The Baker's Wife - Menier Chocolate Factory

The toilets were hell last night, admittedly (water overflowing from the toilet past the sink area into the corridors!), but the show was, in my opinion, like a poster above suggested, a five star production of a lesser starred musical. The cast may be underpaid, but they are delivering up a storm of entertainment, and it's really quite wonderful.

As long as you carefully avoid sitting behind those pillars and cafe seats

This show ain’t transferring.

Saw it last night and it was a pitiful and depressing evening.

The closure of the restaurant is a killer for this venue. You walk in and it’s like you are breaking in a derelict venue.
What are they going to do with it? They need to sort this out asap. As an audience experience, it’s utterly depressing.

Much like the show itself.

What a mess of a musical it is. Random guy forces himself on the bakers wife against her will, she’s not interested at all. Then he loves her. Then they run away together even though she’s given not a smidgen of interest, and then they disappear for most of Act 2 and then she comes back after deciding she prefers the Baker. PLEASE.
Some nice Melodie’s do not a show make.

Pity the poor cast who act like they are in a decent show, worthy of their talents.

This is one of the worst directed shows I’ve ever seen. Backs to audiencei during key scenes. An entire song happening blocked by a pillar (we had ‘best’ seats’. Absolutely unforgivable.

They are staging The Producers here next, god knows how terrible that’s going to be judging by this shocker.

A hugely talented show wasted on an absolute stinker. And who cast that guy as Dominique? Fatal error. Shouldnt he be sexy and alluring? He just looked crazed.

We left feeling depressed and annoyed at wasting money and an evening on this absolute dross.
1 star (for the interval and when it ended)

Look, I'll get some hate for this. I saw the show on Saturday night...

...and it was one of my favourite theatre experiences I have EVER had.

*hides*

I already was a fan of the show going in. But the setting was delightful and I loved the windows and balconies dotted amongst the audience. We sat B14 & B15 and I'm so glad as we were close enough without awkwardly having to shuffle our feet if actors get too close! (Can also imagine sitting on the other side to be a downer, due to the pillars and a lot of the action felt pointed towards our side of the audience)

Every single cast member in this show is wringing every drop of warmth and fun out of their parts. I think the show is often critiqued that it focuses too much on the townsfolk rather than the titular Baker's Wife... but this production leans into that and makes the townfolk people that you want to spend a whole evening with.

Clive Rowe is every bit as lovable as you expect, which makes the latter story beats hit even harder, and "Meadowlark" has never been sung better than by Lucie Jones in this show. I had tears running down my face during the finale reprise of "Chanson", it was just so warm and sweet (and stuff like that always sets me off more than sad stuff...) and one of the final moments between the Cafe Owner and his wife just tipped me over the edge.

6 stars if I was allowed... I think I'll even fork out £60 to return!

Also worth mentioning that there were men there on Saturday night refurbishing the toilets! (Weird time to have plumbers out, I thought!)

I am tempted to book this, after hearing Lucie perform Meadowlark at her solo show the other month.

Is it likely to have any offers in the coming weeks?

I must say my latest experience at the Menier with 'Pacific ouvertures' left a rather sour taste in my mouth and one of the reasons definitely was how sad and decrepit it looks as a venue when you walk in.  Back in its heyday you'd walk in and be welcome by the warmth and cosiness of the restaurant space, which especially in wintertime was so inviting.  Now it just looks dull and drab and there's no life left in it. 

Sure as an audience member I should care primarily about what's on offer on stage, but I can't help being put off by the lack of effort and care on display there.  Combined with the crammed benches, the heavily restricted views from some of the seats, the loos that hardly ever work properly... it's definitely not making me want to go back there, especially considering the prices they charge for the tickets! 

When does the producers start? I would think they have to be something in between Baker’s wife and the producers if it’s a Christmas run?

If anyone needs seating advice, I was in in B14 and had a perfect view for the whole thing. Shame I didn’t enjoy the show more!

I feel so sad when I think of the Menier. It used to have such a buzz. And in recent years…

I thought the restaurant added something; the branding back in the day was cute. Really disappointing. I can’t justify spending that amount of money on uncomfortable seats. They’ve lost the plot & so frustrating.

What happened?

I enjoyed this. I have never been a fan of Mr Rowe but he is quite excellent here and rather moving. I was convinced we had a cover on for Ms Jones (I have never seen her on stage before) since she didn't seem to look anything like the pictures I had previously seen and thought the performance and particularly the vocals were tentative to say the least but was forgiving since as a cover she was doing ok. On checking at the interval I was told it WAS Ms Jones......as a result, for a leading lady, I was disappointed. There is nice work from the rest of the cast although the three "nieces" jarred somewhat. There seems to be a missing scene in Act 2 which should cement the relationship between the heroine and her paramour. It's not staged particularly well for the entire audience (although fine for me in the front row as you enter the auditorium) and be careful of the dreaded "audience participation". It's much better than the 1989 London version (aka the Director's Wife) even if that did feature the superb vocals of Jill Martin as Denise.
Echoing comments about the venue - the foyer really is a depressing sight. They seem to have tidied it up since Jerry's Girls (when it smelled musty and the array of old chairs, props etc was simply awful). Surely it wouldn't take much to smarten it up.

“The cast may be underpaid, but…”

😱

When I was there last Saturday, I over heard one of the ushers saying they were emptying out the space ready for the refurb... but haven't really heard any concrete info that backs that up.