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This article by Simon Saltzman was prepared for the April 13, 2005
issue of U.S. 1
Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Drama: ‘Baker’s Wife’ at Paper Mill
How does a musical that almost no one has ever seen become a favorite,
inspire a cult following, and achieve legendary status without ever
opening on Broadway? The answer may be a mystery and a phenomenon but
"The Baker’s Wife" is that musical. Many of us who have heard about
this musical will finally experience it on Sunday, April 17, when it
opens at the Paper Mill Playhouse, under the direction of Gordon
Greenberg and starring Alice Ripley in the title role of Genevieve,
the baker’s wife.
The legend of "The Baker’s Wife" began in 1976 when producer David
Merrick decided that composer Stephen Schwartz and writer Joseph Stein
should write a musical stage adaptation of the 1938 screenplay "La
Femme du Boulanger" by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono. The pre-Broadway
tour that began at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and
continued at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C., was a
disaster. Merrick tried everything including replacing the original
leads, Carole Demas and Topol, with Patti Lupone and Paul Sorvino. He
then gave the heave-ho to director Joseph Hardy, bringing in John
Berry to take the helm. He replaced choreographer Dan Siretta with
Robert Tucker and hiring Don Walker to completely re-orchestrate the
score. Nothing seemed to work, and Merrick threw in the towel before
the musical’s announced opening, November 21, 1976, at the Martin Beck
Theater in New York.
Perhaps because there is so little plot – when the baker’s wife runs
off with a cute chauffeur, the baker stops baking, so the hungry
villagers find her and bring her home – Stein’s original adaptation
wasn’t spared either. Esteemed director Trevor Nunn made a stab at
staging it in London in 1989 but with little impact. So what, you may
ask, is/was so wonderful about "The Baker’s Wife" that has encouraged
this largely revised and eagerly awaited production at the Paper Mill
Playhouse?
I’m sure you have already guessed that it is Schwartz’s melodic and
evocative score – now considered a classic of the genre, thanks to a
recording made by Lupone and Sorvino and members of the original cast.
That recording helped validate the score’s excellence, particularly
"Meadowlark," a ravishing aria that Lupone keeps in her repertoire,
and is often used by singers as a showy audition piece.
Director Gordon Greenberg and star Alice Ripley shared their
enthusiasm and their expectations in an interview following a
rehearsal at the 42nd Street studios. When I mention "Meadowlark" as
being one of Lupone’s signature songs, Ripley responds with a big
smile, "I’ll sing it better. From the first time I heard the score
during my college years, it has informed my entire musical theater
experience." This is quite a revelatory statement from Ripley, whose
musical experience also includes being a composer and guitarist.
Her band, Ripley, which features her husband, Shannon Ford, on
percussion, played a gig this past November at New York’s famed
Birdland. The band is currently completing its first full-length album
to be released later this year. "I love acting and performing but
composing is the direct factory outlet for my feelings," she says,
describing her music as "powerful guitar-oriented rock" and "somewhere
between Queen and Blondie."
But it is those times in between Broadway musicals such as "Side Show"
(for which she received a Tony and Drama Desk nomination for Best
Actress in a Musical), "The Dead," "The Rocky Horror Picture Show,"
and "Sunset Boulevard," and as a dramatic actor in the Off-Broadway
play "Five Flights" that she contends that writing for the band has
"kept me from jumping off the Empire State Building. I love it because
nobody has to hire me to do it." But now Ripley has been hired for a
job that is particularly close to her heart.
A question that Ripley says she is often asked is whether she is
related to the Ripley of Ripley’s Believe It or Not. "No, but going
way back, I am related to Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway; Hathaway
is my middle name," she says, believe it or not. Ripley, who received
a BFA in musical theater from Kent State in Ohio, says that she is the
only one of 11 children (seven girls, four boys) growing up in her
family in the midwest to make a profession of the theater. She
considers New York her home since arriving 13 years ago and being cast
in her first Broadway show, "The Who’s Tommy."
In addition to Ripley, the cast includes Max Von Essen as Dominic,
Lenny Wolpe as Amiable the baker and Gay Marshall as Denise. The
choreography is by Christopher Gattelli; the settings by Anna Louizos
("Avenue Q").
If there were, indeed, flaws and weaknesses in the show, Greenberg has
been determined to work on them. He has already staged a production of
"The Baker’s Wife" for the Second Stage at the Goodspeed Opera. This
afforded him a golden opportunity to set in motion a vision of the
musical that he shared with Schwartz at their first meeting.
"I wanted the ambiance of the small French village to be treated with
the same integrity as the story line. Schwartz, Stein, and I started
rewriting, breaking the show down character by character, cutting some
characters, amplifying some others. There are new songs, new dialogue,
new scenes, and still we had to cut a lot of songs from a show that
was running over three hours," Greenberg says, adding that the show
now has 18 characters, all specific and integral to the plot and
likening the structure and ambiance to the film "Chocolat."
Acknowledging that the score is and has always been considered one of
the best in the musical theater canon, Greenberg says, "The book is
now streamlined and finely tuned by Stein, who is in his 90s. ("And a
flirt," interjects Ripley). "There is nothing gratuitous about the
musical numbers that are now as real as the play." Greenberg is
Texas-born and New York-raised and his own theatrical experience once
included performing, including being cast at the age of 13 to appear
in the 1982 "The Little Prince and the Aviator," a musical that closed
during its Broadway previews. Acting was evidently not in the cards
for Greenberg, who has since gone on to earn degrees from London’s
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Stanford University, and New York
University Film School, and to direct many lauded productions at
regional theaters.
The plot includes those juicier elements that make life worth living –
such as jealousy, lust, revenge, and forgiveness. Schwartz, a composer
of many musical theater scores, including "Pippin," "Godspell," "The
Magic Show," and "Children of Eden," may have hit the jackpot with his
latest, "Wicked." But in the new chapter of the Great American
Songbook, I still wouldn’t bet that any of its songs will ever rival
"Meadowlark."
With this production, Greenberg has been placed among the premiere
group of talented young directors who have been selected to bring a
new and fresh artistic approach to shows at the Paper Mill Playhouse.
"I think we have a diamond that has finally been polished," says
Greenberg. Ripley agrees and adds, "It feels like the right time and
the right place to do this show." With that kind of optimism, "The
Baker’s Wife" may be convinced to return to her little French village
again and again.
– Simon Saltzman
The Baker’s Wife, previews Wednesday through Saturday, April 13
through 16; opening night, Sunday, April 17, 7:30 p.m., runs through
Sunday, May 15, Paper Mill Playhouse, Brookside Drive, Millburn. $31
to $68. 973-376-4343 or www.papermill.org.
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