The musical premiered in the West End in 1989 for a short run but, although establishing a dedicated cult following, has not been produced on Broadway.
The musical theater rights of the Marcel Pagnol's 1938 film were originally optioned in 1952 by producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin.
Composer Frank Loesser and librettist Abe Burrows, who had worked with Feuer and Martin on Guys and Dolls and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying were attached as authors.
After hearing the song Meadowlark countless times in auditions, director Trevor Nunn persuaded the authors to mount a production.
'"[9] Bowing to financial reality, the show closed prematurely, but received the Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Musical of the Year.
The director was Gordon Greenberg, with choreography by Christopher Gattelli and the cast that starred Alice Ripley as Genevieve, Max von Essen as Dominique, Lenny Wolpe as Aimable, Gay Marshall (Denise) and Richard Pruitt (Claude).
The production received rave reviews across the board, including The New York Times, which exclaimed "after 30 years of fine-tuning, Messieurs Stein and Schwartz will have the lovely little musical they always wanted",[13] The New York Daily News, by Howard Kissel, who urged "The whole thing could - and should - be moved to Broadway, where it could find a well-deserved home",[14] Peter Filichia, from the Star Ledger, said: "Director Gordon Greenberg (who's staged the entire show superbly) gets the most of this moment, too.
[15] The award-winning Union Theatre, Southwark, produced The Baker's Wife in September/October 2011, starring Lisa Stokke and Michael Matus.
"[16][17] The Gallery Players in Brooklyn, N.Y. produced the show's first professional New York City production March 7–29, 2015, starring Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld and Charlie Owens.
[20] In March 2022, Stephen Schwartz gave permission to The J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company in New York to produce a new, intimate version of the piece.
[21] In May 2024 it was announced that the Menier Chocolate Factory in London would be staging their production from 6th July - 14th September, starring Clive Rowe, Lucie Jones, Joaquin Pedro Valdes and Josefina Gabrielle.
It's early autumn in the tiny French village of Concorde, still surprisingly provincial in the mid-1930s; we see several tables occupied at the cafe.
"God was good to me," he replies, and Geneviève reminds the villagers that not only did her husband choose her, she chose him, too — and, she insists, she couldn't be happier.
She sings of the "Gifts of Love" she's received from men in her past: her passionate affair with a married man named Paul, and her gentler feelings for Aimable.
The men of the village slyly advise one another to "Look For the Woman" whenever conflict arises among them: "It's when the hen walks into the barnyard that the roosters start pecking at each other."
In the story, the bird decides to stay with the old king who adored her — and perishes of sadness, having missed her opportunity to fly away with the sun-god who had wooed her.
The typically sober baker orders a cognac, and another, and sings tipsily that Genevieve will be home on an "Any-Day-Now Day": she has just gone to visit her mother.
In the closed bakery, they try to cheer up Aimable and get him baking again by telling him that he's the "Luckiest Man in the World": he's been spared the boredom and arguments of married life.
He leaves the church, and the villagers—chastened by the aging man's selflessness even in the face of profound anguish—vow to work together to find Geneviève and persuade her to return to her husband.
They agree to form a search party, and the Marquis, the priest, and the teacher go after the outcasts to persuade the baker's wife to return home.
She finds Aimable and attempts to tell him the truth, but he awkwardly refuses to listen, offering her dinner and insisting that she has returned from visiting her mother.
Pompom arrives at the window, and Aimable angrily chastises the cat for running after "some tom that looked good in the moonlight."
However, after The Baker's Wife closed on the road, the Yekos and Schwartz negotiated to record an LP of excerpts from the score, with the composer himself selecting what he considered to be the best songs (rather than those, necessarily, that might advance the plot).
The resulting LP contained six solo numbers and five duets, performed by original cast members Kurt Peterson, Paul Sorvino, and Patti LuPone, along with Terri Ralston (who sang "Chanson").
At the same time, the Yekos produced and released an EP with additional songs performed by original cast member Sorvino along with Darlene Conley, Denise Lor, and Portia Nelson (who were not in the touring production) and composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and his wife, Carol.
The 1990 London production, directed by Trevor Nunn, was recorded and released on the JAY label as a lavish two-CD set.
The remaining songs, not previously recorded, either came from the original tour, the 1985 off-Broadway revival, or had been specially written for the new London production.
"Meadowlark" is by far the most frequently covered song, having been recorded by Patti Lupone, Sarah Brightman, Betty Buckley, Susan Egan, Liz Callaway, Sandy Campbell, Meredith Braun, Dianne Pilkington, Judy Kuhn, Roslyn Kind, Susannah Mars, Erika Henningsen, Linzi Hateley, and others.