Jackie Burns in "Wicked". Photo by Joan Marcus.

In our continuing series, we’re taking a look at songs cut from Broadway musicals to see what happens in the making of a show. Next up, the first song finished–and revised–from the mega-hit musical Wicked…

Like the set of the wizardly Wicked, a musical has to click together like clockwork. Each piece should serve the greater whole and be intensely focused on the story and themes. In a conversation with Carol de Giere at musicalschwartz.com, the composer Stephen Schwartz reveals how this idea played into the cutting of one early part of the score:

“Making Good” was the first song Stephen Schwartz finished for his witches of Oz musical Wicked, and the first to be revised. Scene two and its song were crucial for setting up Elphaba’s desire line for the entire show. “Making Good” explored her ambition to “making good” in both senses of the phrase, “that is, to do things which were good, and in doing so, to make good in the sense of succeed,” Schwartz explains. But there was something too mild about it, so he wrote a second version, which still wasn’t hitting the mark. Then the songwriter reconsidered what Elphaba wanted. “It’s got to be about the Wizard,” he said to bookwriter Winnie Holzman in their next phone call. “What does she want? She’s gotta want to meet the Wizard because she thinks that’s going to solve her problems, just like everybody else in The Wizard of Oz.” He asked Holzman to write a monologue that would express the ideas, and spun “The Wizard and I” from there.

Think he made a “good” decision? Listen to Stephanie J. Block singing the cut song “Making Good”: Read more…

"The Book of Mormon". Photo by Joan Marcus.

In our continuing series, we’re taking a look at songs cut from Broadway musicals to see what happens in the making of a show. Next up, the biggest hit of the year, The Book of Mormon…

Musicals are tough to write. There are so many moving parts and so many things that change as a show develops, a tumbling of dominos with each revision. So it’s particularly fascinating to have seen a developmental reading of The Book of Mormon a few years ago and realize now that the show was already in very close to Broadway shape at that early stage. It just worked. The craft of the storytelling was impeccable and is something that remains, for me, the secret of the show’s success.

But, of course, things did change during the process of writing it. Instead of me explaining why the song “The Bible is a Trilogy, Too” was cut, let’s let the affable co-writer Bobby Lopez tell the story and play selections from it. (There’s a lot more where this came from; listen to the complete WNYC Soundcheck interview.) Who knew the Bible has something in common with The Mighty Ducks…

Read more…

First National Tour Cast of "Next to Normal". Photo by Craig Schwartz.

In our continuing series, we’re taking a look at songs cut from Broadway musicals to see what happens in the making of a show.  Next up–Next to Normal.

Did you know that the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical about a family dealing with a mother’s bipolar disorder started as a 10 minute piece called Feeling Electric? I can actually vouch for the wiki info because I was there ,a decade before the show hit Broadway, in the BMI music theater workshop as a fellow student with Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey when they presented their very arresting piece to “graduate” from the initial two-year program. Unlike the finished product, this original incarnation focused more on electro-shock therapy than the family’s dilemma, but its visceral, rock sound was already in place.

The show’s success (after a roller coaster of regional and Off-Broadway presentations) is a testament to the belief of the writers and producers as well as a stark example of the years it takes to make a musical work. Most shows you see, no matter how simple or effervescent they may appear, have similar stories of long, hard development behind them.

So let’s explore the show that was by listening to the original title song, “Feeling Electric”. An almost parodic, swaggering rocker song sung by the doctor performing the shock therapy, it was ultimately cut as the show shifted focus to the family dynamic and as it refined its sensibility to be less comedic and surreal. Take a listen to this version from a 2002 workshop sung by (I believe) Greg Naugton…

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"Into the Woods". Photo by Martha Swope.

We continue our look at songs cut from Broadway musicals with a truly fascinating window into the work of Stephen Sondheim.

If you’ve had a chance to read Sondheim’s wonderful collection of lyrics Finishing the Hat, you know that he’s a meticulous craftsman, carefully honing each lyric on scribbled legal pads–but as many times as you read about his methods, it’s a whole different thing to hear his songs “in process”. Listen to the following rough recording (not sure if it’s a demo or a rehearsal version) of a song from Into the Woods called “Second Midnight” which was cut after the dress rehearsal of the original Broadway production:

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The Broadway revival of "Chicago". Photo by Jeremy Daniel.

We’re kicking off a new series today! (Cue the confetti cannon…but don’t point it at me. The hair, you know…)

I love getting the chance to see behind-the-curtain of how a show comes together. The creation of a musical, in particular, is a maddening and marvelous thing, each piece carefully balanced against the next like an enormous, four-dimensional quilt. One song out of place, no matter how wonderful, can upset the feel of the whole work. So one of the best ways to learn why a show succeeds is to look at songs that didn’t make it into the “final” production. (It’s like going on a bad date; it helps you learn what you don’t want…and sometimes at least you get a good meal out of it.)

In that spirit, let’s take a listen to our first Prime Cut, “10 Percent”, a song snipped from the long-running smash Chicago during it’s out of town tryouts. It was sung by a character called “The Agent” whose role was similarly sliced. Here, the song is performed by the delightful David Hyde Pierce at a salute to John Kander…

Read more…