Holocaust musical 'will inspire' audiences

[revision]

Holocaust musical 'will inspire' audiences

A musical about the Holocaust is being planned for the West End stage, which the director claims will inspire audiences.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Last Updated: 7:47AM BST 09 Oct 2008



Imagine This director Tim Sheader promised that audiences would not emerge from the musical depressed, but enthused Photo: ALISTAIR MUIR


A brave theatre company has decided now is just the time to launch such a production on the West End stage.

Imagine This, about a group of amateur actors who put on a show in the Warsaw ghetto to keep their spirits up, opens at the New London Theatre on November 19 following previews from November 4.

Director Tim Sheader said he hoped Imagine This would follow in the footsteps of Les Misérables.

He promised that audiences would not emerge from the musical depressed, but enthused.

"It's about humanity – human beings on a precipice facing impossible decisions. Hopefully people will cry at the end of it – people should be inspired by it," he said. "If people have gone to see Les Mis they should go and see this."

While he said Imagine This "aspired" to reach such lofty heights, he added it would be "foolish" to make such a claim before it had come to the stage.
Sheader, who is the new artistic director of the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park, admitted the economic crisis would not make things easy for the production: "Economically times are very hard, we are under no illusions."

Peter Polycarpou, who was an original cast member of Les Misérables and played the title role in The Phantom of the Opera, will take the lead role of Daniel Warshowsky. He is the head of a family of actors who has to convince the ghetto community that a simple play is worth performing when they are fighting for survival.

Leila Benn-Harris, whose West End credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Fame and Evita, will play his daughter Rebecca who falls in love with resistance fighter Adam, played by former Neighbours and EastEnders actor Simon Gleeson.

Imagine This is being produced in London by FineFish Entertainment and ICW Productions in association with the Theatre Royal Plymouth, where an earlier version was produced in July 2007.

Those involved in the production will be hoping that it is not cursed by its venue.

Gone With the Wind, starring Pop Idol contender Darius Danish and directed by the esteemed Sir Trevor Nunn, lasted just 79 performances at the 1,100-seater Drury Lane theatre before closing in June, more than three months early.