The Baker's Wife - Menier Chocolate Factory

and a theatre full of the smell of freshly baked bread.....

According to email this morning from the Menier…..Sutra Gayle, Norman Pace, Liam Tamne & Finty Williams join cast.

Also joining the cast are Bart Lambert, David Pendlebury, and Annabelle Williams.

Ah amazing to see Sutra Gayle/Lorna she was the original
Gran Georgeanna In Tina the Musical.

Thats one big cast. The Little dressing rooms will be heaving.

It is a huge cast. I didn’t realise there were so many ‘named’ roles in this musical. I wonder why Norman Pace would take such a small role?

I guess things will change if it gets good reviews but there’s still an awful lot of availability for this into August.

Yes, there is - and I’m quite surprised by that, to be honest.

I thought that this would sell really well, given the fact that it’s the first London revival and (despite its rather infamous past outings) given the fact that the revival is surrounded by the long-established popularity of Wicked (and the current talk about the movie version).

I think the most recent revival in the US (can’t remember exactly where it was, but recall reading a review of it) was quite well-received by the critics, so I’m hoping for similar with this revival.

Not surprised this is a tough sell, tbh. Schwartz has very little name recognition here, compared with New York. Only Godspell and Wicked have ever been bona fide hits here, and Godspell is a very long time ago. Probably loads of people don't even realise both those shows have the same songwriter. On top of that, Baker's Wife is, for those up on musical theatre, a famous flop, on both sides of the Atlantic, and well-known for paring a lovely score with an inconsequential book.

Don't get me wrong - I don't want it to be a tough sell. I want people who grew up on Wicked, and are now a bit older, to be excited about discovering what else the composer of their favourite show has done. Sadly, it rarely seems to work that way. If it did, productions of Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth would sell fairly sluggishly now, and everyone would be rushing to Cymbeline and Timon of Athens, just to see what else that cool playwright dude did!

Menier has had air con for sometime now. In fact people sitting under one of the 2 units used to complain that it was too cold.

You’ve been to the toilets in the Arts Theatre, right?

Forgot about those two.

I've tried to block if from my memory but I thunk you are right.