Last updated: 15 November 2026. I saw The Pianist at Park Theatre on Friday 30 October 2026.
By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture
This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.
Cool Factor: 1/5
A friend of Jewish descent and I went to see The Pianist at Park Theatre in Finsbury Park. It is the world stage premiere of Wladyslaw Szpilman's memoir, adapted and directed by Thom Southerland, with Szpilman's own music set to new lyrics. The house was full. However, we left at the interval and did not go back, so everything I say about The Pianist at Park Theatre is about the first half only.
The score is for the half I saw, and for the fact that neither of us wanted to stay for the rest.
All my London theatre reviews are in one place, each with its Cool Factor score.
What is The Pianist at Park Theatre?
The Pianist is a new stage version of Szpilman's 1946 memoir about surviving the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. It is billed as a musical, although WhatsOnStage's Alun Hood describes it as closer to a play in which music is essential, narrated by Szpilman himself.
Thom Southerland, best known for Titanic the Musical, adapts and directs. Simon Lee, Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-time musical director, handles the arrangements and orchestrations. Daniel Krikler plays Szpilman, and Oliver Grant plays Hosenfeld, the German officer who helps him late in the story.
The production played a short run at Mayflower Studios in Southampton in September. It then opened at Park Theatre on 15 October, with a press night on 22 October, and runs until 28 November. According to Park Theatre, the running time is 130 minutes including an interval, with an age guide of 11+.
In his programme notes, as reported by Jewish News, Southerland calls it a story of "loss, hope, memory and ultimately survival". He has also said the show uses more than 30 of Szpilman's compositions.
It has been a long time since I saw Roman Polanski's film, and I have not read the memoir, so I came to the stage version fairly fresh.
Who was Wladyslaw Szpilman?
Szpilman was born in Sosnowiec in 1911 and became the house pianist at Polish Radio in 1935. In September 1939 he played the station's last live broadcast before it went off air, as German shells fell on Warsaw.
In 1940 the occupiers forced his family into the Warsaw Ghetto. His parents and siblings were later deported to Treblinka, and none of them survived. Szpilman escaped and hid across the city, helped by friends and fellow musicians. Towards the end, Wilm Hosenfeld, a German army officer, found him in a ruined building and brought him food.
Szpilman published his account in 1946 as Death of a City. Poland's communist authorities soon suppressed it, and English readers only got it in 1999, as The Pianist. Polanski's film followed in 2002. After the war Szpilman went back to Polish Radio, wrote about 500 songs and became known as "the Polish Gershwin". He died in 2000. Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison camp in 1952.
Park Theatre and the stage
Park Theatre sits on Clifton Terrace, a few minutes from Finsbury Park station. It has two spaces, Park200 and the studio, Park90. Its productions have earned seven Olivier nominations and nine West End transfers, according to the theatre.
The Pianist plays in Park200, a thrust stage with seats on three sides. It is a small room. We sat in the second row, facing the longest side of the stage, roughly in the middle.
Arriving on a Friday night
We took the Tube to Finsbury Park and walked the short distance to the theatre. On the way in we walked through Park Pizza. We didn't eat, but the pizzas looked fresh and well made.
The house was very full, and the audience was mainly older. Park Theatre has since added an extra matinee on Tuesday 24 November, so demand for The Pianist at Park Theatre has been strong.
The opening: a monologue and two pianists
The show opens with a monologue from Szpilman. On stage sits a grand piano, I think a baby grand, on a section of stage that moves. That moving section is the main device for changing scenes.
Krikler does not play the piano himself. Instead, a professional pianist in full black tie and tails does the playing. Park Theatre's cast list names him as Malcolm Forbes-Peckham, who is also the musical director. He has no lines, and as far as I could tell he stands in for Szpilman whenever the music plays. It was a bit hard to gauge at first.
Before the run, Krikler said the production celebrates Szpilman's compositions through "phenomenal live musicians and orchestrations". The musicians are capable, but splitting the lead between an actor who speaks and a pianist who plays took me out of the opening scenes while I worked out who was who.
The revolve stops
At one point the rotating section of stage under the piano broke. The performance stopped while the stage crew fixed it, and then it carried on. Because the revolve does so much of the scene-setting, nothing could move on until it was working again.
The family and the performances
Szpilman's parents are played by younger actors, Rosalind Ford and TJ Holmes, dressed up to look older. Krikler was fine as Szpilman, maybe better than the rest of the cast.
The main problem for me was how sincere the performance was. When the stage is smaller, the actors often seem to work much harder, and here it doesn't really work. It kept pushing me back to the feeling of watching am dram: fiction that wants you very badly to buy into it. On a story about the Warsaw Ghetto, that effort pulled my attention away from Szpilman and onto the acting.
The ghetto wall
There was some good stage work. Once the story establishes the Warsaw Ghetto, the upper part of the backdrop opens to reveal barbed wire on top of a wall. Andrzej Goulding designs the set and video, with lighting by Robbie Butler. It is a simple reveal, and it worked.
