The Baker's Wife

Synopsis

Set in 1935 in a small French village, The Baker's Wife explores the nature of marriage and the unpredictable excitement of the knight in shining armour. If bread represents life then the baker s new young wife represents danger to the people of this community. We discover stories told when you were a child can often backfire horribly in adult life. Based on La Femme du Boulanger by Marcel Pagnol and Jean Giono

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 26 September 2011

Here’s a pleasant enough rarity: a musical by Joseph (Fiddler on the Roof) Stein and Stephen (Godspell and Pippin) Schwartz that floundered on its way to Broadway in the mid-1970s and was presented, not too persuasively, in the West End over twenty years ago with Trevor Nunn directing his then spouse, Sharon Lee Hill, as the runaway wife of a Provenҫal baker.

On that occasion, at the Phoenix Theatre, we even had a smell-around effect of baking loaves, but Michael Strassen’s Union revival – he really does these small-scale re-heats very well – has no buns in the oven, nor indeed does the baker’s wife.

Instead, there’s a smoky mistral in the air and a lot of lolling around among villagers who’ve been needing their dough for several weeks; they’re a loaf-hungry lot.

The new middle-aged baker, played with an odd mixture of wry (rye?) charm and stupidity by Michael Matus, has a beaut...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

Markie - 9 October 2011:

sorry re my review below - meant to give it a 4 star....

Read more and add your own review

Related Whatsonstage.com Articles

On Guard with Edgar & the ENO More»