Is The Baker's Wife Fixable?

"On its own, one great song probably isn't going to save a stage musical, but it's certainly enough to keep the hope of doing so alive. Consider the case of The Baker's Wife, the Stephen Schwartz show based on the French film of the same name, that famously floundered through its out-of-town tryouts in 1976 and never made it to Broadway but produced the epic solo "Meadowlark." Maybe you've heard Patti LuPone sing it,"

"The fundamental problem is that, "Meadowlark" aside, The Baker's Wife really isn't an interesting musical. Schwartz's score and Joseph Stein's book adapt a broad French farce in a ham-fisted manner. A town in the south of France where nothing much happens is introduced by way of Judy Kuhn's pursed-lipped Denise, who sings "Chanson," about small-town boredom. The village gets a new baker, Aimable Castagnet (Scott Bakula, radiating easy warmth), after the death of their previous, beloved bread guy."

The Baker's Wife features the standout solo 'Meadowlark,' a propulsive, richly melodic number with a clear inner narrative. Stephen Schwartz and Joseph Stein adapt a French farce, but the score and book handle the material clumsily. The central village is sketched as small-town boredom, introduced by Denise's 'Chanson.' Aimable, the new baker, arrives to adulation, and his young wife Geneviève becomes enamored of a handsome rogue. Schwartz has repeatedly revised the show over decades, yet the latest Classic Stage Company staging, directed by Gordon Greenberg from a London production, leans overly twee and fails to elevate the weak surrounding material.

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