It couldn’t have been a worse start to Marylebone Theatre’s new musical White Rose about some anti-Hitler activists from the University of Munich who spoke out about the Nazi regime in the 1940s.  Some talented singers were left floundering trying to put this musical across despite dialogue and lyrics that were inadequate and direction which seemed completely lacking.  The other tragedy is that it wasn’t so bad that it became amusing like the musical in The Producers or the inexorable Florence Foster Jenkins.

Yes, it would seem the right moment to promote productions about dictatorial regimes, some of them voted into power and it is true that we know very little about resistance, within Germany itself from the German people under Hitler.  But White Rose just isn’t ready for an audience. 
Too often the cast stood in a motionless row and sang loudly at us. They looked as unhappy as we were. 

The core of the story is two students Sophie Stoll (Collette Guitart) and her elder brother Hans Scholl (Tobias Turley) come to university in Munich. With the quiet support of an academic, their lecturer Kurt Huber (Mark Wilshire) they publish leaflets encouraging others to resist the Nazis.  Many of these leaflets were reproduced and circulated far across Germany.  The group called themselves White Rose.  They are eventually caught and guillotined. 

Some of the men join the army feeling life as soldiers is a better choice for them but when they return to Munich, one actually says, “Now we’re back at uni . . .”    It is very sad for me to write such a negative review but let’s hope everyone learns from this experience.