Created by Brian Belding, composed by Natalie Rice and directed by Will Nunziata, White Rose: The Musical, which tells the story of the University of Munich students who led a non-violent resistance against the Nazi Regime, now premieres as a two act musical off-West End after it’s successful off-Broadway run as a one act musical.
I went in with next to no expectations and knew of the historical group, but by and large, I knew very little. It took a few minutes for the production to find its feet which may be just a result of the production not being long open but Owen Arkrow as Willi Graf’s emotional depiction of a PTSD flashback during ‘I Don’t Care’ really set everything into motion.
Never has a mid-Act 1 song moved me tears like Tobias Turley as Hans Scholl’s ‘The Sheep Chose a Wolf’ did. Not only was it an absolutely incredible performance, but the song resonated with me so much in how the people can become so disillusioned by a leader’s promises and words, yet the people are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter.
Act 2 felt quite fast compared to Act 1, but was incredibly emotional. Danny Whelan as Christoph Probst’s ‘Fatherhood’ was phenomenal and once again I was very moved. Collette Guitart and Tobias Turley’s performance of ‘Who Cares?’ was incredibly powerful and their depiction of Sophie and Hans’s sibling relationship was wonderful. The papers being thrown into the audience was such an incredible moment and the papers themselves are absolutely worth picking up as they expand on the actual story with excerpts from the White Rose leaflets and the production’s hope “to inspire people to learn more”.
“Someone will learn about what we tried to do, what we did.”
World War II had always made up a large part of my History education and I think for good reason. At age 9-10, I was taught of the horrific oppression of the Jews leading up to the start of the war, and the mass extermination during the war. At 13-15, we examined Hitler’s rise to power in which we briefly touched upon the resistance groups such as the Edelweiss Pirates and the White Rose where I learnt the names of Hans and Sophie Scholl, Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, and Kurt Huber and what they did. I think at that age I wasn’t quite able to appreciate how much guts and bravery it takes to stand up to an entire regime and go against your Government when you appear to just be a few people. It’s an incredible and inspiring story that shouldn’t be forgotten and this production has done it justice.
“We need soldiers, not students”
Now more that ever we need students. It was scary how incredibly current and relevant the whole production felt in today’s political climate. As a piece of art, this was incredibly thought provoking and for something that was about a movement that happened over 80 years ago, it’s extremely important today. Having your ideas challenged and being exposed to different ideas especially under an oppressive regime couldn’t be more necessary and is a fact that we must not forget in these coming years.
The entire cast was so strong and delivered such incredible performances. The core cast of the White Rose were absolutely astounding with such incredible voices and such moving performances. They all had such great chemistry and such believable dynamics.
Before watching, I did question as to whether it was necessary to make a piece about a historical event a musical, but the music and songs were incredible and completely elevated the story and brought so much more emotion into it. I do really hope that we will get a full cast recording of the two act version of the production as the extended and additional songs are wonderful.
The story, of course, is not a completely accurate biography with details omitted, changed and added but there is a lot of care and passion within this to the original event. However, certain choices made were odd such as Hans’s repeated attitude changes within this, whereas historically he had been distributing leaflets for a fair amount of time before Sophie joined them.
The dialogue felt a bit stilted and unnatural in places and on a whole it has a bit of an amateurish feel. This is not the sort of production that could be on a level as other historical musicals such as ‘Hamilton’, but for what it is, I think it’s a story worth telling. Although it could definitely be reworked to make it more coherent in places and help the story flow better.
Overall, this made for a relatively compelling and moving story within its own right that is unbelievably relevant in this present day and age, despite that over 80 years have passed since it happened.
White Rose: The Musical is playing at the Marylebone Theatre until the 13th of April.
All photos used are taken by Marc Brenner – All credits and rights belong to him. All his photos for the White Rose production can be viewed below and more of his photos can be found on his website.
Beyond The Fourth Wall 