The music
It was hard to tell Szpilman's originals from the new arrangements. Above all, lots of the songs felt a little cheesy and not suited to something with a premise as serious as the Holocaust.
The production's case is that this was the music Warsaw hummed in the 1930s: café songs, radio hits and dance numbers. Park Theatre's own listing pitches it as the golden age of Jewish Warsaw, with warmth and wit. That is a fair aim. In practice, though, the songs felt vapid, and set hard against the subject matter they jarred rather than helped.
The interval
When the interval came, my friend and I just looked at each other and said, "shall we go?" My friend, who is of Jewish descent, was as ready to leave as I was. I think a couple of other pairs left too, though I can't be sure. It was a non-event.
Nothing in the first half made us want to come back for the second. The pacing was all over the place. The songs felt too light, then jarred against the darkness of the story. And the earnest, effortful acting kept reminding me I was watching a performance.
The Cable Street problem
I had many of the same issues with Cable Street, the musical about the 1936 stand against Oswald Mosley's fascists in the East End. I saw it during its first, smaller run at Southwark Playhouse in 2024, and I would have given it two stars.
My view is that Nazis and the far right don't make a good subject for a musical. The Sound of Music is the exception, and there they work as an undertone that builds tension rather than as the main act with their own songs. Making them a real spectre of fear is especially hard to do in a musical.
Clearly, many people loved Cable Street. It came back for a second Southwark run and then a bigger production at Marylebone Theatre in 2026. Maybe this is similar, and there is something in The Pianist at Park Theatre that I am not seeing. Many critics were far warmer than me: The Times called it an elegant stage drama, and London Theatre found it affecting. Maybe the second act turns it around, though I doubt it. I didn't see Act Two, the Hosenfeld scenes or the ending, so I can't say.
Szpilman's story beyond this production
None of this is a criticism of Szpilman's story itself, a first-hand account of surviving the Warsaw Ghetto and the destruction of the city. The book was suppressed in Poland, reached English readers more than 50 years after it was written, and then went round the world with the film. A stage version is a reasonable idea, and Southerland's focus on the music is a fair way to make it different from the film. My problem was with this production, not with the idea behind it. I'll be watching the film again, because it has been so long.
Who might The Pianist suit?
It is hard to recommend. It clearly draws an older crowd, and it may suit people who want to see a musical on a budget. Potentially, it could work for a school group of teenagers doing GCSE history, to help bring the period to life. However, it risks trivialising one of the most abysmal parts of history rather than humanising it.
Value for money and practical info
My friend and I paid £112 for two tickets, which for this felt like an absolute rip off. When I checked on 14 November, Park Theatre listed tickets at £72.50, and it releases £20 standing tickets every Thursday for the following week. Under-30s can get £10 tickets on selected seats, and Access members pay £18.50. Park Keeper members save 15% on up to eight tickets.
The theatre is at Clifton Terrace, Finsbury Park, N4 3JP. Evening shows start at 7.30pm, with 3pm matinees on Thursdays and Saturdays. Latecomers may not be admitted. Also, check the Arsenal fixtures before you go, because the area around Finsbury Park gets very busy on home match days.
For a stage musical about hard history that does land, my review of Pride at the National Theatre is a better bet for your evening.
See The Pianist dates at Park Theatre
The verdict
Cool Factor
★☆☆☆☆
1 out of 5
The Pianist at Park Theatre gets 1/5, Lame. The barbed wire reveal over the ghetto wall worked, and Krikler was fine in the lead. However, the pacing wandered, the songs felt too light for the Holocaust, and the effortful sincerity of the acting kept pushing me out of the story. We paid £112 for two tickets and left at the interval, and on the evidence of the first half I would not tell you to spend an evening on it. I probably need to stop ending up at musicals about mass death and cruelty.
FAQs
Is The Pianist at Park Theatre worth seeing?
Not on the strength of the first half, in my opinion. My friend and I left at the interval. Many press critics were far more positive, so if you loved the memoir or the film, you may feel differently.
How long is The Pianist at Park Theatre?
The running time is 130 minutes, including one interval.
How much are tickets for The Pianist?
When I checked on 14 November, Park Theatre listed tickets at £72.50, with £20 standing tickets released each Thursday, £10 tickets for under-30s on selected seats and £18.50 tickets for Access members. I paid £112 for two.
Is the stage show the same as the Polanski film?
No. Both come from Szpilman's memoir, but the stage version is a new adaptation by Thom Southerland built around Szpilman's own compositions with new lyrics.
Who plays Szpilman in The Pianist?
Daniel Krikler plays Szpilman. The piano is played live by Malcolm Forbes-Peckham, who is also the musical director.
Is The Pianist suitable for children?
Park Theatre gives an age guide of 11+, with content warnings for themes around the Holocaust.
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