Death has been very busy over the years, and it sure has range: It’s had star turns in movies as diverse as “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Holiday,” “The Seventh Seal” and “All That Jazz.” Now the Grim Reaper is singing and dancing in “Death Takes a Holiday,” a new musical by Maury Yeston (“Nine,” “Titanic”).
If only the show had more . . . life.
Alberto Casella’s eponymous 1924 novel has been adapted several times
already, both on Broadway and in Hollywood, where it was retitled “Meet Joe Black” for a 1998 Brad Pitt vehicle. Now, Yeston and book writers Thomas Meehan (“The Producers”) and the late Peter Stone have put their spin on the enduring story.
The pitch is that Death (Julian Ovenden), bored after thousands of years on the job, decides to try something new — like feelings. Beguiled by the beautiful (and engaged) Grazia Lamberti (Jill Paice), whom he spares from a lethal car crash, Death takes on human form to spend a frolicsome weekend with her family.
Flaunting the masculine glamour of a 1940s film star, the British-born Ovenden — who looks to the tuxedo born — suggests both weary experience and eager innocence.
On the other hand, he and Paice don’t connect much, and their supposedly heated romance has all the sizzle of an electric fireplace.
But then the stakes feel oddly low in a show literally about matters of life and death.
Part of the problem is Doug Hughes’ awkward staging. Having people pretend to talk and eat in the background while the leads conduct business in front just looks dorky. But then the book has saddled the director with too many underwritten, purposeless characters.
On the plus side, we get to see such enjoyable actors as Rebecca Luker, Michael Siberry and Linda Balgord, who do well by the uneven score.
For his 1920s-set “Grand Hotel,” Yeston wrote catchy numbers that sounded period but not mothballed. Here, tepid songs like “How Will I Know” and “Death Is in the House” make you appreciate the ease with which Andrew Lloyd Webber tosses off power ballads.
Yeston being Yeston, there are bright spots: “Something’s Happened” starts off Act II with dramatic flair, and “Finally To Know” is a lovely trio for the show’s younger women.
As many new musicals seek safety in pastiche and irony, “Death Takes a Holiday” is refreshingly earnest. Too bad its heart beats so erratically.
elisabeth.vincentelli
@nypost.com