The construction of your first sentence is 1) grammatically incorrect and 2) misleading. Sorry-Greatful was right to comment accordingly. I won't even get into the typos you made within a very short post.
And GODSPELL and THE MAGIC SHOW. I'm not sure about R&H, but at the time (mid-70s) it was claimed that Schwartz was the first composer to have three monster hits running on Broadway simultaneously.
As for THE BAKER'S WIFE and WICKED, both scores have gems and rocks. Thankfully, EricMontreal insisted I get the American recording of WIFE, which eliminates the latter. But if one listens to the OLC, one hears numerous songs about "Gossip" which never go anywhere and a musical orgy dedicated to "Bread".
WICKED, in my view, has some of Schwartz' best songs ("Loathing", "Defying Gravity"), but the score seems to lose steam in the second act. The problem may lie in the book: I've never cared enough to go and see it.
But as for Mr. Roxy's question, which seems to be "Why wasn't THE BAKER'S WIFE a bigger hit?", I can't speak to the infamous tryout problems; I haven't read about them all. In general, I'd say the show (and, yes, I have seen this one) has too little plot to sustain the gorgeous songs. There is no discernible subplot and the leading lady simply (SPOILER) runs off with a cute guy, changes her mind and comes home. Pretty thin stuff for 2+ hours of nearly operatic singing.
"WICKED, in my view, has some of Schwartz' best songs ("Loathing", "Defying Gravity"), but the score seems to lose steam in the second act. "
If you are only going by the cast recording keep in mind that there is a large section of Act 2 that was left off of the recording to avoid "spoilers." Not that it would necessarily change your mind about it, but it does obviously make a big difference to the movement and pacing of the second act.
I admit it's been a long time since I've seen the show (about 11 years now), so my memory may be hazy, but I recall the Witch of the East sequence in Act 2 (the stuff that I am referring to that was left off of the recording) to be fairly lengthy. Again, though, I'm going off of 11 year old memories. And of course it does provide a better through line than what you get from the cast recording going directly from "No Good Deed" into "March of the Witch Hunters."
"Wicked Witch Of The East" is a very odd sequence. If you count it from beginning to end it's quite lengthy but the actual song portions are sporadic. A verse here and there amidst dialogue and almost recitative like portions.
It also ties in significantly to earlier portions of the show, musically and plot-wise, and plays a crucial role in the development of the second act arc.
I actually really love it but it seems few others do. It could easily have fit on the CD if they cut out a bit of the dialogue and I've never got the whole "spoilers" thing. Seems like a cop out cause they didn't want to just slap the entire scene with the dialogue on CD but couldn't be bothered to adapt the integrated scene as many other cast albums have.
I kind of understand the "spoilers" bit, since the sequence was a pretty big departure from the book. In the book Boq becomes the wealthy Munchkin from Baum's book that took Dorothy in for a night during her journey to the Emerald City, and though Elphaba briefly wonders if the Scarecrow is Fiyero coming back to her in disguise it's pretty quickly shown that he isn't when removes all of his stuffing to protect Dorothy from one of the Witch's attacks (the bees).
Now whether the spoilers were their main reason, or not wanting to go through the trouble of editing that sequence down, I guess we'll never know. I'm kind of surprised when they did the special release of the recording for the fifth anniversary that they didn't stick it in amongst the bonus tracks.
I think Baker's Wife is one of those shows that will get a new book in like 20 years and be a hit. It's got such a great idea. This whole like Suburban love affair thing. And the music is great. I've never seen it, but might checkout the Gallery Player's production just to get some background.
I'm not sure what confuses me more - the title of this thread or the original post.
It's been about 2 years since I last saw Wicked, but I don't recall Wicked Witch of the East being something that would be hard to adapt into something more fitting for a cast recording. The major spoiler involved would of course be Boq turning into the Tin Man, which IIRC happens during the song (or perhaps the dialogue in between verses) but other than that, there really wouldn't be any reason to leave it off the recording.