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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...

Brief awakenings: White Rose The Musical @MaryleboneTHLDN

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A fascinating and daring act of defiance in Nazi Germany by a group of university students in Munich is given a slightly perplexing rock musical treatment in White Rose, the musical. Something seems amiss in this earnest and occasionally tuneful show. It lags more than it inspires, which is surprising given the tragic and compelling history of the real-life characters the show depicts. Given that young people are increasingly likely to vote for far-right parties across Europe, it’s an opportunity to look at a time when they had a different perspective on the future. Perhaps something has been lost in the translation or the larger space of the Marylebone Theatre where it plays. 

The White Rose were a group of university students in Munich who sought to undermine the Third Reich through publication of a series of pamphlets urging passive resistance to the Nazi regime. Over a brief period between June 1942 and February 1943, they distributed their pamphlets across campus using whatever means necessary. Their pamphlets were a frank and direct appeal to the German people to resist the regime. When caught, they were subject to a show trial and executed by guillotine.

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The songs in the show attempt to capture the mood of the young students in the piece. It feels like a Spring Awakening for the undergraduate generation. While some may find that this slows the action, this is not necessarily bad. The performances, particularly by Collette Guitart and Tobias Turley as Sophie and Hans Scholl, are also admirable. 

But too often, the characterisation is two-dimensional, which kills the dramatic tension. While most shows about the Second World War staged in London seem to do the same, that doesn’t mean they are particularly watchable. And given how intriguing the real-life stories of the characters were and how their attempts to appeal to others got under the regime’s skin, it seems like a missed opportunity. 

The somewhat generous space of the Marylebone Theatre may not help here either, as you feel detached from the action that a more intimate space would not allow you to do. 

Directed by Will Nunziata, White Rose The Musical is at the Marylebone Theatre until 13 April. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Photos by Marc Brenner


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