The varied and extensive songs of Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz come together in “Snapshots,” an apt title that accurately describes the way in which we see his talents — briefly.

The composing gift of Schwartz is undeniable — he’s written the hit musicals “Godspell,” “Pippin” and “Wicked” — but this attempt to jury-rig his existing songs (and one new one) to fit a new storyline can only be considered marginally successful.

After all, the subject matter of Schwartz’s musicals is all over the map, from the Garden of Eden to the land of Oz. Even though a number of the songs feature partial or complete rewrites of the lyrics, fitting a story to such a wide array of songs requires a plot that is rather simple, and “Snapshots” tends to be more generic than universal because of it.

In “Snapshots,” a husband and wife on the verge of divorce (Jay Montgomery, Stefanie Morse) find themselves together in their attic where they stumble across a box of old photos documenting the forgotten moments of their past together.

The moments come alive on the stage next to them as a quartet of actors (Michael Marcotte, Kristy Cates, Brian Crum, Sarah Shahinian) plays versions of their younger selves and the kids, friends and significant others in their lives.

Schwartz’s songwriting prowess is on full display from humorous numbers (“New Kid in the Neighborhood” from “Captain Louie” and “Nothing to Do With Love” from “Personals”) to emotional ballads (“Lion Tamer” from “The Magic Show” and “If We Never Meet Again” from “Rags”), but the sheer number of medleys and reprises threatens to blur a number of the songs together.

The show’s real problem comes in its book by David Stern though. While he does a capable job at providing the framework for Schwartz’s songs to shine in, his two characters are tiresome — an emotionally distant husband and a nagging wife — and they’re about the only ones we get any time with.

As a recap of Schwartz’s career, the show works, but it’ll be most enjoyable for those intimately familiar with his scores. On its own merits, it fails to elicit much excitement.

It should be noted that “Snapshots” is still in a developmental stage, where it has been since 2005. Schwartz plans to officially premiere the musical soon.

“Snapshots” will continue to run at Lyric Theatre in Oklahoma City through Sunday.

“Snapshots”

Lyric Theatre

1727 NW 16th St. in Oklahoma City

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

8 p.m. Friday

2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday

3 p.m. Sunday

Tickets: $40, call 524-9312