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).

I wouldn’t consider the songs on the second Jekyll and Hyde concept album that didn’t make it into the Broadway production ‘cut songs’ in the classic sense of the term, since that album’s version of the material is widely considered superior to the later versions and makes up many people’s primary experience of the show. However, the three songs that were only included on the first concept album, which consisted solely of Colm Wilkinson and Linda Eder sampling a few of the songs for Jekyll and the female leads, are a different story. This song was reportedly intended, in the earliest stages of the show’s writing, to be the centerpiece of the entire score, and while it is very pretty in a frothy, lightweight way, as a centerpiece it would have been rather underwhelming. Moreover, the song that replaced it, “Take Me As I Am”, is both prettier and has more dramatic weight, as well as having far more to do with the show’s actual story, so I don’t think we missed out on too much with this one.