To Maury, With Love – Theatre Royal Drury Lane   

Kelly Mathieson and Ramin Karimloo in To Maury, With Love at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London. Picture: Eliza Wilmot

To Maury, With Love at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A birthday tribute can illuminate an artist’s enduring legacy, and To Maury, With Love – for one night at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane – did just that, no more no less. The special concert marked the 80th birthday of the iconic composer and lyricist Maury Yeston, delivering a well-curated and richly performed survey of his remarkable body of work.

Backed by the outstanding London Musical Theatre Orchestra, the only one of its kind in the world, and elevated by a superb choir of more than 30 talented students from the Royal Academy of Music, the evening showcased highlights primarily from Titanic, Nine, Grand Hotel and Death Takes a Holiday, while also dipping into rarer gems like the now widely acknowledged Phantom, along with the unproduced Club Moscow and In the Beginning, sprinkled with video interviews of Yeston and others adding personal insights to his career. For longtime admirers, the selections felt like old friends, making us yearn for revivals of his shows, while newcomers were welcomed into his world through the strength of the performances.

Some more upbeat and joyful numbers like ‘Folies Bergères’ and ‘Be Italian’, both from Nine, as well as the two additional songs Yeston wrote for the movie version, ‘Cinema Italiano’ and the Academy award-nominated ‘Take it All’, would have made a dynamic contrast with the succession of lush, romantic ballads we were treated to. Also surprising was the omission of ‘Till I Loved You’, from the unproduced Goya, which Barbra Streisand recorded as a duet with Don Johnson on her platinum album, resulting in the only time Yeston made it onto the pop charts!

But the concert arrangements honored the material faithfully, allowing Yeston’s original vision to resonate with fresh vibrancy in the historic venue, while the stellar cast brought the score to life with professionalism and finesse. Ramin Karimloo’s baritone clarity glided effortlessly through the rich orchestration; Madalena Alberto’s nuanced phrasing in Grand Hotel and Club Moscow numbers intelligently shaped Yeston’s long melodic arcs; and Sydnie Christmas provided a delightful lighter touch.

Graham Bickley and Rob Houchen anchored the ensemble with precision and seamlessness – Houchen particularly excelling in the powerful and poignant close of Act I with ‘Love Can’t Happen’ – and Kelly Mathieson’s crystalline soprano added an exquisite, almost operatic lift to the evening’s more soaring moments.

Yeston’s talent for soaring melodic lines and heartfelt, emotionally direct lyrics, especially evident in the sweeping scores of Nine and Titanic, continues to captivate and move audiences. Standout moments – such as the introspective beauty of ‘Unusual Way’ (Nine), performed by Christmas and nicely mashed up with Alberto’s ‘Tell Me about Your Wife’ (Club Moscow), and the tender romance of the forementioned ‘Love Can’t Happen’ (Grand Hotel) highlighted Yeston’s mastery of balladry. Mathieson infused ‘A Call from the Vatican’ (Nine) with just the right kind of sultry desire, delivering perhaps the best performance of this song I’ve ever witnessed.

Not surprisingly, Karimloo – no stranger to Yeston’s work, having starred as Guido in the brilliant Nine concert at The Lowry last year – dominated the evening, rendering ‘Guido’s Song’ (Nine) with swaggering wit. His soaring duets with Mathieson – ‘Home’ from Phantom and ‘More and More’ from the lesser-known but brilliant Death Takes a Holiday –were other notable highlights from the show.

The grand ensemble pieces in the most represented work of the evening, Titanic – from ‘In Every Age’, building onto ‘How Did They Build Titanic?’/‘Ship of Dreams’,  to the powerful duet ‘The Proposal’/‘The Night Was Alive’ (sung by Karimloo and Houchen), as well as the breathtaking choral finale – showcased Yeston’s impressive command of choral textures and orchestral grandeur. These featured breathtaking scales well-rendered through the massed voices of the choir, adding a new dimension to a musical previously – and brilliantly – staged as a chamber piece by director Thom Southerland at Southwark Playhouse and the Charing Cross Theatre before touring the UK and Europe, as well as transferring to Canada and the big screen.

Touches from lesser-known works, like ‘New Words’ (from In the Beginning, sung by Bickley), which was performed after a very moving video clip of Yeston praising his mother, also added welcome variety and depth.

This was a tribute to a composer who needs to be acknowledged – with Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, John Kander and Cy Coleman – as one of the true greats of Broadway’s second generation of composers. Yeston has also proved to have, along with Bernstein and Sondheim, a foot firmly planted in classical music.

Though very fast paced, with a surprisingly short Act I, To Maury, With Love truly delivered: it was elegantly staged, musically exhilarating, warmly embraced by the audience and filled with affection for a composer whose Tony Award-winning scores and Academy Award-nominated songs have left an indelible mark on musical theatre. And – as witnessed in the video projections –a songwriter who has left his mark on culture at large.

Confirming Yeston’s place in the Broadway pantheon, the show was fitting and satisfying, a polished homage, and – for Southerland and producer Danielle Tarento, who have brought his greatest works in London for the past decade – a labour of love.

Patrick Honoré