White Rose: The Musical highlights the true story of a group of students who resisted Hitler at the height of his power in Germany. It is an inspiring example of courage and idealism that clearly resonates with the current political situation. Sophie Scholl and her brother, Hans, are at the centre of a group of students who are later joined by their professor, Kurt Huber, and other dissidents. They also have the sympathy of Sophie's former beau, Frederick Fischer, who is now a policeman. The characters are only sketched in and the various subplots are left underdeveloped. Two of the more interesting of these revolve around Fischer's failed relationship with Sophie and her brother and his feud with Huber about his expulsion from the university, but both are only touched on. The focus is on Sophie, and while her unwavering conviction is admirable, it does not make for a character who is very dramatically interesting. Focusing on her more conflicted followers and what eventually led them to make their heroic decisions might have made for a more thematically interesting piece of theatre, but the story relentlessly concentrates on the one-dimensional Sophie. The cast do a fine job of creating their basic characters, but as far as the musical side of things go, the unnecessarily percussive arrangement of the score robs it of much of its subtlety, and of most of its interest. A couple of the ballads, such as "Fatherhood," are touching and the anthem, "We Will Not Be Silent" is somewhat rousing, but it doesn't meet the Les Misérables' standard, even though the latter was about a revolution that no one remembers. White Rose: The Musical deals with real courage in a real situation, but in the final analysis, it doesn't manage to shape its material into a theatrically satisfying form.
Rated: ★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Marc Brenner
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