ajhlovestheatre

WHITE ROSE

Book and lyrics by Brian Belding 

Music by Natalie Brice

directed by Will Nunziata

Marylebone Theatre, London – until 13 April  2025

running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes including interval

https://www.marylebonetheatre.com/productions/white-rose-the-musical

This off-Broadway tuner tells the true story of a collective of students and intellectuals who called themselves The White Rose and campaigned bravely and indefatigably against the Nazis in 1940s Munich. It’s a fascinating and inspiring tale that ends in tragedy but points up the importance of resistance and upholding truth to power. It undoubtedly speaks to the world we are living in now, but whether it’s really a suitable subject for the rock musical treatment – or at least THIS rock musical treatment which gets bogged down in superfluous songs and earnest but undramatic exposition – is a question. 

The juxtaposition of historical timeframe and contemporary(ish) music worked fine for Spring Awakening and Hamilton, so why doesn’t this hang together? For starters, there’s the script. Brian Belding’s book presents young Sophie Scholl heading to Munich to visit her brother Hans, who has an unfortunate history as  a member of the Nazi Youth movement before seeing the light (cue a relentless guilt ridden bombast ballad performed with considerable power by Tobias Turley) and becoming a passionate political resister and agitator, in a succession of low key scenes that occasionally explode into dramatic fireworks. Not often enough though and there is insufficient sense of urgency or danger in Will Nunziata’s sluggish production which shuffles the cast aimlessly on and off during scene breaks but never builds up any dramatic momentum.

While one wouldn’t expect a musical with important and serious themes and based on tragic facts to be a barrel of laughs, one would also not expect it to be so colourless and uninvolving. Natalie Brice’s songs sound heavily influenced by the aforementioned Sheik and Sater Tony winner and possibly Jonathan Larson, and while they’re moderately tuneful and occasionally rousing (the ‘We Will Not Be Silent’ finale chorale is genuinely affecting), they sound generic and don’t do much to propel or illuminate the action. Caitlin Morgan’s band sounds good and the voices are decent, and sometimes spectacular, but it all just feels a bit lacking in passion and originality. 

A show that takes itself this seriously runs the risk of tipping over into unintentional comedy as the electric guitars start wailing and the cast stare intensely into the middle distance while solemnly belting their faces off but, to the credit of everyone involved, that seldom happens here. Equally though, apart from the impressive last number, there’s never a moment of inspiration where you forcibly realise why the creatives thought this interesting story would make a decent musical.

Most of the cast do their best with what they’ve been given. Owen Arkrow finds some emotional heft in the young man traumatised by what he witnessed in the Warsaw ghetto and Danny Whelan, playing a youthful dad torn between the need to do what’s right and to provide for his young family, has a ringing rock tenor I’d like to hear let loose on more exciting material. TV’s Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream competition winner Turvey also has a lovely, rangy voice but doesn’t invest doomed Hans with much gravitas, though there’s not much in the writing to support him.

As his sister Sophie, ostensibly the central figure in the story, Collette Guitart, another strong singer, gives one of the most disengaged acting performances I’ve ever seen, barely registering anything beyond mild annoyance or possibly boredom, which seems an odd reaction when you’re battling actual fascism. She finds some real emotion near the end but the character is so unknowable up to this point that it’s impossible to get involved, and it doesn’t help that the number she and Turley are gamely warbling their way through when she turns the waterworks on, is entitled ‘Who Cares?’  Sadly, that rhetorical question pretty much sums up this well meaning but misguided offering.