REVIEW.... The Great British Bake Off: The Musical, Louth Riverhead Theatre/Louth Playgoers - Thu 7th - Sat 9th August 2025 - ****1/2
- theatrereviews
- Aug 9
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11
The Great British Bake Off, itself an inarguable TV institution, carries the Marmite ethos: chances are, you either love it or you don’t. Even if you watch it earnestly, it’s popularity and headline-grabbing chutzpah has undoubtedly dwindled over recent years. However, it still holds a place (and a very strong and loyal following); enough for Cheltenham’s Everyman Theatre to commission a musical, which transferred to the Noël Coward Theatre for a limited 12 week run, garnering mainly positive reviews and certainly pleasing fans of both the TV show and staunch musical theatre lovers.
It'll enjoy one final performance at Louth Riverhead Theatre this evening (Saturday 9th August) and it is a production that I strongly recommend. There’s a tenuous, humble, albeit grandiose, parallel between this year’s senior summer workshop and the purpose of the workshop itself: to encourage, inspire and provide an opportunity for the next – and flowering - generation (the show, surprise surprise, is all about nurturing bakers; the workshop, however, is a concentrated outlet for 15-22 year olds to tackle both stagecraft and backstage duties, while being supported by the venue, three professional directors, and a live orchestra). I’m happy to stand corrected, but this annual project currently stands alone as a clear, provident lifeline for career-set young performers in Lincolnshire. With the amount of current funding allocated to arts projects in North East Lincolnshire and East Lindsey (and Lincoln also seemingly shy of staging something as ambitious, yet vital for encouraging up-and-coming performers during the summer break), Louth Riverhead Theatre and the society, Louth Playgoers - who have provided this opportunity for over twenty concurrent years - deserve to be championed.
So, there’s some bias at play here, granted, but the show itself, on the merits listed (the production is auditioned, cast, rehearsed, and performed in less than two weeks) is a damn sight better than it has a right to be. Again, to draw another parallel, TGBBO: The Musical, in my opinion, also is a lot better than I had previously given it any serious consideration for. It really works as a musical! It is overtly camp, sweepingly charming, yet should come with a disclaimer that it is also unhesitatingly emotional, and swathed in catchy, memorable numbers.
The stage is rife with talent. 23 performers pull off a deceptively difficult, modern musical. It catches us off guard, with an eerie, jarring, though comical opening number (we don’t really know what to expect, and the Prologue number affirms that we’re better off not to expect anything too conventional; it’s a riff that’s carried on throughout the show, with starry “vox pops”, inner-monologues, even puppet seagulls!). The conventions of the TV show, however, are stuck to diligently: we meet the bakers, the hosts and the judges, and we go through a series of weekly eliminations heading towards the final reveal (no spoilers here!) The writers, Jake Brunger and Pippa Cleary, knew that this wouldn’t be enough to sustain a musical, and so the show focusses on a select handful (a bakers dozen, shall we say) and explores their ambitions, backgrounds and romances. This is where the show’s pacing and emotional heart really comes to the fore. The hosts (Georgia Scott and Belle Hanley) and judges (Freya Young as Pam ‘Pru Leith’ Lee and Alfie Cowgill as Phil ‘Paul Hollywood’ Hollinghurst) are gloriously fun and carried off with panache. They’re made caricatures to ridicule, and are spoofed to perfection. The bakers, in contrast, have a tougher job. Ben Browne brings an infectious energy to his performance as the Syrian born Londoner Hassan, and shares a delicate, touching scene with Skye Pickford’s deftly powerful performance as primary school teacher, fashion-centric Francesca (which could easily have been overplayed as rather saccharine). Katherine Lowe’s hilarious interjections as the pro-vegan, butter-dodging activist is another riff that had me rolling in my chair. Grace Ojo gives a deliciously wicked portrayal as the attention-grabbing menace in the tent. Ella Morgan’s bold, brash, husband-addictive matriarch kept us comfortably in the world of British smut and innuendo. Kai Bareham’s innocuous campery as aeronautical engineer was a firm favourite with the audience on Friday’s viewing, while the romantic leads, played by George Maher and Lottie Lister, are two gentle souls coming to terms with loss. Maher has a classical look and sound that wouldn’t make him look out of place in the golden age of Hollywood, and an enigmatic charisma to match. Lister is perfect casting as the ‘Northern lass with a heart of gold’ dealing with an in-built fear of Imposter-Syndrome.
For sheer clout and emotional fragility, Skye Pickford’s solo number 'Grow' was one of the production’s real show-stoppers, as too was the heart-warming, and at times heart-breaking, duet 'My Dad', sung by George Maher and his on-stage daughter, Lily (played by Lauren Harrison). These moments aside, and the show veers towards energetic, clap-along, life-affirming fare. Cowgill’s 'Slap it Like That' was particularly strong, as was 'All the Way' to close Act 1, and the wonderfully "out-of-place" Act 2 opener, which saw Pam Lee supported by a classy kick-line of chorus dancers.
There were clear technical issues on this second night, but nothing that stopped the flow and our enjoyment of the performance. The stage looked and sounded like a continual party, with crashing moments of gripping solitude and reverence. It’s remarkable value for money! TGBBO: The Musical is a bold statement of just what can be achieved, on an amateur stage, with a talented team at the helm and a cast of hungry, eager-to-impress performers.
The Great British Bake Off: The Musical is being performed tonight, Satutday 9th August, 7.30pm at Louth Riverhead Theatre. Tickets can be bought via the link below:
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