In a world that feels increasingly challenging and beset by dictatorship, the story of Sophie and Hans Scholl seems to feel very timely. White Rose is a new musical based on that story.
With book/lyrics by Brian Belding and music by Natalie Brice, White Rose comes to London’s Marylebone Theatre from a run Off-Broadway.
With a cast of eleven bringing a range of characters (real and fictional) into the story, there’s potential for a deep dive into a story of resilience, bravery, and injustice.
The set design (by Justin Williams) is a curious choice suggesting cellar walls on either side of the stage with an underused large area in between topped with a platform where Nazi soldiers occasionally stand and watch.
Sophie Scholl (Collette Guitart) is back in Munich to start philosophy classes at university. She is the only woman represented there (a fact that means in one scene she is painfully exposed to the Third Reich tirade of the duties women owe to the men, willing or not).
With her brother Hans (Tobias Turley) and some student friends, she takes the lead on a resistance group called The White Rose, who publish leaflets recommending civil disobedience and highlighting Germany’s wartime atrocities.
The story here on stage is simplified to a point that characters remain frustratingly underwritten. One suddenly develops a conscience about the impact on his three children after never having mentioned them before. Another reveals a secret identity that feels simply unbelievable (named for a real person, the character is a composite one).
There were definite sound problems last night, with some dialogue hard to follow. Tonal shifts to accommodate songs jarred with the action on more than one occasion, and the songs felt unfinished and sometimes off-key. If this was a deliberate choice, it was a curious one.
The cast do what they can with a musical that struggles to bloom enough for an audience to connect with it. With little back story, even for Sophie, who deserves a lot better, it is hard to feel a sense of danger for her or even admire her fortitude and singlemindedness.
Political plays and musicals can and should be intense, passionate, and educational. They can and should be inspirational, emotional, and accurate when dealing with real stories. White Rose feels cluttered and slow-paced while adding unneeded subplots.
One curious aspect of staging White Rose at the Marylebone Theatre is that it is based in the Rudolf Steiner Centre. As a leaflet within the programme tells us, a surviving member of the White Rose resistance group, Traute Lafrenz, took her inspiration from the works of Steiner.
You will not find Traute mentioned in this show. Nor will you find out how the group were eventually caught or see an accurate reenactment of the trial in which their fate was sealed before a word was spoken.
White Rose features Owen Arkrow, Danny Whelan, and Kurt Huber as the other resistance members, with Ollie Wrai, Charley Robbie, Danny Colligan, Thomas Sutcliffe, Millie Robins and Nathan Shaw making up the cast.
Despite the lacklustre direction of Will Nunziata, these performers capture odd moments that hint at a far better treatment of the material, and the lighting by Alex Musgrave adds occasional flashes of tension.
I take no pleasure in giving this 2 stars. It could and should have been so much better.
White Rose continues at Marylebone Theatre until 13 Apr with tickets here.
Image credit: Marc Brenner