Listen: THE BOOK THIEF Original 2023 UK Cast Recording Available Now

The Original 2023 UK Cast Recording is available now for the musical stage adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF, based on of best-selling novel by Markus Zusak, following limited runs at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, & Leicester Curve in 2023. The cast recording, released by Center Stage Records, is available to stream and purchase on all platforms today, 14 March 2025. Listen below!

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 cast featured on the album are Obioma Ugoala (Frozen the Musical, Hamilton) as Narrator, Mina Anwar (Shirley Valentine, Everybody's Talking About Jamie) as Rosa Hubermann, Jack Lord (West Side Story, War Horse) as Hans Hubermann and Daniel Krikler (Fiddler On The Roof, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) as Max Vandenburg. Joining them are Storytellers Matthew Caputo (Hamilton) as Referee, Katy Clayton (The Band) as Liesel's Mother, Oonagh Cox (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as Nurse, Mark Dugdale (Les Miserables) as Alex Steiner, Michał Horowicz (The Band's Visit) as Max's Mother, Thomas-Lee Kidd (Fiddler On The Roof) as Mayor Hermann, Anu Ogunmefun (TINA - The Tina Turner Musical) as Swing, Simon Oskarsson (Hadestown) as Swing, Corinna Powlesland (Grease) as Social Worker, Purvi Parmar (The Jungle Book) as Barbara Steiner, Wendy Somerville (Oliver!) as Ilsa Hermann, Edwin Ray (Chicago) as Walter Kugler, Lee V G (Only Fools & Horses: The Musical) as Gravedigger and Russell Wilcox (The Producers) as Wolfgang Edel. Liesel Meminger was played by Tilly-Raye Bayer (Frozen The Musical) and Eirini Louskou (Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) and Rudy Steiner was played by Thommy Bailey Vine (Matilda: The Musical), Preston Cropp (Professional Debut), and Oliver Gordon (Newsies).

 

The musicians featured on the album are Matthew Malone (Musical Director/Keys), Elaine Ambridge (Violin), Joshua Cavanagh-Brierley (Double Bass), Sophie Creaner (Reed I), Meg Davies (Reed II) and Isis Dunthorne (Percussion).

 

THE BOOK THIEF begins at a snow-covered graveside in 1930s Germany, as an illiterate girl steals an abandoned book - Liesel Meminger's first act of book thievery. As her appetite for books grows, as does the Nazi regime - with the shadow of death never far away. When her foster family hides a Jewish boxer in their basement, he teaches Liesel the power of words and together they plant seeds of kindness in a world set against them.

 

THE BOOK THIEF was directed by Lotte Wakeham (The Book Thief, Shirley Valentine, A Midsummer Night's Dream), 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), Choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves (Rent, Whistle Down the Wind, The Creakers), Set & Costume Design by Good Teeth (Little Shop of Horrors, Jack and the Beanstalk), Orchestrations & Arrangements, Musical Supervision & Musical Direction by Matthew Malone (Peter Pan, Carousel),  Lighting Design by Nic Farman (Allegiance, The Diary of a CEO Live), Sound Design by Andy Graham (Aladdin, The Wizard of Oz), Video Design by Dick Straker (A Monster Calls, Peer Gynt), Casting directed by Abby Galvin for Jessica Ronane Casting (The Glass Menagerie, Girl from the North Country), Casting Consultancy by Jessica Ronane, Puppet Design by Sam Wilde (A Christmas Carol, The Fir Tree), Production Management by Andy Fox and Lee Batty for Setting Line Production Management (Newsies, The Cher Show), Associate Direction by Martha Geelan (Fiddler on the Roof) and Anna Pool (A Little Night Music), Associate Choreography by Tinovimbanashe Sibanda (Moulin Rouge), and Associate Musical Direction by George Strickland (Allegiance). THE BOOK THIEF is produced by Deus Ex Machina Productions (Ride: A New Musical, Adrian Mole) with Writer's Cage and Andrew Paradis in association with Belgrade, Coventry and Beth Cooper. 

 

Original 2023 UK Cast Recording of THE BOOK THIEF is produced by Matthew Malone, Elyssa Samsel, Kate Anderson, Ramin Sabi and Emily Lunnon for Deus Ex Machina Productions and Pierpaolo Demarchi, executive produced by Andrew Paradis, Ramin Sabi and Emily Lunnon, mixed, recorded and engineered by Pierpaolo Demarchi at Livingston Studios, London, recording assisted by Tris Ellis, mastered by Oli Morgan for Abbey Road,  and copying by George Strickland. Exclusively distributed by Center Stage Records LLC, President and Executive Producer Van Dean, and A&R Director Robbie Rozelle.

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