First produced in Austria in 1971, Georg Kreisler's show takes the form of a concert as Lola Blau, a Marlene Dietrich-type Jewish cabaret singer, returns to her native Vienna to sing 21 years after she fled Nazi-occupied Europe and discovers that anti-Semitism is still very much alive.
In Mark Tinkler's anaemic production it is a pleasant enough 75 minutes of smoky torch songs and satirical interludes, but pleasant is not what Kreisler's songs need. The subject demands passion and rage. Only at the end, as Lola slyly condemns all those who failed to notice the disappearance of six million Jews and confronts the audience with its prejudices, does the show suddenly catch fire.
But, when the BBC have just reported that 60% of young Britons under the age of 35 have never heard of Auschwitz, any show that reminds us of what happened is important, and Kreisler's mordantly beautiful songs are juxtaposed with overhead projections that provide hard facts. As Morag McLaren's Lola launches into The Show Must Go On, the projections show the harassment of Jews in the run up to Kristillnacht in 1938; and when she gets her visa to the US and sings Miracles Can Happen, the scene is undercut by details of the fate of the thousands of Austrian Jews who were sent to their deaths. The Americans don't get off lightly either: by 1943 the visa application form for emigration to the US was four-feet long.
This is such a simple show and it has powerful potential. But McLaren's Lola is unconvincing as an international star feted on Broadway and in Hollywood, and the whole evening is too timid and afraid to offend to be really moving.
· Until January 30. Box office: 0870 033 2733.
