Tony Award-winning composer-lyricist Maury Yeston (Nine, Titanic) infuses lush melodies into Death Takes a Holiday, the new musical version of an earlier European play about Death (here played by Julian Ovenden) taking a weekend off to find out why people cling so passionately to life. He finds out why, when he meets and falls for a young Italian noblewoman (played by Jill Paice) in the Roundabout Theatre Company's Off-Broadway world premiere, directed by Doug Hughes. Thomas Meehan co-wrote the libretto with the late Peter Stone.