Review: White Rose: The Musical, Marylebone Theatre

I’m not much of a historian, but I do enjoy hearing little-known stories from the edges of seismic world events: those human-sized tales that help to bring perspective to things that sometimes feel too immense in scale to properly comprehend.

White Rose: The Musical is the true story of how a group of German students at Munich University during the Second World War saw the truth of Hitler’s warped ideology and attempted to breed resistance in their countrypeople by publishing dissenting leaflets under the banner of White Rose. We don’t often hear this side of the conflict – the usual narrative is that of the Allied battle against the Nazis, not the brave efforts of Germans in opposition to their own leaders.

The plot revolves around brother and sister Hans and Sophie Schull. Sophie is an insistently rebellious voice from the outset – dangerously so – and she remains stridently defiant throughout. With Hans and fellow students Willi and Christoph (all “good moral people” as an early song frames them) they attempt to undermine the Nazis.

Some complexity is added to this straightforwardly upright crew by Hans’ prior dalliance with the notorious Hitler Youth, and Sophie’s former beau Frederick, who is now a policeman – no better than the Gestapo, we’re told, though he tries valiantly to balance loyalty to his office with duty to his conscience. As the war progresses, the White Rose continues to anonymously publish essays urging ordinary Germans to act against the regime that contorts their nation by any act of resistance they can manage.

Director Will Nunziata makes effective use of the Marylebone Theatre’s generous stage, evocatively dressed in designer Justin Williams’ split-level set.

Interesting though the story is, the book and lyrics (Brian Belding) are rather simplistic and on the nose, and the performances – though sincere – feel distinctly light, as if the production itself is tinged with a naïve hope that it can achieve something profound just by believing it.

A four-piece band serves up composer Natalie Brice’s soft rock songs: the guitar crashes and chugs, the piano tinkles… and I was left wishing the serious subject matter was being presented through a more sophisticated musical lens than this sub-Wicked collection of well-meaning ballads. There’s a powerful solo from Charley Robbie as Jewish bookseller Lila, and a last-minute attempt to provide a rousing “we will not be silenced” finale, but overall I wasn’t convinced the legacy of the heroic White Rose was being honoured in quite the way it deserved to be.

Book/lyrics by: Brian Belding
Music by: Natalie Brice
Directed by: Will Nunziata
Produced by: Sam Houlihan, Samuel Biondolillo, Jeff Laurinaitis

White Rose plays at Marylebone Theatre until Sunday 13 April.