The Great British Bake Off musical is a new musical, hitting theatres in 2023. As anyone who has seen the famous TV show would expect, it’s a light-hearted fun musical that will inspire you to get baking! Here’s my The Great British Bake Off musical theatre review.
Overview of The Great British Bake Off musical
My The Great British Bake Off musical theatre review is of the new musical, touring the UK and in London in 2022/2023. It’s based on the popular TV show, The Great British Bake Off, which started in the UK on BBC and is now on every year on Channel 4.
As anyone who watches the TV show will know, The Great British Bake Off is a baking competition. A number of bakers (in the musical, it’s 8 bakers) enter the Bake Off tent, and have to complete a series of baking challenges each week. These are judged by two judges, and each week someone is sent home. And in the end, there’s a winner.
The musical follows this format. It starts with 8 bakers, and we hear a bit of their back story of how they got into baking. Then there’s some choreographed songs and dances when they bake things and their characters come through more. The presenters and judges do their thing, there’s some drama, and more storylines about the individual characters. Gradually bakers are sent home, leaving the final three. The plot is everything you’d expect from a musical about The Great British Bake Off.
What I liked
I loved this musical. It’s cheesy and wholesome, exactly as you’d expect. The songs were great, with really funny rhymes and packed full of innuendos. There were some children in the audience who seemed a bit confused by a lot of the innuendos, but the adults were loving it!
The songs and dancing were slightly ridiculous, but in the best possible way. I mean, who doesn’t want to spend a couple of hours watching people dance around the stage with wooden spoons and mixing bowls?! There was an entire song/dance about slapping dough (of course, filled with innuendos). And a song about buns in the oven, and even an entire song about a Paul Hollywood handshake.
It was definitely a show for fans of the TV series. The show even included a famous drama from the TV series from season 4 (or maybe 5): the ice cream being left out the freezer and going in the bin!
I really liked the characters of the 8 bakers. They were all the stereotypes that you get in the TV show each year. There was the overly ambitious Cambridge University student. The older gay engineer. The environmental activity Vegan. The grandma who bakes for her grandchildren. An Italian who uses her grandmother’s recipes. The single dad with past trauma. A Syrian refugee. And the under-confident girl who grows through the competition. I loved all the characters and thought they were portrayed really well. And their performances were great too. They even included one of the contestant’s daughters, a 9 year old girl, whose performance was outstanding.
The show left me inspired to bake something. The final song was all about how good things come to those who bake. And the whole show was so heart-warming, and the character growth was so inspirational. I’m definitely going to bake a cake now, and maybe even enter Bake Off!
What I wasn’t so sure about
I’m a massive fan of cheesy musicals, so this musical was perfect for me. I can definitely see that it might not be some people’s cup of tea (and cake…get it?). The plot wasn’t particularly revolutionary, and a lot of it was a bit silly. And if you weren’t familiar with the TV show, you’d probably miss most of the jokes and think it was all a bit weird. But for me, it was almost perfect.
I think the only thing that I didn’t find perfect was (spoiler alert…) that they didn’t announce a winner. They announced the final three, and I was very happy with the three who got through – I thought it was a good choice. But they made a point of not announcing the winner. I thought that was a shame, but it didn’t take away too much from the show.
Would I recommend The Great British Bake Off musical
I’d definitely recommend The Great British Bake Off musical to anyone who’s a fan of the TV show. And to anyone who’s a fan of cheesy, happy, heart-warming musicals. I’m a massive fan of both of these things, and I absolutely loved it. Check out the dates and tickets here.