Review: White Rose - The Musical (Marylebone Theatre)

Review by Daz Gale

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Marylebone Theatre has gone from strength to strength since launching in 2022 with productions there receiving critical acclaim, including recent hit What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank which was nominated for an Oliver Award on the day I attended their latest offering, White Rose. Where they have been known for a reliable source of home for plays, this marks the first musical staged there. Would White Rose plant the seeds for a blossoming new avenue for the theatre, or would it wilt away?

Having received its off-Broadway premiere earlier this year, White Rose: The Musical quickly crosses the Atlantic for its UK premiere. Based on the inspiring true story of a group of university students in Munich who wrote, printed and distributed leaflets in a bid to expose Hitler’s lies and Nazi deception. Front and centre in the group are brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl who lead the White Rose resistance group, but risk paying the ultimate sacrifice in doing so.

White Rose boasts a supremely talented cast in what is undoubtedly the best aspect of the production. Collette Guitart is an absolute star in the making and this is demonstrated in her turn as Sophie Scholl mostly through her singing ability, belting for dear life in material that never quite matches her own talents. No stranger to close relationships with people called Sophie on stage, Tobias Turley showcases his immense strengths as a performer as Hans, with his dream-like vocals soaring to new heights on the standout musical number ‘The Sheep Chose A Wolf’. Together, the pair work magic lifting the more questionable aspects of the musical in a true testament to their talents as performers.

Sadly, that is where the positives end as White Rose felt extremely confused and under-developed in a production that was baffling at best and frustrating at worst. There are several attributing factors to this all of which share the responsibility for the production never landing with the desired impact.

The writing though admirable in its attempt to tell this true story and bring atrocities from our history to life never quite finds the right way to do this, struggling to connect or land any sort of emotional weight. The writing suffers from having too many various strands introduced throughout and never spending the time or care on any of them. By the time one of the characters sings an entire song about being a father, I struggled to understand the significance after the seeds had not been sewn previously and, of course, was never mentioned again following the filler musical number. Similarly, characters come and go throughout – sometimes never seen again and some reappearing after some considerable time. This is a case of “less is more” – had the focus been on less characters rather than attempting to give every single one a back-story, we could have seen a handful of three-dimensional characters as opposed to what we have here which is a lot of one-dimensional ones.

The music fares slightly better than the dialogue though proves inconsistent throughout. Opening number ‘Munich’ gets things off to a strong start, resulting in a powerful finish, but that standard is rarely matched in the numbers that follow. While a handful of decent numbers feature, such as the aforementioned ‘The Sheep Chose A Wolf’ and a stunning ballad ‘The Stars’, expertly performed by a woefully underused Charley Robbie, others prove forgettable, lacking in identity with flawed structures and some truly questionable lyrics, particularly in the clunky ‘Truth’. By the time the climactic musical number ‘Who Cares?’ is performed, I found myself asking that very same question – not something I expect to ask in a show that explores such an important part of our history.

Other aspects of the production prove inconsistent – though Justin Williams’ set design sets an atmospheric backdrop, it is let down by lighting that doesn’t play to the strengths of the design and sometimes leaves the cast in darkness. Sound is similarly tricky here, perhaps due to the theatre not being used to hosting musicals but it doesn’t quite connect. There has also been no thought to sound accompanying dialogue, resulting in awkward silence that lacks any sort of atmosphere and again speaks of how under-developed White Rose feels.

The biggest problem in White Rose and the main reason why this show doesn’t land in the way it should is down to the direction, or should I say, lack of direction. Watching the show, I got the sense the cast had been left on their own, attempting to make sense of the story without any real direction – or if they had received some, they had been given some pretty poor advice. Pacing issues, too many prolonged pauses and a complete lack of emotional weight are chiefly to blame in direction that completely eradicates all the promise White Rose has. An overuse of Nazis appearing behind a character lost any sense of impact on the umpteenth time this happened, while what should have been an incredibly powerful moment at the end of the show involving the cast throwing White Rose leaflets into the audience loses any sense of power due to the fact this had happened five minutes earlier. I don’t want to ever accuse somebody of being the wrong person for the job but I couldn’t help but feel how much stronger this production would be if it had been in someone else’s hands.

This isn’t a case of one person being chiefly responsible for White Rose not quite delivering as there are several factors that all contribute to it. There is a huge amount of potential with this show, as seen by how brilliantly the cast make magic out of mere breadcrumbs. However, this is a show in need of a lot of work if it ever wants to do justice to the story it is attempting to tell. Though not completely irredeemable and with moments of promise, as a musical it is currently too incohesive and in desperate need of further development.

White Rose: The Musical plays at Marylebone Theatre until 13th April.  Tickets from www.whiterosethemusical.com

Photos by Marc Brenner