“There Once Was a Pirate” from Spring Awakening

This was originally the Act Two opening for Spring Awakening, returning to the scene after Melchior and Wendla have sex. It’s actually one of the very finest songs written for the show…in the early, pre-Broadway productions, critics routinely singled it out as a highlight, or even the highlight, of the show. The reason it was cut is that the lyrics, while actually better written than most of the show’s lyrical material, are built on a very obscure metaphor for the situation onstage (to clarify, Melchior is the ‘pirate’ in the song, and Wendla is the ‘maiden’). So while it does actually have a concrete connection to the dramatic situation, audiences tended to be confused by the opaque lyrics, so the song was replaced by “The Guilty Ones”, which is almost as lovely a song, so it isn’t too much of a loss. Instead of employing a metaphorical narrative, the new song addressed the feelings of shame and uncertainty that the two lovers were feeling directly (well, as directly as Spring Awakening‘s lyrics ever address anything, which admittedly isn’t very).