The musical stage adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF, will have a special concert performances at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Sunday 19 & 26 October 2025 starring Melanie La Barrie as Death.
Melanie La Barrie is best known for originating the role of Hermes in the West End premiere of Hadestown, for which she won the 2025 WhatsOnStage Award for Best Supporting Performer in a Musical.
Her previous theatre credits include &Juliet (West End & Broadway); We Aren’t Kids Anymore (Savoy Theatre); Wicked (Apollo Victoria Theatre); Dick Whittington (National Theatre); The Everyman Season (Everyman Playhouse, Liverpool); Matilda The Musical (RSC & Cambridge Theatre); Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (The Old Vic); Mary Poppins (Prince Edward Theatre); Les Misérables (Sondheim Theatre); Play Mas (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and Bakkhai (Almeida Theatre). She is currently appearing as Nurse in Mary Page Marlowe at The Old Vic.
Joining Melanie are:
Isaac Gryn (Stranger Things: The First Shadow, West End; West Side Story, Leicester Curve) as Max Vandenburg
Jack Lord (War Horse, UK Tour; West Side Story, Manchester ) as Hans Hubermann
Cat Simmons (The Bill, ITV; Killing Eve, BBC; Dune: Part 2, Warner Bros; Come From Away, West End) as Rosa Hubermann
Leo Abad (Bat Out Of Hell, UK Tour; Aladdin, Theatre Royal Portsmouth) as Tommy Müller
Matthew Caputo (Hamilton, West End; Matilda, UK Tour) as Walter Kugler
Oonagh Cox (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, West End; Bonnie & Clyde, UK Tour) as Paula Meminger
Michał Horowicz (The Band’s Visit, Donmar Warehouse; Fury & Elysium, The Other Palace) as Eva Vandenburg
Thomas-Lee Kidd (Fiddler on the Roof, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Beauty and the Beast, UK Tour) as Mayor Hermann
Nell Martin (Crazy For You, West End; My Fair Lady, Leicester Curve) as Ilsa Hermann
Corinna Powlesland (Grease, West End; An Officer and A Gentleman, UK Tour) as Frau Holtzapfel
Gleanne Purcell-Brown (Shucked, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre; Saving Mozart, The Other Palace) as Barbara Steiner
Edwin Ray (Hello Dolly, West End; We Will Rock You, West End) as Alex Steiner
Timo Tatzber (The Creakers, Theatre Royal Plymouth & Southbank Centre; Jesus Christ Superstar, UK Tour) as Isaac Kleinmann
Russell Wilcox (Bonnie & Clyde, West End; All My Sons, Old Vic) as Wolfgang Edel
The musical, based on Markus Zusak’s 16 million-copy global best-seller, has a book by award-winning best-selling author Jodi Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper & Small Great Things) and Timothy Allen McDonald (adaptor of Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka & James and the Giant Peach) with music and lyrics by Kate Anderson and Elyssa Samsel (Apple TV’s Central Park & Olaf’s Frozen Adventure).
The musical had its world premiere at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton in 2022, with subsequent productions at Coventry Belgrade Theatre & Leicester Curve in 2023, with original direction by Lotte Wakeham.
What is The Book Thief About?
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.
