Review: Village's SNAPSHOTS is Cute but is it Necessary?

I'm all for a tribute to a wonderful composer such as Stephen Schwartz. But the new musical "Snapshots" currently playing at Village Theatre feels less like a tribute and more like theft. OK, theft is too strong of a word since Schwartz was involved with the rewrite but still a show with not much new to say.

Filled with songs by Schwartz from his wonderful shows such as "Wicked", "Pippin", "Godspell" and "The Baker's Wife" to name a few, the show centers on the relationship of childhood sweethearts Dan and Sue by examining events in their history from childhood (where they are played by Ben Wynant and Mallory King), into adulthood (played by Jim DeSelm and Tracy McDowell) and into middle age (played by Hugh Hastings and Beth DeVries) where their marriage is about to dissolve. We encounter the couple through a series of flashbacks or snapshots (hence the title) focused on the important moments of their relationship that got them to today.

It's a sweet little story but, as I mentioned, has nothing really new to say. Pretty much everything that happens in this book by David Stern we've seen a million times before. So was this just a tribute then? I guess you could say that except much of the songs used to try and tell this story have been changed to fit it. The melodies are all there but many of the lyrics are altered which seems inevitable for this undertaking since Schwartz is one of the great masters at storytelling through his songs so how (and why) do you go about trying to tell another story using those same songs? The new Schwartz lyrics aren't as good as the originals and only succeeded in taking me out of the moment every time the lyric I expected from the original song didn't come. So with trying to tell this story by using Schwartz's music and some of the old lyrics I question what the point was that conceivers of the show Stern and Michael Scheman were trying to make. If you want to tell this story and have new lyrics then why not just write a new show. And if you really wanted the music of Schwartz then a better question might be why didn't Village just produce one of his shows and eliminate the middle man.

The performers are all in more than fine voices and take on the roles well. DeVries conveys the longing for something better beautifully. Hastings makes for an OK counterpart but felt forced and over the top in his characterization and seemed out of place in the show. DeSelm is wonderfully goofy as the young man starting his life and McDowell balances him out wonderfully and really shows the journey the character was taking to get to the older version of herself. But it was Wynant and King who really stood out for me. Wynant with his wonderfully expressive features and stunning voice and King who sold both her character and the comedy of her other characters with gusto.

So the cast was good and the source songs are always wonderful but the story itself and the changes to those songs were just so so which leads me to ask again, why? And so with my three letter rating system I give "Snapshots" a slightly bewildered MEH. I love me some Schwartz but this was more a rehash of Schwartz.

"Snapshots" performs at Village Theatre in Issaquah through October 18th before moving to their Everett location running October 23rd through November 15th and then heading out to Arizona for a run with Arizona Theatre Company. For tickets or information contact the Issaquah box office at 425-392-2202 or the Everett box office at 425-257-8600 or visit them online at www.villagetheatre.org.

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