Peter Polycarpou in Imagine This
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Review Round-up: Will New London Imagine a Hit?

Critics got their first view of the new so-called “Holocaust musical” Imagine This last night (19 November 2008, previews from 4 November) at the West End’s New London Theatre (See Today's 1st Night Photos), returning to the venue where they so mercilessly assailed Trevor Nunn’s Gone With the Wind earlier in the year (See Review Round-Up, 23 Apr 2008).

First seen in a tryout last summer at the Theatre Royal Plymouth, Imagine This, which is currently booking until 28 February 2009, revolves around a group of Polish actors in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 who stage plays to inspire hope and optimism within the Jewish community. However, with rumours of the Final Solution in the air, their play merges with the reality they are trying to escape and a dramatic love story unfolds.

Imagine This has music by Shuki Levy, lyrics by David Goldsmith and a book by Glenn Berenbeim. It’s directed by Open Air artistic director Timothy Sheader and designed by Eugene Lee, who won both a Tony and a Whatsonstage.com Award for Wicked, with choreography by DV8’s Liam Steel. The principal West End cast features Leila Ben Harris, Simon Gleeson and Peter Polycarpou, who reprises his role from the Plymouth run (See News, 26 Aug 2008).

For most overnight critics, the attempt of Imagine This to find hope in the Holocaust was beyond the stretch of their collective imaginations. This morning’s reviews contained an almost universal theme – that despite director Timothy Sheader’s best efforts and some “valiant” performances from the cast, the show hit a dud note due to its “historically false” and “morally dubious” depiction of the Warsaw ghetto. There were some positives amid the gloom, notably the “stoic dignity” of Polycarpou and the “soaring anthems” of Levy and Goldsmith (even if their “trivial” lyrics came in for some heavy criticism). But overall it looks as if the New London is suffering a serious case of déjà vu.

Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (two stars) – “I am afraid a bad-taste warning needs to be attached to this unfortunate new musical. The talented director Timothy Sheader and his team of ardent, forceful actors and dancers are not to blame. They struggle valiantly to rise above the offensively banal, soft-pop music that limps in train with the fatuities and ineptitude of David Goldsmith’s trivial lyrics … An attempt is made to raise audience morale, encouraging people to leave the theatre in a modestly feelgood state. Yet to strike these musical notes of defiance is historically false … It would have been more dramatic though if Imagine This had concentrated upon Warsaw and had removed the unconvincing plot-line that involves Peter Polycarpou’s authoritative Jewish leader in a campaign to convince his actors they should kill themselves rather than become Nazi stooges. In any case, the music and songs of Imagine This never do justice to its terrifying theme.”

- by Theo Bosanquet

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Booking Tickets & Show Listings
	Imagine This Listing Page

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	Imagine This - 20th Nov 2008 reviews

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