The Book Thief, based on best-selling novel by Markus Zusak, will have a special concert performance at the Prince of Wales 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 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 (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.”

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.