Names and faces

Acclaimed Broadway composer Stephen Schwartz says he’s hard at work on a full draft of his next endeavor: the musical Houdini , which has actor Hugh Jackman playing the legendary illusionist. “I’m specifically writing for Hugh in terms of what I think will sound good in his voice and what sorts of things will really help him to do the things that he does,” Schwartz said in a recent interview during the Dramatist Guild of America’s conference in Chicago. He is the group’s president. The Academy Award- and Grammy Award-winner - famous for Wicked, Godspell and Pippin - said a reading of the new full show is scheduled for December and he’s been “writing away on it” with a collaborator. So far, he said, they have a full first act of Houdini. The show is scheduled to reach Broadway during the 2013-2014 season. Schwartz said he hopes it will make an out-of-town debut in Chicago before it premieres on Broadway. So far, the fun, he said, has been writing music and lyrics with Jackman in mind. Schwartz said he’s considering “Where does he want to stretch himself? Where does he want to do something that he feels he has and we feel he has that he hasn’t really shown before?”

It was Jon Voight’s portrayal of male prostitute Joe Buck in the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy that put him on his path to becoming an acting legend. Now he says he was paid a pittance for the part. Voight said that he wanted the role so badly he told his agent, “I said, ‘Tell them I’ll do this part for nothing.’” The actor said to his surprise, “They took me at my word, and they gave me minimum for Midnight Cowboy.” Voight spoke Wednesday as he was promoting his film Getaway, co-starring Ethan Hawke and Selena Gomez, which opens today, and Ray Donovan, the Showtime series he appears in opposite Liev Schreiber. The Oscar and Emmy-winning actor says United Artists “even sent me a $14.73 coffee shop charge,” for meals his last day of shooting for Midnight Cowboy in Texas. Voight also says he persuaded co-star Dustin Hoffman to try out for the role of Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo after the two became friends doing an off-Broadway show. Looking back, Voight says, “It was the worst.” But Voight says he had no regrets. “I knew what it meant. It was going to give me a career, and I was right.”