The Baker's Wife - Menier Chocolate Factory

Well... no. The film gives much more space to the villagers than to Aurélie (renamed Geneviève in the musical), and begins with her running off with her lover (a shepherd rather than a chauffeur). Schwartz and Stein did precisely the opposite of what you suggest. In the film, we do not see anything of Aimable and Aurélie's marriage prior to her leaving him, and the focus is on how the villagers find Aurélie and persuade her to return. Schwartz and Stein took a piece that is almost entirely about the life of a village, and placed the love triangle in the foreground. Until the last ten minutes of Act One, the musical's plot is entirely theirs. They take most of the first act to show us a backstory that the film does not portray at all, and Aimable and Geneviève's Act Two solos - If I Have To Live Alone and Where Is The Warmth? - also do not have equivalent scenes in the film (the film does, though, include a scene in which Aimable gets drunk in the cafe).

It's a very charming film, but given the title, it's surprising how little it shows of the title character, and it's surprising how much of the musical's plot was invented by Stein and Schwartz - though having said that, the scene where Geneviève returns is lifted more or less directly from the screenplay, including the detail of Aimable talking to the cat.

Saw this today and thought was charming.

Full report to follow but a really lovely afternoon.

It both looked and sounded delightful.

I was also there this afternoon and echo the previous two comments. I loved the staging and the cast are top notch. I knew almost nothing of the score, but it sounded gorgeous and I came away humming. I think I may have to return...

This is what I figured. Will (as usual) sound lovely and mean nothing.

Well I feel slightly bad breaking the positive theme of the posts above this, but I saw the show tonight and thought it was not particularly good. After reading about the show’s development, I think I have realised why.

As noted by other posters above, it seems that the show has been changed over the years to focus more and more on the villagers rather than the love triangle, aligning it more closely with the source material. As a result, Genevieve is drawn so thinly that she is barely a character, she’s really just a plot device. But the show isn’t really set up as an ensemble piece; Amiable and Genevieve are very much presented to us as the leading man and leading lady. You can’t reduce your leading lady to just a plot device, so the show is left in this weird format where Genevieve is given a glorious song like Meadowlark but barely any character exploration to build up to it.

The scenes with the villagers are often amusing, but to me they are not strong enough to hold the show together. We see flashes of interesting stories - Hortense, for example - but they are only ever explored on a superficial level. If the writers had set out from the very beginning to make the villagers the heart of the show and fully flesh them out, I think it could work. But that’s not what this version of the show is. It just didn’t work for me, in spite of some valiant performances.

I, too, saw this yesterday and enjoyed it. The staging was very effective and I enjoyed the performances (and the music) very much.

Yes, it is old-fashioned and the book is very much a problem. There is no real build to the relationship between Genevieve and Dominique - it’s just suddenly ‘there’. She then sings Meadowlark (very well), runs off with him (though you don’t actually see this) and then they completely disappear offstage until well into Act Two. At this point, Genevieve simply sings a song about leaving Dominique and she returns to the bakery. In essence, she leaves and simply returns, but there is no development of the relationship initially and there is certainly no coverage of the relationship deteriorating. In terms of what you actually see, she leaves filled with passion for Dominique, then she just returns. What happened in-between? A scene or two (and, perhaps, a song) need to happen to explain these changes in the relationship and why ‘the grass wasn’t greener’.

As I said, I enjoyed the music, the immersive style and performances, but the plot has great gaping holes in it.

Rush gave me E53. I could see most of it. Doesnt the theatre and designer care about sight lines and audience experience?

The air con was on but it was also baking (wife) hot. Despite all of this, i still enjoyed it. The score is delight and it is performed so well.

The villagers grated on me (similar to the endless bickering in Sunday), i wonder if it would work better as a 1 act piece? Nice afternoon out though.

It is SO hot in there, I went when it was about 25 degrees and it was awful. I feel sorry for visitors this week!

I enjoyed this last night. A shame it feels like 15 pages dropped out of the script, so the storyline leaps over early character motivation our engagement should rest on. Despite revisions over the years Act 1 could be fixed in the song '(Fresh Warm) Bread' if the clamour for Aimable's baking got tracked with time leaps marked by him taking requests, inventing recipes, baking for seasonal calendar occassions, family events etc. Then we'd see him more wedded to the village's needs than Genevieve, earning her disatisfaction. As for Act 2.... I'm out of ideas ; )

But on a hot London day it was a pleasure to enjoy the melodies, a strong cast, and be transported to a French village square with audience members playng petanque in pre-show, some lovely singing and plenty of strong moments that succeed in spite of the overall shaky Book.

I had seat E57 which for £15 from a TodayTix deal a while ago was a great night out. Most of the time the pillar doesn't block the action, though it was pretty bad for 'Meadowlark' (which is badly staged anyway). If that seat comes up on TodayTix at low cost then I'd recommend it as a fair deal bargain. I did observe that if certain scenes were moved just a little more to the centre every seat would have had a good view at all times - why not do that?! Dealing with disappointed punters needn't be an option Menier, and I wouldn't have been happy if I'd paid the usual £53.25 for my seat.

A show I knew from CD decades ago, really good to see it - only the Book makes it a mixed baguette.

Transferring to @sohoplace I hear?

Seems a bit risky to transfer considering it's not been a sell out.

Actual joke for a venue as rundown as the Menier. Can’t justify it unfortunately :/