Q&A With Todd Haimes: Death Takes a Holiday

This Spring, Roundabout will produce it's third show to be featured at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre/Laura Pels Theatre for the 2010-2011 Season: Death Takes a Holiday.

Here is a conversation with Roundabout Artistic Director Todd Haimes about this exciting new musical production:

Q: Tell us about Death Takes a Holiday and what excites you about this musical production?

A: Death Takes a Holiday is a based on a great play with an idea that has always fascinated me. Death himself decides to try to learn why humans are so reluctant to be taken by him. Essentially, he wants to know what we value so much about life. So he takes on human form for a brief period, and in that time he comes to understand family, loss, and, most importantly, love. There's obviously an element of fantasy to this story, but it's also filled with romance, sorrow, and even humor. I just love how many facets there are to the characters, and how each of them is so important to the storytelling. Of course, above all, I'm excited to be sharing a new score by Maury Yeston with our audience. It was such a pleasure to work with Maury on our revival of Nine, and I'm truly proud to have an opportunity to premiere the gorgeous music that he's written for Death Takes a Holiday. Maury is a singular talent – I've always loved his style, and I can't wait for the audience to hear his newest work.

Q: What is the history of Death Takes a Holiday in terms of development to presentation at the Laura Pels Theatre?

A: Maury Yeston and Peter Stone began working on Death Takes a Holiday several years before it came to Roundabout. Peter was one of the great librettists in musical theatre, and, after his death, it was fortunate that Tom Meehan, one of the best in the business, took over the book writing duties. It was in 2008 that Tom and Maury approached me about working on the show at Roundabout, and I suggested Doug Hughes for the project. We ended up doing a series of developmental readings with the team over the past two years, and I think we're all agreed that the show is now absolutely ready to get on its feet at the Laura Pels Theatre and finally be in front of the audience it deserves. It's hard to imagine a more fantastic team to be bringing the show together for an intimate, off-Broadway production.

Q: What makes Doug Hughes the right director to help nurture and develop this new musical work?

A: I realize that Doug isn't generally associated with new musicals, but this is one of those cases where I think the piece defies its genre. Death Takes a Holiday feels more like an intimate play than it does a traditional musical. Every character on stage is essential, there's really no ensemble, and even the musical moments are more like scenes that happen to be sung than big production numbers. So while it is a musical, I think this is exactly the kind of show that suits Doug's sensibilities and talent. He's brilliant at creating specific and dynamic relationships between the characters on stage, and he gets beautiful performances from his actors. I think Doug is a wonderful match for this piece, and it is my hope that working at Roundabout gives our artists a chance to work outside of their comfort zone and explore a wider range of artistic expression.

Q: This is the third musical of the Roundabout season. Is there a particular motivation for presenting two new musicals in one season?

A: I honestly didn't set out to do three musicals in the same season, let alone two new musicals. But we've been planning for and developing all three shows for some time now, and it happens that the new musicals both reached a great point in their development process at the same time, so they'll now be on stage at the same time. I know it's a departure for Roundabout to have multiple musicals going on, but I'm also not about to hold back good work from being produced just because it's a change of pace. My ultimate goal has always been to put the best work possible in front of our audience. Right now, I think Anything Goes, The People in the Picture, and Death Takes a Holiday fit that bill beautifully. I wouldn't say that you should expect two new musicals from Roundabout every season, but I think that new musicals will be a part of our ongoing work, and I look forward to continuing to develop projects that I think will be exciting for our artists to work on and for our audience to see.

Q: Following Tin Pan Alley Rag, this is the second new musical in the Steinberg Center's Laura Pels Theatre. Is it a departure from the mission to use certain venues for new works and others for classics?

A: Each of our venues has its own personality, and I certainly tend to favor doing classic play revivals at the American Airlines Theatre, new plays at the Laura Pels Theatre, and musical revivals at Studio 54. But there have been many occasions when the work in question necessitated a reconsidering of our usual plans. For instance, I can't imagine having done Waiting for Godot anywhere other than Studio 54, and I think last season's revival of The Glass Menagerie was served perfectly by the scale of the Pels. Similarly, it just makes sense to me to put a show like Death Takes a Holiday, which demands intimacy, into a theatre that will allow the audience to make that close connection with the characters, which I think will truly enhance their experience of the piece.

Death Takes a Holiday will play at the Laura Pels Theatre inside the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre beginning May 13, 2011 and lasting through August 7, 2011.