 2012 documentary of the same name, the musical tells the story of Florida billionaires Jackie and David Siegel and their quest to build a $100 million palace just before the 2008 financial crisis.
The show’s Boston run at the Emerson Colonial Theatre served as a developmental process to ready the show for Broadway, and the team that helped get it there was full of Tartan talent. In addition to Schwartz as composer and lyricist, the creative team included School of Drama alumni Peter Hylenski (BFA 1997) as sound designer; Ryan Park (BFA 2009) as associate costume designer; and Dan Miele (BFA 2016) as associate sound designer. On stage were alumni Amanda Jane Cooper (BFA 2010) and Andrew Kober (BFA 2006), along with current senior music theater student, Anna Bakun. Scott Wasserman, a School of Music alumnus (BFA 2010) was responsible for the show’s electronic music production.
Throughout his hugely successful career, Schwartz has remained a supporter and champion of CMU students and alumni. He has often returned to the School of Drama to lead master classes in music theater and auditioning. In 2013, 2018 and 2023, he was the featured composer for the school’s annual cabaret, which is a culminating performance for juniors taking “The Art of Cabaret” — a class created and developed by longtime and recently retired professor Gary Kline.
In 2023, Schwartz returned for the cabaret, in honor and celebration of Kline’s retirement. (The two long-time friends even performed “For Good,” the final song from “Wicked.”) Bakun was a junior that year and performed in the cabaret. As a self-described “Wicked Nerd,” it was somewhat of a dream come true for her to get to work with Schwartz.
“Obviously I’m a huge fan of his music,” she said. “You can’t be in American musical theater these days without being a fan of Stephen Schwartz.”
She performed “Defying Gravity” for the cabaret and admitted that she had a bit of a mental battle with herself over the choice. It is technically complex as a vocal piece, on top of the enormous weight of singing such an iconic song for the man who wrote it. But Kline encouraged her to do it and, ultimately, it turned out to be a terrific choice.
"It was such a lesson in perseverance and specificity and everything they teach us here at CMU. It was just using all those skills at the end of the day."
Anna Bakun
"I’m very grateful Gary pushed me to do it, because the domino effect of that choice has been so great," Bakun said with a laugh.
It’s what led her to the company of “The Queen of Versailles.” She recalls the email that Schwartz sent her in the weeks following the cabaret: “If you don’t have anything to do with your summer, we would love to have you audition for ‘The Queen of Versailles,’ but no worries if you already have plans.”
She did not. And if she had, she would have canceled them. Her “Wicked”-loving self was about to join the company of the newest Stephen Schwartz musical, and two of her castmates would be two of “Wicked”’s most iconic Glindas. Kristin Chenoweth, who originated the role on Broadway, and Amanda Jane Cooper, a CMU alumna who has played Glinda on tour and on Broadway, and is now the face of the role in all of “Wicked”’s commercials, seen on billboards in Times Square and marketing around the country.
Cooper had a very similar experience with Schwartz when she was a student at Carnegie Mellon. He gave a master class her sophomore year, where he worked with students on their songs. Cooper sang “Popular” from “Wicked.”
“When I had the opportunity to sing for Stephen, it was a life-changing experience,” she recalled. “He was so kind, and he said, ‘You know, I think you might play Glinda one day.’ And that was an absolutely world-shifting moment.”
Ten months after she graduated, Cooper was playing Glinda on the first national tour of “Wicked.” She returned four years later for the second national tour, and then in 2017, she made her Broadway debut as Glinda and has become one of the show’s longest running actors to ever play the role.
Cooper attributes much of her career success to that fateful master class as a student at CMU.
"It all started with Mr. Stephen Schwartz, a fellow Tartan, believing in me and giving young me a shot and I am so grateful."
Amanda Jane Cooper
Schwartz continues to give those shots to talented students and alumni, changing many lives …for good.
featuring the following:
images from Nathan Johnson
images from Matt Murphy
images from Joan Marcus
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