By Kenneth Jones
02 Feb 2010

	Maury Yeston

Did Yeston know immediately that "Take It All" would be the "hook" of the song?

"The conversation [with Marshall] literally was a 20-minute conversation in which he and [choreographer] John DeLuca said, 'Would you consider the possibility of doing this another way: that in the mind of Guido she would be on the runway and that it would be a strip, and that it would be very raw?' I immediately said, 'I think that's an interesting idea, and perhaps the title of it would be 'Take It All,' because that's really what he's doing.' Then I said, 'If that were the title, then clearly what she could say at the end is: And here's how you will know you will have taken it all, because they'll be nothing left of me.'"

(This also makes it a riff on the intent of the original "Be On Your Own," which ends with Luisa saying, "And you'll take with you all you own from A to Z, and all of me.")

Yeston, as a longtime moderator of the advanced BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, is always telling rising theatre songwriters to be open to alternatives, to be flexible about rewriting. Knowing that he was able to practice what he preaches some 30 years after the creation of Nine was "a very gratifying moment for me as a writer."

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The movie musical "Nine," based on the Broadway production of the same name, garnered four Academy Award nominations: Best Supporting Actress for Penélope Cruz, Best Art Direction for John Myhre; Best Costume Design for Colleen Atwood; and Best Music (Original Song) for "Take It All" by Maury Yeston.

The Academy Awards will be presented March 7 at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center and will be televised live by ABC beginning at 8 PM (ET).