IT WAS A pleasure to see Artrix in Bromsgrove being used last night by the COMIC theatre company for their full on production of ‘The Great British Bake Off Musical’.
The smell of the greasepaint and the roar of the crowd in the main house was a welcome change from tribute band twang. and showed what a splendid home for real theatre Artrix is, given the opportunity to host it.
COMIC, a company originating in Clent, has built itself a formidable reputation for tackling ambitious shows and staging them spectacularly – Bake Off is the latest offering and possibly their most impressive to date. The show was written by Jake Brunger (book and lyrics) and Pippa Cleary (music and lyrics) a duo that had found fame with their Adrian Mole musical. In truth Bake Off received mixed reviews when it first opened a few years ago, mainly because of its paper-thin storyline, more credit to COMIC’s co- directors Chloe Turner and Dan Wright, for excuse the pun – ‘dishing up a tasty treat’. Plus, Turner’s zippy choreography alongside Chris Corcoran’s snappy musical direction bring sparkle to a tricky score.
The curtain opens on a caveman and woman warming themselves around a log fire where they discover baking. They cast off their loin cloths and are revealed as our Bake-Off presenters, Jim and Kim (bold and bouncy performances from Steven Leonard and Rebecca Lydon). The company sing ‘The Bake-Off Tent’ as they assemble it, wheeling on pastel-coloured workstations and cooking paraphernalia under the all-seeing eyes of Channel 4 cameras.
The real Bake-Off judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood are delightful parodies called Dame Pam Lee and Phil Hollinghurst. Beth Chisholm and Luke Hopson are both bang on the money in the roles. They have body language and vocals off to a tee; showing exhaustive homework has been done. The backstory between them is naughty and nice. Pam’s solo ‘Keep On Keeping On’ and their duets ‘Slap It Like That’ and ‘I’d Never Be Me Without You’ are worthy highlights. Hopson’s confident tap-dancing was fab-u-lous!
A boy meets girl love story between two of the contestants, self-doubting Gemma from Blackpool (a delightful Lily Moore) and widowed Dad Ben (quietly charismatic outing from Stuart McDiarmid) is in danger of being too cheesy but saved by the most engaging performance of the night from nine-year -old Penelope-Rain Barstow as Ben’s daughter Lily. Guys you should know never share the stage with children and animals – they’ll win every time.
Giving us strong performances too are Jill Hughes as Babs (her ‘Bab’s Lament’ was my personal favourite song of the show), Ian Underwood as the first booted off – but forever trying to make a come-back Dezza, Yosef Melake as Syrian immigrant Hassan, Jess Holmes as the Cambridge graduate wanting to win at all costs Izzy, Liam McNally as the annoyingly boisterous Russell and Joanne Kandla as troubled Italian Francesca.
Keith Froggat’s lighting design was adroit and colourful. Matt Yarwood had a huge task on sound with so large a company and he got the balance pretty much spot on. Clever smoke and flames from Pyro engineer Liam Grazier and a special shout out for whoever headed up props as there must have been half a dozen heaving props tables back-stage to mastermind the delivery.
This Bake-Off has near perfect ingredients – cracking stage crew, brilliant band, capable cast and clever techies all with a hand on the spoon – that stirs the mix – that bakes a cake which actually rises above the recipe aka script .
The final performances of The Great British Bake Off Musical at Artrix are tonight and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14). Click here for times, tickets and more information.
****
Review by Euan Rose
Euan Rose Reviews
