The Spanish musical The Diary of Anne Frank - A Song To Life, which had its dress rehearsal late Thursday, has sparked an international controversy over what critics regard as a frivolous treatment of the story of a girl who died in the Holocaust.

Anne Frank, a Jewish girl living in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, gets a diary for her 13th birthday and names it Kitty.

Smoke fills the stage floor at Madrid's HaagenDazs-Calderon Theatre, and Kitty enters as a glamorous woman in a glittering red dress, like a personification of young Anne's dreams of womanhood.

The Spanish musical The Diary of Anne Frank - A Song To Life, which had its dress rehearsal late Thursday, has sparked an international controversy over what critics regard as a frivolous treatment of the story of a girl who died in the Holocaust.

Anne Frank's cousin Buddy Elias says he is "horrified" by the musical, which nevertheless took a standing ovation from the public at the rehearsal ahead of the premiere on 28 February.

In her diary, which was saved after her death and has been translated into more than 60 languages, Anne Frank depicted her life with her family and friends in a secret annex above her father's office building, where they lived from 1942 until being discovered in 1944.

Executive director Rafael Alvero, who had been fascinated by Anne Frank's story for a decade, says the musical is the first one on the subject.

However, the musical has been greeted with strongly divided reactions.

Elias's Basle-based Anne Frank Fonds, which has the copyright to The Diary of a Young Girl, vehemently opposes the musical, but was unable to prevent it because it does not directly quote text written by Anne.

The Anne Frank Foundation, which runs a museum in the house where the Frank family hid in Amsterdam, finds the musical an acceptable way to present Anne's story and her message of tolerance.

The musical focuses on Anne's relationships and dreams, conflicts with her mother, a budding romance with a boy whose family the Franks shared their hideout with, the personalities of the people involved, and Anne's maturing into a woman.

The Holocaust is evoked mainly through flashes of soldiers harassing and capturing Jews on the street outside and of Jews in striped clothes forming endless queues in the shadows of concentration camps.

The musical seeks to evoke the mounting anguish of the people confined in a few rooms where every noise can betray their presence to outsiders and where disputes arise over food growing scarce.

The musical does, however, emphasise the themes of avoiding despair, of hope and life, embodied in the lively and energetic Anne, even to an extent which some members of the audience described as going "too far."

The musical includes, for instance, sexual jokes, romantic love songs, entertaining songs on subjects such as the need to use disguises to escape from the Nazis and a glamorous Nazi fancy dress ball.

Anne's diary Kitty entertains the audience with her changing costumes, which include a mini-skirt with a sun hat and sunglasses.

"The scene of Anne discussing sex with her boyfriend went overboard in a play on such a serious subject," said 15-year-old Madrid schoolgirl Sonja, who came to see the rehearsal with two of her friends.

Cuban Isabella Castillo, 13, who was selected from among 800 candidates for the role of Anne, as well as the other actors won praise from the public.

The musical ends on a strong message against intolerance, with the refrain "never ever" echoing across the theatre, but Sonja felt that "the sadness of Anne's fate did not really sink in."

Sonja and her friends were about the same age as Anne when she died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but they said the play did not allow them to identify with Anne and to imagine themselves as victims of persecution.

"Anne seemed like a girl from another age," Myriam explained.

If Anne Frank's father Otto, the only one from the family to survive the Holocaust, were alive today, "he would cry on seeing what his daughter's story has been turned into," said Elias, who has refused an invitation to attend the premiere of the musical.

"We hope that the musical will help to spread knowledge about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism not only in Spain, but also in Latin America," said the Anne Frank Foundation's Jan Eric Dubbelman, who was planning to see the play.

The Diary of Anne Frank - A Song To Life opens at Madrid's HaagenDazs-Calderon Theatre on 28 February.

For theatre listings and other events check out our What’s on guides to Barcelona  and Madrid

February 2008

[Copyright dpa 2008]