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Roundabout premieres a strange musical romance

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

An icy beauty often pervades the sounds and looks for “Death Takes A Holiday,” which certainly is appropriate since this new Off Broadway musical regards the curious time that Death went off on a weekend break and fell in love with a mortal.

Perhaps due to its chilly circumstances, the show somehow left me cold in spite of its mostly excellent performances, an elegant production and a typically fetching score by Maury Yeston.

From the sniffles of some people around me at the Roundabout Theatre Company premiere that opened Thursday at the Steinberg Center, I gather that others may be more receptive to this strange musical romance.

Drawn from a 1929 Broadway hit by Alberto Casella that later was updated into the so-so Brad Pitt movie “Meet Joe Black,” the offbeat tale has been adapted by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan, who are reasonably faithful to the original.

Weary of his eternal routine – the recent World War was tough on him – Death assumes the handsome guise of Prince Sirki and visits an aristocratic Italian family at their lakeside villa in 1921. There he briefly discovers the joys of life – eating, sleeping, dancing, romancing – and becomes enamored of Grazia, who responds to his charms. Her father, the Duke, aware of his guest’s dark identity, is horrified and tries to break off their budding affair.

Meanwhile, as Death enjoys his hiatus, no person or animal or plant in the world dies.

Composer Maury Yeston, whose musicals include “Nine” and “Titanic,” effectively responds to the story with a highly romantic and melodic score that frequently echoes the lush operettas of yesteryear.

A delicate moonlit encounter for the lovers, “Alone Here With You,” contrasts against the swooning fervor of their ecstatic “More and More” duet. The melancholy “Finally to Know” is a poignant trio shared by Grazia and her chums. Rendered in ringing tones by Matt Cavenaugh, “Roberto’s Eyes” is a swirling aria by a soul who has met Death before on the battlefield. A welcome breeze amid the generally autumnal score arises in “Shimmy Like They Do in Paree,” a rousing, period-perfect, vo-dee-oh-doe number.