Love is as strong as death, says the Song of Solomon. That is also the message of this strange show by Maury Yeston (music and lyrics) and Thomas Meehan and Peter Stone (book), which surfaced off-Broadway in 2011. It is immaculately staged by Thom Southerland, but you feel that Yeston and Stone had more success with Titanic in making a musical out of seemingly intractable material.
The show, based on a 1924 play, involves Death taking the form of a handsome Russian prince and spending a weekend on the shores of Lake Garda with an aristocratic Italian family: supposedly a great leveller, Death here appears something of a social snob. The big question is whether, when he vanishes on the stroke of midnight, he will take with him Grazia, the daughter of the house. However, since Grazia – to borrow a Keatsian phrase – is more than half in love with easeful Death, there is little tension. The show’s creators fill out the time by ensuring everyone in the cast gets a number: some of these, such as a duet for an aged Contessa and her doctor, are delightful but they don’t so much advance the plot as decorate it.
Southerland directs the show gracefully, Morgan Large’s designs have a weathered beauty, and the cast is good. Chris Peluso and Zoë Doano as the leads have the right air of mutual fixation, Helen Turner shines as a shimmying flapper, and Gay Soper and Anthony Cable are touching as the romantic oldsters. But, in laying on the charm, the show finally robs death of its sting.
• At Charing Cross theatre, London, until 4 March. Box office: 08444 930 650.
