Melanie La Barrie to star in THE BOOK THIEF in concert
It has been announced that the musical stage adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF will have a special concert performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 19 October, starring Melanie La Barrie (Hadestown, West End) as Death.
Further casting is to be announced.
The musical, based on Markus Zusak's 16 million-copy global best-seller, has a book by award-winning best-selling author Jodi Picoult and Timothy Allen McDonald, with music and lyrics by Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel.
On this London concert performance, writers Jodi Picoult & Timothy Allen McDonald said: “We couldn’t be prouder to present this new, gorgeous incarnation of THE BOOK THIEF in London. As Americans, we are very much aware of how quickly fascism can take hold of a country — this show is the right story, at exactly the right time. To have Melanie La Barrie leading the company as Death, our narrator, is a dream — her immense talent and experience has given us so many colours we writers can paint with.”
Composers Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel said: "We are so excited to bring this score back to life on stage, with some new songs that have grown and changed with the show's evolution. To have our music in the talented and capable hands of an actor like Mel LaBarrie is a dream come true!
The musical had its world premiere at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton in 2022, with subsequent productions at Coventry Belgrade Theatre and Leicester Curve in 2023, with original direction by Lotte Wakeham.
Red. White. Black. These are the colours by which Death remembers. And the colours of a girl who dared to write her story in the ruins.
THE BOOK THIEF is told by Death – they are haunted by humans, cataloguing the colour of the sky at the precise moment they carry each soul away. Tonight’s story belongs to Liesel Meminger, twelve years old and unafraid to take what matters: the red of a book found in the snow, the black of a novel rescued from a bonfire, the white of empty pages she will fill with her own defiant words. Down in a cellar painted in shadows, she reads to Max, a Jewish fist-fighter hidden by her foster family, and together they imagine a world lit by language. Above, Hans plays the accordion with fingers stained by tobacco and time, Rosa hurls curses wrapped in warmth, and Rudy runs beside Liesel, chasing a kiss that history won’t allow.
THE BOOK THIEF concert performance will be directed and choreographed by Tom Jackson Greaves, after original direction by Lotte Wakeham, with orchestrations and musical supervision by Matthew Malone, set and costume design by Good Teeth, lighting by Nic Farman, sound by Sound Quiet Time, casting by Abby Galvin, and musical direction by Natalie Pound.
