Customer Reviews

The Baker's Wife: A Comedy Musical (1990 Original London Cast)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of my favourite shows. I only knew The Baker's Wife from the original American cast recording, which, despite its competent cast, leaves us yearning to learn the context into which those great songs were inserted. What a joy it was then to hear this very theatrical version of the show. The whole plot is there. You get to know the background of the actual action. The story takes place in a small village, Concorde, where a new baker arrives with his young wife. The villagers are a very important part of the story, and they are wittily and funnily represented - by an amazing ensemble - in clever songs like *If it wasn't for you* (about the ill will and old grudges among Concorde's neighbours), *Buzz a-buzz* (showing the gossipy nature of the villagers), *Luckiest man in the world* (about the practical philosophy of small town people), etc. The actors are all great and the recording contain big chunks of dialogue, which provides us with the context of the songs and makes us feel we are watching a real show. This recording is typically British in the sense that acting and theatricality are the main concern, which leads us to some reservations some people may have regarding the performers' singing abilities. Sharon Lee-Hill is no Liz Callaway, so it's possible that some may be very disappointed with her musical rendition of the classic Meadowlark. On the other hand, she gives a superb performance. If you concentrate on her words, you will be very touched by her heart-rending exposure of a soul who's been badly hurt and it's terribly afraid to give love another chance. Sharon Lee-Hill's Geneviève is still young and vulnerable and makes a strong contrast with LuPone's (from the American recording) more mature and more cynical wife. Hill's bright youthfulness and touching inexperience - she is really like a beautiful and fragile butterfly - makes you actually forgive her infidelity. Alun Armstrong's Aimable is just stunning. If you don't feel deeply for him, you must have a heart of stone. Drue Williams is an extreme virile and caddish Dominic and Jill Martin a very sweet Denise. Once more, this is a recording for those who favour theatricality over mere singing virtuosity. Not a recording for diva fans, but for drama enthusiasts.

I fell in love with 'The Baker's Wife' 12 years ago. I'm still a fan - this is not one of those scores you like then discard.

This is show that exudes simplicity. It tells the story of how Genevieve, a young woman who has recently married a much older man - the Baker - leaves him for a local hunk, only to discover that the love and security of her marriage is (not surprisingly) missing. She returns to her husband - and that's about it.

This admittedly unexciting story is presented through the framework of the cafe-owner, Denise, whos opens the show with the haunting ballad 'Chanson' and tells us how it takes a change or shock to make you appreciate your life. Life, made up of repetition and routine, will suddenly be seen for what it is - 'you may want to run, or you may want to stay for ever.' This is the test Genevieve must endure. At the end, when all is well, Denise steps back to reprise 'Chanson' and leave us with the moral.

The music and lyrics this is set to are a mixture of haunting ballads and rousing, comic chorus numbers with a music-hall feel. The orchestration is intricate and sublime - the best I have heard on a show CD - you can hear a flute solo, and so on, in a way quite unlike normal fare in musicals. There's enough dialogue included to make the recording stand up as a one of a piece of musical theatre, not just a collection of songs.

If you like musicals based on atmosphere and emotion, and don't mind a bit of sentimentality, this is for you - it seems to breathe summer days, gaiety, self-doubt, melancholy and then final happiness in a delicate and bewitching way. Come and fall in love with 'The Baker's Wife.'

"Once, long ago - well it seems long ago,
For the briefest of moments a romance was mine.
He thought I was beautiful - I thought he was fine.
But now I can barely recall - or did I imagine it all?"

"And then one day, suddenly, something can happen
It may be quite simple, it may be quite small,
But all of a sudden your stew tastes different,
And you hear the gulls cry in a different key,
And you see with new eyes, and the faces you see
Are people you don't know at all.....

Now your whole life is different,
Now your whole life is new."

