he immediately told palmer - almost by way of apology , it seemed to carella - that his grandfather 's libretto had been `` quite artful for its day , '' his exact words , but that the new millennium required something more immediately engaging , which was why he 'd chosen to place the show 's opening not on a farm in the east midlands , where the original had started , but instead in london , `` so that the heroine is n't a simple farm girl coming to america but is instead someone rather more sophisticated moving from one big city to another , do you see ? ''