AN OVEN-READY MUSICAL, NEVER MUFFIN A MOMENT
As summer season heats the cruel metropolis, good to know that 5 minutes’ south of London Bridge station is La France Profonde, a village sq. beneath light shutters and 1930’s posters, the place males in berets play petanque and concertina, Claude le patron in his huge apron greets the entrance row as they quiet down, and Denise sings about her village day. Not that the Provençal village is at all times glad: the previous baker died and so they’ve been weeks with out bread, which aggravates the standard short-tempered quarrels – Curé, Mayor, Teacher, quarrelsome boules-players – as illustrated in a spirited ensemble. The arrival of M. Aimable Castangniet the brand new baker is met with delight and a Bread refrain; the presence of his attractive new spouse some twenty years youthful arouses curiosity. Baguettes, Croissants, Tartes aux Pommes and sexual pressure: vive la France! But if she is tempted away by a neighborhood lad and the despairing baker can’t bake, a village emergency will likely be declared. The trolley which first was laden with wonderful bakery out of the blue seems equally brilliantly laden with exploded dough, cut up flour and cremated loaves (Paul Farnsworth, take a bow for design: stage crew for prop-bread administration 8 exhibits per week).
Joseph Stein’s guide is impressed by a 1938 movie, Stephen Schwartz wrote music and lyrics. The present by no means made Broadway , however is a kind of small unsung musicals the Menier does higher than anybody and generally exports again to its fatherland. Maybe it simply felt too good-hearted, too Clochemerle-whimsical for some; for others truly reasonably surprising: Genevieve does run off to a seedy resort with Dominique the errand-boy, and there’s a mattress concerned, however after a stunning quantity when she displays that with him it’s all hearth and no heat, she returns to minimal condemnation (solely previous Therese will get stern, the priest too eager on forgiveness and dependable bread). In a cheerful refrain the women of the village (besides Therese) agree that you could both be “a virgin, or a realist” about these issues.
Its energy – aside from some good numbers – is that the technique of Genevieve’s escape and return is as strong in its truthfulness as Stein’s extra well-known Fiddler on the Roof. The ultimate scene with the couple is beautiful. Clive Rowe because the baker is large: shifting from naive enjoyment of his new spouse and residential to shocked shock at her flight, main a drunken refrain as he tries to not care. Then he’s poignantly alone, however a correct gent as he gallantly palms over his financial savings to the Mayor to compensate for the fugitives have nicked his Peugeot. Vocally and emotionally it’s a five-star efficiency. Lucie Jones’ Genevieve is ok too, girlishly grateful, tempted, resisting then succumbing; she tackles with belting power Schwartz’s actually troublesome huge numbers , each an emotional journey. The rascally Dominique, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, is a nice voice and good enjoyable, however then conveys superbly a seducer’s yawning boredom.
But important to its tare-aux-fraises allure is an ensemble warmly immersed of their varied identities, nevertheless jokily sketched at first sight. And this Gordon Greenberg achieves in his forged: by no means a response, grimace or look amiss, the group choreographed with some fantastic scuttling unities and chaotic confusions. Some are pure enjoyable: Michael Matus’ mayor easily Leslie-Phillips with a trio of doubtful nieces , and Matthew Seadon-Young’s M le Curé correctly indignant on the insouciantly sinful attitudes of his flock. Josefina Gabrielle as Denise, butt of her husband’s jokes, has the voice of a lark and a valiant workaday hopefulness, and Finty Williams, bullied spouse, is sweetly wistful: kindly and nervous. Her eventual desertion, leaving a baffled husband circling partnerless roumd the ultimate dance, affords a lemon zest of actuality after the touching central reunion . Altogether properly value it: crisply baked, full of feeling and iced with a ten-piece band. Not a foul seat in the home, tickets hovering spherical fifty quid. Why go up West for a musical?
menierchocolatefactory.com. to 14 Sept.
