It's happened: Imagine This, the West End musical set in the Warsaw ghetto, has finally hit the buffers, it was announced this afternoon. It will finish its run prematurely at the New London Theatre on December 20.
Its producer, however, has put the show's failure down to the critics and to hostile previews written before journalists had seen the show. In a statement, Beth Trachtenberg said: "Night after night we have seen audiences stirred to the depths of their emotions by this show. Fundamentally I do not think the critics should be making a moral judgment over the subject matter and moreover that they are generally not prepared to embrace musicals. I've witnessed the public's response to the show that is directly opposed to a narrow-minded critical belief that musicals are limited in their emotional impact and ability to deal with meaningful subject matter in a powerful and sensitive manner. I am enormously proud of Imagine This and of the wonderful cast and crew."
Wishful thinking? I admit I have not seen the show; a friend who has said to me, "It wouldn't matter that it was about the Holocaust if it were any good as a musical." Critical reactions have included Michael Billington's two-star review, which said: "If this show ultimately fails, it is not for want of trying, but because of the obvious discrepancy between form and content: the uplift inherent in the musical sits uneasily with a story that involves not just heroic resistance, but also starvation, suffering and the death of more than 100,000 Polish Jews." That was echoed by the Standard's Nicholas de Jongh, who wrote: "The closing number of Imagine This sprays the wasteland of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, from which thousands of starving, penned-in Jews were deported for extermination in far-away gas chambers, with the glucose balm of optimism and romantic fantasy." The Independent damned with a soundbite. "Makes Springtime for Hitler look like The Sound of Music," wrote Michael Coveney.
No one doubts the hard work and dedication of the actors and creative team. Spare a thought for folk laid off just before Christmas.
