WHITE ROSE

Marylebone Theatre

★★

“the prophesy of doom should be more inherent in the performances rather than the dressing”

There is no denying that “White Rose: The Musical” comes to the stage with a pertinency that it may not have held when it first premiered Off-Broadway a year ago. Its powerful premise is built around a group of young activists defying an authoritarian regime – one in which rights are stolen, one by one, under a state system presided over by criminals. The setting is, however, Munich in 1943 and the musical focuses on a group of students who stood up to Hitler. They put their lives on the line as they formed the White Rose resistance movement to challenge oppression and propaganda, distributing leaflets at immense risk to themselves. There are echoes of Hans Fallada’s 1947 novel ‘Every Man Dies Alone’ (adapted into the 2016 feature film ‘Alone in Berlin’), and the complexity of the real-life narrative offers a goldmine of raw material. Brian Belding’s book chips away at the surface without really getting its hands dirty; the result being a show that lacks depth, peopled by similarly shallow characters.

At its heart are siblings Hans (Tobias Turley) and Sophie (Collette Guitart) Scholl. Hans is the overprotective brother, ashamed of his former allegiance to the Hitler Youth. Sophie spends much time resisting her brother’s safeguarding nature – until she eventually persuades him to accept and join in with her cause. The dialogue treats the whole affair like a high school romp, and we never get a sense of danger, despite shadowed, moody SS officers occasionally watching over them. A side plots involves Lila (Charley Robbie) who runs a print shop and helps with the printing of the leaflets. A young Nazi officer, Frederick Fischer (Ollie Wray) spends a lot of time with the oppositionists. Being an old schoolmate of Hans and ex-lover of Sophie’s, he also spends much time in a state of confusion, repeatedly removing and replacing his swastika armband. Such meandering motives are indicative of Belding’s book and lyrics and Natalie Brice’s music. The score belongs to another show entirely. Led by an even mix of guitar chugging, mid-tempo pop and searing ballads, it is jarringly detached from the setting and from the themes of the story. Following each number there is a palpable dip in energy, during which the dialogue never matches the passion of the singing.

Director Will Nunziata fares as well as he can with the stuttering structure of the narrative but suffers from a lack of variation in character. There is little build up to the symbolic and climactic gesture of hurling leaflets out into the audience: an act of defiance that mirrors the real life-threatening events (Hans and Sophie flung them from the balcony onto their fellow students). The horrific events the show presents are ill-served by simplistic exposition that dampens the emotional clout. The performances are solid but miss the trick of reaction. Often – particularly during the solo musical numbers – the onstage cast seem to be assessing an audition piece at the end of a long day.

Despite an overall lack of presence, we are occasionally drawn into the characters’ plight. But the hook is not strong enough for us to make the plunge. There are moments when the depth and the gravity is glimpsed, and Justin Williams’ evocative design sets the tone, depicting a ravaged Munich, along with Alex Musgrave’s suggestive lighting. But the prophesy of doom should be more inherent in the performances rather than the dressing. This story should definitely be told – it is not just a poignant reminder of the past, but an urgent alarm call that the past has a habit of repeating itself. Unlike its protagonists – the show seems unsure whether to deliver its message. Or whether to be entertainment. The two can (and do) easily co-exist, but “White Rose: The Musical” doesn’t find that harmony.

WHITE ROSE

Marylebone Theatre

Reviewed on 4th March 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Marc Brenner

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ANNE FRANK | ★★★★ | October 2024

THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR | ★★★★ | May 2024

THE DREAM OF A RIDICULOUS MAN | ★★★★ | March 2024

A SHERLOCK CAROL | ★★★★ | November 2023

THE DRY HOUSE | ★★½ | April 2023

WHITE ROSE

★★★★

“This is a jaunty and compassionate production”

The confetti thrown in good cheer remains on the stage long after the wedding is over and the marriage has fallen apart in writer Chris Bush’s personal exploration of otherness and identity.

The reason for the break-up is not a dark secret revealed. Harry (Fizz Sinclair) has never hidden her yearning to escape her male body and Jo (Jade Anouka) – as a place-holder response – has always declared an attraction to women, so what’s the problem?

The writer calls on her own experiences coming out as trans to inform a script rich with frail humanity, grief and laughter.

One of the joys of director Ann Yee’s production is the four-strong chorus (Danielle Fiamanya, Laura Hanna, Beth Hinton-Lever and Serena Manteghi). They provide a sumptuous cacophony of well-calibrated, well-meaning voices, while occasionally bursting into snippets of siren song.

They become the friends who judge-don’t-judge the former golden couple. They are the bumptious official who can’t understand why the paperwork doesn’t tally, the fertility doctor with grim news, the HR woman tiptoeing around preferred toilet arrangements.

With a brisk and delightful energy, these vignettes of love, confusion and bureaucracy spill and elide and crash into one other. At pace, Jo goes crazy, drops out, and finds new love up a mountain with Gabby (a hoot, as played by Amanda Wilkin). Harry drifts aimlessly in a twilight world, not one thing or another.

On a rare trip out Harry is harassed by a man at a railway station. She is ill-equipped to cope, having no hinterland, and feels the experience “violating and validating”. Her girlfriends ask why she would opt for all that, the burden of the female sex, as if it were a lifestyle choice. Even then, Harry can’t join them on a protest march against gender violence because it’s not her story. Meanwhile, her exasperated mother (Jackie Clune) suggests she might like to switch back for a family wedding because “it’s not all about you”.

Jade Anouka and Fizz Sinclair perform wonders in their roles. Anouka is a bundle of nervous energy – and a devil on the dancefloor – while Sinclair carries a certain pained stillness, facing upheaval with the stoicism of necessity.

The end of the first act leaves both partners facing monstrous change. Jo is reluctantly pregnant and Harry about to pursue an irreversible course of hormones.

The beginning of the second act goes somewhere else entirely. They become literal monsters. We are in a fever dream cocoon where the misfits come to resolve themselves.

In a somewhat jarring sequence, Jo becomes a robot with a baby-filled silver cloche for a belly. She is alien to Gabby and to herself. Harry, thrashing in the shallows, is a fish-woman, caught in the net of some 18th century natural philosopher and put on show for the gawpers and prodders. While visually striking, it is an odd excursion, and we particularly feel the absence of Anouka’s jittery powerhouse presence. When they return to themselves, it’s a relief.

This is a jaunty and compassionate production, brilliantly designed and lit (Fly Davis and Anna Watson) and elevated by crisp direction and staging. The cast captures the glorious mess and majesty of change with impish relish and the production does an important job giving character to a story frequently lost to ranting headlines.

Chris Bush says this play has been a decade in the making and a lifetime in the preparation. Fortunately, no-one else has to wait that long.

Tag Archives: Marc Brenner

WHITE ROSE

★★

Marylebone Theatre

WHITE ROSE

Marylebone Theatre

★★

“the prophesy of doom should be more inherent in the performances rather than the dressing”