One song familiar to theatergoers will get more exposure when part one of the movie “Wicked” opens nationwide on Nov. 22, starring Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. “Defying Gravity” ends the first act of the musical theater production and serves as a critical turning point in the show. It will also serve as the ending for the first movie.

Schwartz explained that there was too much story to tell and there would have been a lot of cuts to make it one film of reasonable length.

“In trying to work it out as one movie, we kept stumbling over how we were going to get past ‘Defying Gravity,’” he said. “When you see the first movie and how it ends, you’ll see why it would be difficult to go on immediately thereafter.”

The use of “Defying Gravity” is a recurring theme with Schwartz; it’s even the title of his biography, “Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz, from Godspell to Wicked.”

“It was just a phrase that stuck,” said Schwartz. “My collaborator on ‘Wicked,’ Winnie Holzman and I were in a conversation about the last song for the first act and arrived at that title. The song has resonated with a lot of people and, consequently, it seems to work as a title for things that have to do with me.”

Schwartz grew up in a “fairly secular” household, observing Jewish holidays, which he still does. Although he never became a bar mitzvah, he was confirmed and, at that time, became interested in ethics and religion and wrote a paper about the Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides.

“I’ve done a lot of work that deals with religious and biblical themes, ‘The Prince of Egypt’ being the most obvious one in terms of Jewish heritage, but also ‘Children of Eden,’ which is essentially the first nine chapters of the book of Genesis,” he said. “I still find that kind of material compelling and interesting, in terms of the stories and moral questions involved. Maybe that goes back to Moses Maimonides.”

Since his start was in musical theater, he still considers working on films “very glamorous.” He noted that everything is more “spread out” when working on films, compared to “everybody in the room together” when creating a theatrical production. He also enjoys seeing immediate audience reactions in live theater versus test screenings and previews with movies, which he admitted not to be privy to as a writer.

“Any time I drive on to a movie lot, it’s still a bit of a ‘pinch me’ moment because it was, from my childhood, the thing that seemed out of reach,” he said. “So, there is a great excitement for me in working in the movies. But theater is what I wanted to do since I was a kid, and the collaborative nature of working in theater remains really exhilarating to me.”

Schwartz is currently working on a new musical project bound for Broadway based on a 2012 documentary. The project, titled “The Queen of Versailles,” will star actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth in the title role.

There are two reasons why retirement is not in the future for the 76 year old.

“It’s still a lot of fun, number one and number two, they still let me do it, which is kind of amazing after all this time,” said Schwartz. “Writing a new musical from scratch is a multi-year proposition, so I’m not sure how many more of those I have in me, but I do have some other projects I’m talking about both for stage and film or television. I don’t see retirement looming, at least not any time soon.” JN

For more information on Stephen Schwartz, visit stephenschwartz.com; for the Phoenix Symphony Gala, visit phoenixsymphony.org.