Stephen Schwartz's legendary "flop" musical receives a loving (and thorough) treatment on CD, with new orchestrations and many additional songs. Unlike many of the reviewers here, I haven't heard this score in a different form, or with different singers. Still, I found the vocal talent on this recording more than adequate for the demands of the score. It might be interesting to hear an opera company tackle this score, but I'm not sure it would necessarily be better. Much of the score seems geared more toward the "singing actor" more than the classically trained vocalist. Refreshingly, the songs play as dramatic scenes, and not as 32-bar standards.

I'm also not sure if _The Baker's Wife_ could truly succeed in a full stage production. There's a possibly fatal disjunction between the emotional heft of the score, and the fairly routine village drama that surrounds it. Trevor Nunn seems to think the solution is largely in the lighting. Production photos of the 1990 London production show everything as dim and brown, as if the story were set in Algeria instead of rural France. I wouldn't recommend that approach -- but what approach would be better?

As a concert performance, however, _The Baker's Wife_ could be an extraordinary experience. This recording, which comes as close to such a performance as you're likely to hear, is a must for any fan of musical theater (including all opera lovers). Five stars.

The London version of The Baker's Wife, with twice as many songs as the stripped-down American performance, is one of the most subtle and delightful pieces of theater I've heard in a long time. It happens to be a musical, and it happens that most of the plot occurs within the songs, or slightly between them in dialogue which is left on the album, making this recording more than a litany of the songs from the show -- it's a fairly complete version of the show itself. Some of the other reviewers are right -- it is very British, with an emphasis on the acting more than on vocal pyrotechnics, but it is wrong to call the singers weak when they are simply emphasizing differently from the showstopping American style. These singers are acting their parts straight through the songs, and doing it so effectively that Genovieve's frightened passion and impulsiveness, Aimable's quiet, stubborn strength and gentle perception, show through their voices as well as their words. The show itself is not about the simple story of a wife who runs away and then returns; it is about the effects on a small town of the disruption of one of its leading families, and the neighbors are the most vivid and lively characters in the show -- no slight to the "lead" characters. As pop music that happens to have a slight nod to the concept of theater, which is what most modern musicals seem to be, it fails abysmally. As a glorious, emotionally intricate play which happens to be conducted in song, it shines.

"The Baker's Wife" is a truly superb musical comedy with wonderful songs. The first time I listened to the album, I was enchanted by the storyline and the rendission of the musical score. I have not listend to the American recording, but I'm sure that it would probably pale in comparison. The story is quite simple: revolving around a middle-aged baker who, along with his attractive young wife, take up residionce in a rural French village named Concord. The wife is unsure of her emotions and uncontent, although the baker does all he can to show his love for her. "I will try to make you happy, I will try my whole life through." The baker's wife, whose name is Genevive, is seduced by a young villager, Domineque, and is charmed enough with him that she willingly steals away in the night to be with him. I won't give away anymore of the plot, but I will say that this musical really shows how love can triumph over fear, and how forgiveness is supreme. The songs are great, especially, "If It Wasn't for You," Mercee Madame," Bread," "The Meadowlark," "Buzz-Buzza-buzz!" and "Any Day Now." Please consider getting this musical for yourself, it is a true delight from start to finish! Happy listening!

The Baker's Wife is Stephen Schwartz's Fidelio - despite years of work and many revisions, it just doesn't work. It's too bad, because the story (drawn from a 1938 Marcel Pagnol film) is delightful and the sensibility, though somewhat old-fashioned - and that may be the ultimate problem right there - I find quite satisfying. As one who has performed in one of the later incarnations of this show, I can only say that it is a favorite of mine and I wish Schwartz well in his ongoing attempts to improve it.

This London cast recording, though it has some nice moments and some excellent music that was later cut from the show, is clearly very rough, containing many mistakes. Further, the actors have thick british accents and pepper their dialogue with anglicisms that one would never hear in Provence, the location of the story and something absolutely essential to it. Save your money and go see a live production of the show. It's still not perfect, but it is definitely better than this version of the Baker's Wife.

