Yeston's TOM SAWYER Ballet to Get World Premiere with Kansas City Ballet in 2011

KansasCity.com reports that the Kansas City Ballet will present the world premiere of Maury Yeston's Tom Sawyer - A Ballet in Three Acts in the inaugural season at their Kauffman Performing Arts Center. Kansas City Ballet Artistic Director William Whitener made the announcement yesterday, according to the report. 

KansasCity.com reveals: "The 2011-2012 season will include a world-premiere, two classics and a program showcasing the work of major American choreographers. It kicks off with a brand new three-act ballet based on Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer." The production will feature choreography by William Whitener, the ballet's artistic director, and music by Maury Yeston, best known as the award-winning Broadway composer of the musicals "Nine," "Grand Hotel" and "Titanic." ... Yeston said that while there are several well-known short ballets based on American subject matter, such as Aaron Copland's "Rodeo," he believes "Tom Sawyer -- A Ballet in Three Acts" will be the first full-length work based on an American literary classic and created by Americans for an American ballet company."

Yeston has been at work on the ballet for several years and will see the production run from October 14 through October 23, 2011. 

To read the full report, click here.

Yeston is best known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine. Yeston also wrote a significant amount of the music and most of the lyrics to the Tony-nominated musical Grand Hotel in 1989, which was nominated for best score. His musical version of the novel The Phantom of the Opera called Phantom (not to be confused with Andrew Lloyd Webber's version) has enjoyed numerous productions in the U.S. and around the world. He has also written a number of other off-Broadway musicals, a song cycle, a Cello Concerto, and other pieces.

Yeston serves on the Board of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is also President of the Kleban Foundation, serves on the editorial boards of Musical Quarterly and the Kurt Weill Foundation Publication Project and on the advisory board of the Yale University Press Broadway Series. He was the Director of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop in New York City for two decades beginning in 1982.

 

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Genevieve Rafter-Keddy