Broken Legs Blog

Based on the book by Markus Zusak, “The Book Thief” tells the story of Liesel (Tilly-Raye Bayer), a young girl living in Germany during the second world war, who moves in with foster parents Hans (Jack Lord) and Rosa (Mina Anwar) after her own parents and brother are killed.

This new musical, featuring original music and lyrics by Elyssa Samuel and Kate Anderson, explores the horrors of living during the Nazi regime, as the formidable Wolfgang (Russell Wilcox) forces Hans into joining the party against his wishes. Hans and Rosa are hiding Max Vandenburg (played by Matthew Caputo in the version we saw on Saturday night) in their cellar. Max is a Jewish man on the run from the Nazis, and he and Liesel quickly become friends.

Tied up in the story is also young boy Rudy (Preston Cropp), who, despite being part of the Hitler youth, gradually begins to realise the true nature of the Nazi party thanks to the stories that Liesel tells him. Both of these leading roles are played by children, which helps to add an extra dimension to the horrifying nature of war, although means that the performances are a little hit and miss.

The songs featured in the musical are not particularly memorable, and seem to slow the story down rather than moving it forward. I can’t help but feel that this would be a better show if it were a play rather than a musical. The choreography, by Tom Jackson Greaves, is also a bit odd – the almost balletic movements don’t seem to fit with the themes of the play and are more distracting than complimentary.

The story is narrated by death (Obioma Ugoala), who also steps into other various roles throughout and does an excellent job of engaging the audience with various asides and knowing looks. Ugoala does an excellent job of being both terrifying and sympathetic, of helping us to understand the truth of the Nazi regime which is often hidden from our main characters.

The musical definitely has some stranger moments. Max tells Liesel a story about how he would like to fight Hitler in a boxing ring (“The Challenger”), and during this song an enormous puppet of Hitler comes onto the stage and begins to attack Max. After Max is captured by the Germans, Liesel begins to write a story which is acted out by various papier-maché puppets – which could have been effective but I just found it a bit baffling. I love seeing abstract ideas brought to life onstage, but this felt very out of place in this production.

Overall, the play felt a little flat to me. The story is very interesting and overall very well told, but I feel a combination of boring songs, poor choreography and some shaky performances left me feeling a little empty. A great idea but not particularly well executed in my opinion.

Tom Morley, October 2023