EMMA RICE’S swansong as artistic director at London’s Globe Theatre was this show and it’s been resurrected by her new company Wise Children at Bristol Old Vic before touring the US.

Based on French film Les Emotifs Anonymes, Romantics Anonymous follows the painfully shy chocolate savant Angelique, who finds love and fulfilment with Jean-Rene, the socially paralysed owner of a failing chocolate factory.

The production has many of Rice’s trademark touches. Never rushed and predominantly gentle, the show unfolds with a clarity and simplicity that has real charm and style as the Breton-shirted, beret-wearing chorus generate a humorous Parisian appeal.

They take centre stage as the highly comic and socially inept self-help group Romantics Anonymous, with audience interaction and a gentle challenge to social conventions and expectations also part of a recognisable mix.

The four-piece band, above a typical French-style building of ornate ironwork and luminescent signs, plays a number of catchy tunes while Christopher Dimond’s witty lyrics carry the heartwarming story along.

Carly Bawden as Angelique is an appealingly reluctant heroine, forced into the limelight by her secret talent. As the cripplingly awkward Jean-Rene, Marc Antolin generates amusement and sympathy in equal measure as he copes with business and love.

But, typical of Rice’s productions, other roles provide many of the comic high points, whether it is the ridiculously flamboyant master chef, the operatic diva businesswoman or the mumbling, anorak-clad member of the chorus covering for Angelique as chocolate guru.

A liberated aerial finale, as the two lovers choose their own path may be familiar, but it’s no poorer for not ploughing any new furrows.

Like the chocolate product at the heart of this enchanting musical, there is a reassuringly familiar sweetness to this show, made memorable by a slight bitterness.

Runs until February 1, box office: bristololdvic.org.uk.