The Baker’s Wife

Menier Chocolate Factory, 11/09/24

Credit: Tristram Kenton

Final rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Step into France in the 1930’s, and become immersed in this portrait of village life in total chaos, having lived for seven weeks without a baker. For the French, this is almost a sentence worse than death.

Let’s start with the set – and oh my goodness, it is simply stunning. Paul Farnsworth has done an unbelievable job at turning the cosy Menier space into a convincing French avenue, complete with street signs, a coffee shop, and shutters around the room. It is staged in traverse, with the audience observing from either side. Some of the ensemble are playing pétanque in the middle of the stage, inviting people to join in and play. Almost all of the cast are smoking their herbal cigarettes, there are accordions playing. It is simply picturesque and one of the best sets I’ve ever seen.

Despite a slightly slow start, events lead up to the arrival of the village’s new baker – played by Clive Rowe (Big Fat Duke of Tracy Beaker fame) – and his much younger wife – played by Lucie Jones (of Eurovision fame). This sets up the joyous ‘Bread’ musical number which is as bonkers as you can imagine, with the French residents getting over-excited about the smell of bread in the village again. A countertop complete with freshly baked goods is wheeled out, and the stage transformed into the inside of the bakery. The village-folk queue and maul at the goods, and it’s equal measures funny as it is believable!

While Clive Rowe wasn’t the greatest of singers, he had his moments – and in particular one scene where he interrupts the village council meeting about their contingency plan to say ‘sometimes in love you gamble’ had quite a few eyes watering. It is a beautiful line and is acted with some care. His vocals were more than made up for though with Lucie Jones, whose voice is just out of this world. Her rendition of ‘Meadowlark’ was mind blowing and some of the best musical singing I’ve ever heard. She didn’t drop a note and it was exceptional to watch. Joaquin Pedro Valdes, who played the young toy-boy, Dominique, didn’t quite carry with him the same vocal prowess, but given the part is fairly one-dimensional, he did a great job at portraying the character during his moments in the spotlight.

I feel compelled to mention that Finty Williams was in the cast, who is of course the daughter of a certain Dame Judi Dench, and it was an exciting moment spotting her sat merely seats away from me in the audience. Finty’s character, Hortense, had a slightly odd storyline which felt a bit incomplete. She spends the whole show being bossed around by her cafe-owning husband, only to suddenly announce she is leaving him at the end of the show, packs her bags, and departs – never to be seen again. I mean, I think the audience were rooting for her to escape the marriage, but it felt like something else needed to happen.

That was the overall feeling of the plot I think. It is not a particularly complex one. Man with younger wife arrives. Younger wife runs off with younger toy boy. Man is sad. Villagers motivated purely by their love of bread track down the younger wife and bring her back. Everyone lives happily ever after. That is effectively what it boils down too, and is probably the reason this is a seldom-performed musical. That said, the extreme attention to detail of the set, coupled with some powerhouse vocals and touching acting moments, meant I came away having had a joyous evening at the theatre. And how could I forget – they even made it smell like bread when the bakery reopened for the first time. I would heartily recommend this production to anyone wanting a taste of a musical that isn’t from the commercial west-end machine. It was a loaf of fun.

A bonus image I took of the set