I saw the revised London production of THE BAKER'S WIFE three times while I was living there when it opened, and I loved it more every time. The score, I believe, is one of Schwartz's best, and the cast is wonderful. Alun Armstrong is superb as the Baker. The tunes are memorable and will live in your head for a long time. It's worth the money.

David Eggebrecht

Once in a while a musical comes along that, despite an enchanting story line, superb music, and an exceptional cast, just doesn't take off. Sometimes these flops are misunderstood by critics, marketed poorly, or, because of stiff competition, are unable to attract an audience. Try as they may, Stephen Schwartz and Trevor Nunn offer no convincing argument that "The Baker's Wife" is worthy of inclusion in this select group of musical failures. The show's story line is hackneyed, the music, for the most part, ordinary, and the cast -- as represented on this album -- surprisingly weak. There are several hidden gems in the otherwise dull score. "Meadowlark" is a brilliant song, which is not only tuneful, but also advances the plot. Unfortunately, Sharon Lee Hill, despite a striking physical appearance in the album's liner notes, is not up to the challenge -- and I do mean challenge. Her transitions from head voice to chest voice are accomplished with little aplomb. Even the normally strong Susan Egan struggled with this number on "The Stephen Schwartz Album." Alun Armstron evokes genuine emotion as the baker, but like his co-star is a weak vocalist. "Bread" is playful tune, and it is well-performed by the company. Jill Martin easily steals the show as Denise, singing the delightful Chanson (and singing it again and again and, yes, again -- it's good, but worthy of three reprises?). Overall, a weak recording of what is universally considered a weak production.

Everything depends on why you want to buy this album. If you ever heard the original with Patti LuPone and Paul Sorvino, you may be disappointed. Personally, I worked on a production with Stephen Schwartz in the early 80's - when he added the song "Bread" and a few others. I recollect that it brought down the house. So, I thought I would track down a copy of the London cast to see what else was added to the production. Alas, even with new songs, this particular recording is thin in sound. LuPone and Sorvino had a real bell-like clarity in the original cast recording. Nonetheless, if you want all the songs, then the London cast is the way to go. Just pretend they are two different shows.

Following his brash, "bells and whistles" scores for "Godspell" and "Pippin", composer Stephen Schwartz surprised everyone with THE BAKER'S WIFE, a musical built on delicate romantic themes, and full of rustic European charm. The original production - starring Patti LuPone - was a notorious flop which closed out-of-town, but numerous revivals have kept it in the public's awareness. This recording comes from a critically-acclaimed 1990 London production.

Based on a movie ("La Femme du Boulanger") by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono; THE BAKER'S WIFE is the story of Genevieve (Sharon Lee Hill), married to an older man, Aimable (Alun Armstrong), the baker in their small French village. Into Genevieve's stable, simple life comes the handsome Dominic (Drue Williams); and Genevieve is tempted by his virile charms. Eventually she runs away with Dominic but later comes to realise just how much Aimable loves her.

The score for THE BAKER'S WIFE is quite amazing, with some superb compositions ("Chanson", "Gifts of Love", "Proud Lady"). Genevieve's Act One aria, "Meadowlark", is the crowning jewel of the entire show - and almost a mini-musical in itself. Sharon Lee Hill invests the role of Genevieve with passion and power; her performance is utterly sublime (and I'm a huge admirer of Patti LuPone's performance in this role!). Ms Lee Hill also stirs the soul with the gut-wrenching "Where is the Warmth?" (a song which explores Genevieve's emotional guilt at having left her husband for an affair which has since cooled in the harsh daylight of common sense). Gareth Valentine supervises and conducts orchestrations which vary greatly from the original Broadway album.

Casual fans might want to first buy the Broadway cast album with Patti LuPone; those wanting to explore a richer slice are encouraged to pick up this spectacular new London recording. Highly-recommended.