THE BOOK THIEF Original 2023 UK Cast Recording released today
The Original 2023 UK Cast Recording of the musical stage adaptation of THE BOOK THIEF, based on the best-selling novel by Markus Zusak, following limited runs at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, & Leicester Curve in 2023, has been released today, and is available to stream and purchase on all platforms now (14 March).
The musical 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.
The cast featured on the album includes Obioma Ugoala as Narrator, Mina Anwar as Rosa Hubermann, Jack Lord as Hans Hubermann and Daniel Krikler as Max Vandenburg, with storytellers Matthew Caputo as Referee, Katy Clayton as Liesel’s Mother, Oonagh Cox as Nurse, Mark Dugdale as Alex Steiner, Michał Horowicz as Max’s Mother, Thomas-Lee Kidd as Mayor Hermann, Anu Ogunmefun (Swing), Simon Oskarsson (Swing), Corinna Powlesland as Social Worker, Purvi Parmar as Barbara Steiner, Wendy Somerville as Ilsa Hermann, Edwin Ray as Walter Kugler, Lee V G as Gravedigger, and Russell Wilcox as Wolfgang Edel. Liesel Meminger was played by Tilly-Raye Bayer and Eirini Louskou, and Rudy Steiner was played by Thommy Bailey Vine, Preston Cropp, and Oliver Gordon.
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, with choreography by Tom Jackson Greaves, set & costume design by Good Teeth, orchestrations & arrangements, musical supervision & musical direction by Matthew Malone, lighting by Nic Farman, sound by Andy Graham, video design by Dick Straker, casting by Abby Galvin for Jessica Ronane Casting, casting consultancy by Jessica Ronane, and puppet design by Sam Wilde.