Entitled The Pianist, the production is written and directed by Thom Southerland and features Szpilman's own music with new lyrics, freshly orchestrated by Simon Lee, Andrew Lloyd-Webber's long time musical director.
One of the show’s producing partners is Szpilman's son, Andrzej Szpilman, who also contributed some of the lyrics for the musical.
The production has received enthusiastic reviews in the British press, arts websites and theatre critics' blogs.
Many critics gave the production four- and five-star ratings, describing it as "a loving recreation of Szpilman’s musical legacy" (The Arts Desk), "a story of survival, loss and family, beautifully told with the power of music and its enduring effect" (West End Best Friend), "well-staged and performed” (The Guardian), and "a haunting piece of theatre that stays with you long after you leave the auditorium" (Theatre South East).
The Pianist has also been described as "a thoughtful, beautifully performed new musical that deserves to find its audience" (London Theatre Reviews), and "a tender tribute to a resilient, and prodigiously talented, survivor" (The Stage).
What’s on Stage writes that the production "never trivialises a particularly awful time in fairly recent history, while celebrating the resilience of humanity and the transcendence of art."
London Born and Bred describes the show as "an outstanding, deeply moving and beautifully crafted musical that celebrates the power of music to survive even the darkest of times," adding: "It is rare for a piece of theatre to leave such a lasting impression, but The Pianist does precisely that."
In its review, Strand Magazine focuses on Szpilman’s wartime survival, which would not have been possible if it had not been for other people offering help to him, and finds it "the most radical and interesting element of this very real story."
It writes: "Friends hide him because they love him. Late in the story, a German officer, moved by conscience, protects him too. This does not ever soften what came before, but it is a powerful reminder that moral choice remains possible even inside a machine of atrocity, and that those choices, however rare, matter enormously in the story of every life."
Many critics stress that the story of Szpilman’s life and survival in WWII is a poignant lesson in history that is relevant in the present-day context.
Strand Magazine writes: "The Pianist is not just a historical drama inspired by a real account of WWII. Watching it in the world we currently live in is unsettling. It has become far too easy to forget what dictatorship and mass violence against civilians actually look like, and the play puts that back in front of us in human detail. Theatre is political, as all art is, and few forms are more so. A story like this works as a tool: it opens a conversation we need to be having."
According to London Living Large, "Szpilman’s story becomes a moving object lesson in human cruelty and the demonisation of minorities."
London Theatre Reviews, which gave the production a five-star rating, says: "It is not really a show about the life of a pianist. It is a letter to life itself, to human nature at its worst and at its most resilient, and to the extraordinary strength that people can find when everything has been taken from them."
The Pianist remains in Park Theatre's repertoire until November 28, Monday through Saturday, with additional matinee shows on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Born in 1911, Szpilman studied piano and composition in Warsaw and Berlin. He worked at Polish Radio for four years until September 23, 1939, when he performed music by Fryderyk Chopin live on air for the final time before the station ceased broadcasting following German bombardments.
Szpilman was later forced into the Warsaw Ghetto along with his parents, two sisters and brother, all of whom perished in the Holocaust.
He survived the war and, in its final months, found shelter in the ruins of Warsaw with the help of Polish friends and German army officer Wilm Hosenfeld.
After the war, Szpilman served as director of Polish Radio’s music department for nearly two decades and later was a member of the Warsaw Piano Quintet.
His compositional output includes around 500 songs, many of which became popular hits, as well as several symphonic works.
Szpilman published his wartime memoir shortly after World War II, but the book was soon banned by Poland's Stalinist authorities.
It was republished by Szpilman's son in 1998 in German and English and has since been translated into more than 30 languages.
The memoir was adapted into the Oscar-winning 2002 film The Pianist, directed by Polanski and starring Adrien Brody.
Szpilman died in Warsaw in 2000 at the age of 88.
(mk/gs)