Let's not twist my words, OK? I didn't diss Children of Eden because it hasn't played New York. I dissed Children of Eden because it's bad.
Interesting comment from someone who has not only not seen the show but has, by his own admission earlier, not finished playing through the score.
Those Powers-That-Be that decide what musicals get produced in New York apparently agree with me; the show has never played here. I'm well aware the show is pretty popular in regional and community theatres.
Which fairly well explains the problem here. The show is not "bad," it simply isn't suited for New York City (aka Broadway). If it was actually "bad," it would
not be popular in regional or community theaters. Those outside of NYC no longer need the "Powers-That-Be" to tell them what is and isn't good.
I saw The Baker's Wife many years ago at the York when it was on Fifth Avenue. A lot of the songs are of very high quality, and I'll cite one example. The baker's wife has been gone a while, and the town is worried he's going to be too upset to bake well. As an audience, we expect the baker to express his misery. Instead, we're surprised by a jaunty drinking song, Any Day Now Day, in which he expresses complete confidence that she'll return. It's a marvelous moment.
A marvelous moment does not a good show make. And no, I would not at that moment expect him to express his misery; I would
expect him to lie to himself and everyone around him about her immenent return. That's simply good storytelling, and obvious. His misery (and the truth) comes later, when he simply cannot bake.
In stark contrast, we have lovers who are due to be torn asunder by what the insurance companies refer to as "an act of God." We expect them to declare that they'll make the best of the remaining time by loving each other in an antemic noble ballad. And that's exactly what we get. There's no surprise. There's actually nothing much to listen to - "In whatever time we have, for as long as we are living" - and we might as well tune the thing out, because every line is exactly what we expect.
And in writing this "expectable" song, Schwartz has pulled out of his writing hat a song that has become popular at weddings. As SMS himself notes in the liner notes of BK's
The Stephen Schwartz Album.Perhaps it's the need to surprise an audience, to go beyond their expectations, that Schwartz lost sight of in the many years between his works composed for the stage.
But there IS unexpectedness in
Children of Eden. The entire premise, that
God himself learns from his children, is unexpected. The duet, "The Hardest Part of Love," is both the logical conclusion to this conflict and unexpected, as one father's experiences mirror another's.
CoE is a very gratifying theater experience.
I see no evidence that Schwartz has "lost sight" of what it takes to write a good show. Between the two examples cited here,
CoE has a life in theaters, while
Baker's Wife is for the most part forgotten.
CoE followed
BW. (And I can't help suspecting a prejudice against
CoE on your part, due to your several earlier posts on how
CoE shouldn't have been written because it used the same source materials as
The Apple Tree and
Two By Two.)
For further evidence of how SMS has not lost sight of how to write good individual songs, I refer you to his solo albums,
Reluctant Pilgrim and
Uncharted Territory. "Life Goes On," from the former disc, is one of the best songs of the last ten years to deal with death, loss, and inferentially AIDS. "Crowded Island" and "Ten-Day Heartbreak" are just plain funny. "So Far" tells the truth of long-term loves, reminding me of Jane and Keith as well as myself and der B. "Prestidigitation" is a marvel of short-storytelling in a song. And "Snapshots" is downright haunting, an invocation of the ghosts with which we ourselves. That's five great songs, right there, on one album!
(I'd pile on examples from
Uncharted Territory, but my copy has locked itself in the disc drive of out laptop, refusing to budge or play, making references hard to compile. Drat.)
I see no evidence supporting your claims against Schwartz' current talents. But that's horseracing.
(Incidental note: In the published Piano/Vocal Selections for
Wicked, Schwartz notes:
I chose to try to make the songs work for this medium and thus to make changes in certain cases from the way they appear in the stage show and on the cast album...In special circumstances, when someone needs a song in the original show format, that can be obtained by emailing me at schwartz@stephenschwartz.com .I can't help but be impressed with a composer who goes this extra mile for people interested in his work.)
