Before Wicked proved an irresistible lure, Stephen Schwartz had vowed never to return to Broadway. While Godspell and Pippin launched the young songwriter's career in spectacular fashion, they were followed by a series of quick flops, and the four-performance run of Rags in 1986 looked like the end of Schwartz's Broadway career.

"I never really had too happy a time working on Broadway," he said recently. "The pressure, the egos, the stakes, the attitudes — Broadway doesn't have that much to do with why people go into the theater in the first place. It's a lot more fun doing something at TheatreWorks."

Schwartz, 60, had flown in from New York that morning, and was about to see an early run-through of TheatreWorks' production of Snapshots. It's a something-old, something-new theatrical creation that uses songs from the Schwartz songbook to tell the story of a married couple on the brink of breaking up. Coming across a box of old photos brings back memories of happier times. Six performers play versions of the characters at various ages.

"We had to make up a name for what it is because it's not really a revue but it's not a book musical, so we're calling it a musical scrapbook," Schwartz said. There are songs from Pippin, Godspell, and Wicked, including a song written for Wicked that was cut early in the show's development. There are also songs from Children of Eden and The Baker's Wife, two shows that never made it to Broadway, as well as the title song "Snapshots," which Schwartz wrote for one of his solo albums.

It was in the early 1990s when Michael Scheman and David Stern first approached Schwartz about creating a new story that would be told through his existing songs. "I was quite discouraging to them at first because I had never really seen this work," Schwartz said. "It always looked like the songs had been dragged in kicking and screaming."

But Scheman and Stern persisted, and Schwartz became intrigued by the challenge of finding a way to make it work. "I'd say about 50% of the lyrics are new, and we use different arrangements and combine songs in new ways. If people come in knowing some of these songs, they may have a bit of a shock."

A scene from Snapshots, in which six actors play a couple at various stages in their marriage. Photo: David Allen

Snapshots had its debut production in Norfolk, Va., in 1996, and then basically fell by the wayside. But with the success of Wicked, and a renewed interest in Schwartz's work, they started on it again. There have been three developmental productions since 2005, but the TheatreWorks production marks its move into a bigger league.

"I have a happy history with TheatreWorks," Schwartz said, "and we'll be talking to director Robert Kelley about what we think needs to be done. If the show continues to function better with each production, as it has, I think it's the kind of show that many regional theaters would want to do. It was never intended to be a show that would play the Winter Garden in New York."

When Schwartz and Broadway lost interest in each other in the 1980s, he found employment, success, and a couple of Oscars for songs for such animated features as The Prince of Egypt, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also helped his son, Scott, a rising stage director, by providing original music for Scott's adaptation of Willa Cather's My Antonia, which played TheatreWorks in 2004.

Oz prequel

As for a return to Broadway, Schwartz will only return when he has no choice — not financially, but artistically — as was the case with Wicked. "When Wicked came along, and I became so passionate about it," Schwartz said, "Broadway was really the only place you could do it." Based on Gregory Maguire's novel, the musical is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz that provides unexpected back stories for the good and bad witches.

Wicked, which has rarely dipped below 100% capacity in its nearly five years on Broadway, had its pre-Broadway tryout in SF in 2003. "We felt the basic show was good enough to be successful. But none of us expected what happened. There is no way to even dream such a thing."

In an unusual move, Wicked will be returning to SF for a third time, following the Broadway tryout and a visit by the subsequent touring company. What's unusual is that the production opening in January at the Orpheum Theatre is billed as a "sit-down run," meaning it will keep playing as long as enough people buy tickets.

Schwartz and his Wicked collaborators have spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what elevated the musical from a hit to a phenomenon. "I think it mainly has to do with the character Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and how audiences identified with her because of her feelings of being alienated and different from the society in which she found herself. As one of our producers said, all of us have that green girl inside of us."

Wicked seemed to be a sure thing at the 2004 Tony Awards, but the Best Musical and Best Score awards went to Avenue Q. Voters went with the smaller show with a largely gay creative team and a gay subplot. As a straight man, I asked Schwartz, did he ever feel discriminated against in the world of musical theater?

"That's an interesting question, but I think I'm going to duck it in terms of myself. I've seen examples where I think that happened for other people, and I've seen the opposite as well. But from my point of view, I think all I could do is get myself in trouble by answering that question."

However, he hardly thinks of Wicked as straight material. "Maybe the favorite thing I ever read about Wicked was this fantastic essay by Stacy Wolf titled How Wicked's Women Queered the Broadway Musical. She analyzed the structure of the show, and using the Rodgers and Hammerstein formula, she talked about how those conventions were used for a story about two women instead of a guy and a girl. That's very accurate, and actually it was somewhat conscious on our part."

Finally, back to Snapshots, which Schwartz doesn't think of as queer at all. "I will warn you and your readers that this is a very straight show," he said with a laugh. "But it's still about a relationship, and in these days of many long-term gay relationships, I think it will feel less exclusive than it might have some years back. Still, there's no getting around it. It's about a rampantly heterosexual couple."

Snapshots will run June 18-July 13 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are $26-$64. Call (650) 903-6000 or go to www.theatreworks.org.