Composer-lyricist Maury Yeston has made an indelible impact on the musical theater. Having written the scores to such lofty musicals as “Nine” and “Titanic” — both of which won the Tony Award for best score and were Grammy-nominated for Best Musical Theater Album — and having been part of the writing team of “Grand Hotel,” he offers a rich and often symphonic style to the canon.
Yeston also wrote music for the 2009 revival of the play “The Royal Family.” Outside of the Main Stem, Yeston penned scores to “Phantom” (not to be confused with “The Phantom of the Opera”) and “Death Takes a Holiday.” His concert work has included collaborations with the likes of Barbra Streisand and acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Yeston has also written a ballet and multiple revues. He has educated and mentored the next generation of talent, serving as an associate professor and director of undergraduate studies at Yale University and, for 25 years, as director of the BMI Music Theatre Advanced Workshop. Yeston is also in the Theater Hall of Fame.
But how did he begin? And what was the path that led him to such influence? The new biography, “A Very Unusual Way: Maury Yeston and His Singular Path to Broadway and Beyond,” aims to answer these questions. Written by Joshua Rosenblum, the book will be released by State University of New York Press on July 1. Rosenblum and Yeston will celebrate the launch with an event, featuring a concert, Q&A and book signing, on June 29 at Symphony Space.
Ahead of its publication, Broadway News is offering an exclusive look at the new tome. The below excerpt chronicles the beginnings of “Nine,” the musical that would be Yeston’s Broadway debut, mark his first Tony nomination and win, become his first Grammy nod and, many years later, with the show’s film adaptation, lead to an Oscar nomination. Rosenblum reveals not only why Yeston wanted to adapt Federico Fellini’s film “8 ½” into a musical, but how the team of Mario Fratti, Arthur Kopit and Tommy Tune came to be.
