After nearly half a century, Stephen Schwartz’s 1976 musical The Baker’s Wife can finally claim a proud place in the American musical pantheon. Best known for the cabaret-standard ballad “Meadowlark,” the problematic adaptation of a 1938 French film died after pre-Broadway tryouts in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and faded into obscurity. Even a reworked 1989 West End production won critical praise but no audiences; it closed after just 56 performances. Now the Classic Stage Company is mounting a luminous reworking of the show, a streamlined version of the original directed by Gordon Greenberg (who also helmed a 2024 revival at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory).
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose charms as the title character, Geneviève Castagnet, the decades-younger wife of Aimable (Scott Bakula), a master baker who’s a welcome newcomer to the provincial town of Concorde that has been missing its daily croissants since the death of its previous baker. The town’s quirky residents are known for squabbling with each other over matters large and small (as well as harboring generational beefs whose origins have long been forgotten). But they are united in their enthusiasm for Aimable’s skills at the oven and in gossiping about how the man managed to land such a beautiful young wife.
It doesn’t take long for Geneviève to catch the eye of the bro-ish local hunk, Dominique (Kevin William Paul), a handyman/driver for the local Marquis (Nathan Lee Graham) who eventually persuades the woman to run off with him in his boss’ stolen Peugeot. Aimable tries to save face by suggesting that his wife has gone to visit his mother, but he soon begins gulping down booze and burning every bit of dough he manages to get near an oven’s flame. The townsfolk are suddenly united in a common cause: finding Geneviève and convincing her to return and restore order to her household and to the community.
The tightened book, by Joseph Stein (who chronicled another insular community in Fiddler on the Roof), remains saggy at times, but there’s a leavening sweetness to the ensemble storytelling that allows moments for veteran performers like Graham (hilariously presenting his menage of lovers as his “nieces”), Judy Kuhn as the café operator with a casually dismissive husband, Arnie Burton as the pedantic teacher, and Kevin Del Aguila as the impolitic local eccentric.
This is a modest show that’s well-suited to the arena-style Classic Stage space, which has been transformed into an all-encompassing French village by set designer Jason Sherwood, costumer Catherine Zuber, and lighting designer Bradley King (who bathes the town square in autumnal shades of yellow like images from a sun-faded postcard). The hidden nine-piece orchestra, under the baton of music director/arranger Charlie Alterman, produces a lush, wistful sound to a score that embraces its old-fashionedness with stereotypically Gallic details like a harp and accordion. Schwartz’s tunes offer a range of styles and tempos, well-matched to the material, with lyrics that can roam from narrative heft (in the brilliant story-song “Meadowlark”) to a showy cleverness (at one point rhyming “luscious” and “brioche is”).
Bakula, who showcased his musical talents in last year’s Jason Robert Brown musical The Connector, delivers a convincing performance as a proud but wounded man clinging against the odds to the idea of happily ever after. And DeBose offers a lovely counterpoint as a woman whose youth and inexperience leads her to impulsive decisions that she does not realize she may soon regret; plus, she sings like a dream and dances up a storm (following Stephanie Klemons’ understated choreography). It’s tempting to call The Baker’s Wife a tasty bagatelle, but it’s more like a baguette offering simple but hardy nourishment for the mind and the soul. ★★★★☆
THE BAKER’S WIFE
Classic Stage Company, Off Broadway
Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (with 1 intermission)
Tickets on sale through December 21 for $66 to $206