Imagine This – New London Musical set in Poland
Imagine This – the musical
Imagine This is a new musical set in Poland which is moving to The New London Theatre in the West End after a very successful run at the Theatre Royal Plymouth. The musical will start previews on November 4th and opens on November 19th.
**Book Imagine This London Theatre Breaks **
Imagine This – the story
The story is set in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 Poland and follows the passions, relationships and courage of a troupe of actors staging a play to try to keep hope alive in their community. The story is very much about ordinary people forced by extraordinary circumstances into making heroic decisions.
The theatre director Daniel Warshowky persuades his closest family and friends to put on a play that will inspire the community and force them to imagine a world beyond Nazi domination. He bases the play on the classic Jewish story of the martyrs of Masada. Trapped in their stronghold on top of Masada almost 1000 Jews, with their leader Eleazar ben Yair chose to commit suicide rather than give in to the Romans.
The action moves between the two stories, that of the Ghetto players and the Masada play.
Despite the grim situation the musical is full of hope, energy and optimism. Surprisingly there is also lots of humour in such tragic circumstances.
Imagine This – the music
The score is by Shuki Levy, whose previous work seems to have been mostly for children’s TV. He wrote the themes for Power Rangers, Inspector Gadget and He Man Masters of the Universe . This didn’t seem too promising but then I realised I could still remember the tunes of all these 90s classics! On further investigation I found there are samples from the Plymouth production available on the web site and I have to admit I was favourably impressed. The music is described as soaring and uplifting and from what I’ve heard that’s accurate. Juke box musical this is not! I suspect if you like the music from Marguerite you’ll like this.
The lyrics are by David Goldsmith who has worked with Levy before.
Imagine This – the cast
A full cast list for Imagine This has not yet been announced but so far we only know that Peter Polycarpou will carry on from the Plymouth production. Stephen Ashfield is unlikely to appear as he’s now in Jersey Boys and Annette McLaughlin seems to have other commitments as well.
All I can say is WOW. Just got back home having heard this today. I’ve not seen anything like this since Willy Russel revoloutionised realism back in ‘83 with Blood Blood Brothers.
The show’s a real treat for theatre boughins such as myself, a play within a play, it’s so simple, yet so affective. Total Stanovlaskian influences clearly seen in the main show, but with great thunderous lumps of Brechtian and Naturalist influence thrown in here and there, especially in the Masada scenes.
The singing was fantastic, the music – mesmorising, acting 10/10.
Absolute 5 stars, the director and writers are blatently geniuses. A must see for anyone who likes theatre.
And Pompee from Pompeii is probably the best character in history, I cried!
Once again, a must see, a greatful audience with a standing ovation, and an even more greatful cast for said reception.