DEM Productions are delighted to announce, that the musical stage adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF, based on best-selling novel by Markus Zusak, will have a special concert performance at the Prince of Wales Theatre (a Delfont Mackintosh Theatre) on Sunday 19 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.
Further casting 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 (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).
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!
Producers Emily Lunnon and Ramin Sabi said: “It’s our great pleasure to bring this beautiful show to London for the first time. The unique musical language created by the writing team has brought Markus’ timeless and timely story to life in that very special way that only theatre can. We couldn’t be more excited for Tom Jackson Greaves’ genius staging to propel the show through its next steps, to a new audience and beyond.
Director and choreographer Tom Jackson Greaves said: “I am thrilled to be leading this incredible musical into its next chapter, alongside our brilliant writers, creative team, cast and exceptional storyteller, Melanie La Barrie. It’s a story that needs to be heard now more than ever and I cannot wait for a London audience to experience it for the very first time.”
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.
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 (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; Whistle Down The Wind) after original direction by Lotte Wakeham (The Book Thief, Little Shop Of Horrors), with libretto by Jodi Picoult (Breathe; Between The Lines) & Timothy Allen McDonald (Roald Dahl’s James & The Giant Peach and Willy Wonka), music and lyrics by Elyssa Samsel & Kate Anderson (Olaf’s Frozen Adventure; Central Park), orchestrations & musical supervision by Matthew Malone (Spend, Spend, Spend; Brassed Off), set & costume Design by Good Teeth (Piaf; Aladdin), lighting design by Nic Farman (Allegiance, The Diary of a CEO Live), sound design by Sound Quiet Time (Stanger Things: The First Shadow), casting by Abby Galvin (The Leftbehinds; The Lonely Londoners) and musical direction by Natalie Pound (This Is My Family; Next to Normal).
THE BOOK THIEF is produced by Deus Ex Machina Productions (RIDE; Alice in Wonderland; Four Play), Writers’ Cage and Andrew Paradis in association with Bethany Cooper Productions.