Maury Yeston to Celebrate New Biography With Concert and Event at Symphony Space

Composer/lyricist Maury Yeston – who recently celebrated his landmark 80th birthday – will join author Joshua Rosenblum and theater journalist Peter Filichia at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space on Monday, June 29 at 7:00 PM for a special pre-release event celebrating Rosenblum’s forthcoming book, A VERY UNUSUAL WAY: Maury Yeston and His Singular Path to Broadway and Beyond (State University of New York Press). Copies of the book – which is due in stores and online on July 1 – will be available for purchase and signing.  

Filichia will moderate a conversation about the book and Yeston’s remarkably varied career, and Shereen Ahmed, Karen Akers, Benjamin Eakeley, Jill Paice, Elena Shaddow, and pianist/music director Fred Lassen will perform some of Yeston’s most memorable songs. These include “My Husband Makes Movies” and “Unusual Way” from Nine, “I Want to Go to Hollywood” and “Love Can’t Happen” from Grand Hotel, “My Grandmother’s Love Letters,” from December Songs, “Shimmy Like They Do in Paris” from Death Takes a Holiday, and “Home,” from Phantom.

A VERY UNUSUAL WAY is a career chronicle combined with close examinations of some of Yeston's most noteworthy compositions, including songs from his Tony Award–winning musicals Nine, Titanic, and Grand Hotel, as well as his lesser-known works. The book also highlights the many celebrated artistic figures and collaborators who have featured prominently in Yeston’s life, including Stephen Sondheim, Placido Domingo, Federico Fellini, Raul Julia, Jane Krakowski, Alan Jay Lerner, Sophia Loren, Yo-Yo Ma, Rob Marshall, Alan Menken, Mike Nichols, Barbra Streisand, Tommy Tune, and Jonathan Tunick.