Death is in Da House!

 Death Takes A Holiday,

with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston,

and a book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan,

launched Off-Broadway in 2011.

It was based on La Morte in Vacanza, a play by

Alberto Casella, written in 1924...

Death, tired of collecting souls,

wants to find out what's so great about all this living 

(and loving) stuff.

He takes a holiday in the guise of a Russian prince,

 eating eggs, enjoying fresh towels (!), doing the Shimmy,

and falling in love.

 The caption has it right!

Jill Paice (center), who earlier starred in Curtains, played Grazia, 

Max Von Essen (to the right) was Corrado,

and below left is Kevin Early who portrayed Death/Prince Sirki.

Prior to writing this musical,

Maury wrote the music and lyrics for

Nine, Titanic and Grand Hotel.

He and Peter Stone supposedly then yearned

to write a show on a smaller scale...

Meet Joe Black (a modern-day, Brad Pitt version)

had just been released, 

so time was right;

 "It seemed to me that the piece screamed to be sung,"

said Maury.

 Reviews were mixed. 

Here's the best one, from The London Press 

(The Charing Cross Theatre produced the show in 2017):

 "The presiding genius of this musical adaptation is 

composer/lyricist Maury Yeston 

whose lush, operetta-like scores make him the heir 

to Jerome Kern’s crown among the current crop of Broadway writers. 

As in previous works such as Grand Hotel and Titanic,

he displays a rare ability to give voice to a wide range of characters, 

often within a single song."

 Had to include the Fredric March pre-code movie version

done in 1934,

with Evelyn Venable and Guy Standing.

Variety called it "the kind of story and picture that beckons the thinker, 

and for this reason is likely to have greater appeal among the intelligentsia."

It was a major box-office disappointment,

even with such a handsome "Death" as Frederic.