Rebecca Luker
The most moving moment in the new Off-Broadway musical Death Takes a Holiday, which features a score by Tony winner Maury Yeston — composer of Nine and the glorious Titanic — occurs in the second act when three-time Tony nominee Rebecca Luker wraps her rich, full-bodied tones around the lovely ballad "Losing Roberto," an ode to her late son that the actress delivers simply and with heartfelt emotion to Death (now played by Kevin Earley, who recently replaced British star Julian Ovenden). Luker, who portrays matriarch Duchess Lamberti, is one of the great sopranos to emerge in the musical theatre in the last two decades, and she has also become an equally compelling actress. She is joined in the new Yeston-Thomas Meehan musical at the intimate Laura Pels Theatre by Earley as well as Linda Balgord (Contessa Danielli), Matt Cavenaugh (Eric Fenton), Mara Davi (Alice), Simon Jones (Dr. Dario Albione), Jill Paice (Grazia), Michael Siberry (as patriarch Duke Lamberti), Alexandra Socha (Daisy Fenton) and Max von Essen (Corrado Montelli). Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with the singing actress, who is married to Tony-nominated actor Danny Burstein, who returns to Broadway this month in the Kennedy Center's acclaimed production of Stephen Sondheim's Follies. Luker, whose Broadway credits boast The Phantom of the Opera, The Secret Garden, Show Boat, The Sound of Music, Nine and, most recently, Mary Poppins, spoke about her newest stage role, her thoughts about leaving the Disney hit Poppins and her actor-husband; that interview follows.

Question: How did this role come about for you?
Rebecca Luker: Well, I was very fortunate to have been asked to do it. Every now and then, something like that happens [laughs] when you don't have to audition for something, so I relish those. And, I immediately said yes when I found out it was a show that Maury had written, and also with direction by Doug Hughes. I was immediately interested, and then they told me who wanted to be in the cast, so I didn't have to think about it too long. I'm really glad I took the job.

	Director Doug Hughes
	photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

Question: Tell me a bit about working with Doug Hughes as a director because I don't think that he's done too many musicals before…
Luker: No, in fact this was his maiden voyage into musical land! [Laughs.] He is just a delightful person. I doubt you've spoken to anybody who's said anything but that. He is a wonderful person. The very first day of rehearsal he gave a speech, as a director often does, and I was floored by his intelligence, his sense of humor, his heart. He's got it all. He's very smart, and he's one of those directors who lets the actors—who lets everyone in the room, really, right down to the understudies—put in their two-cents' worth. He takes everyone's opinion into account. He's so secure in his own personhood and director abilities. He's so giving. Very impressive to me—it's very rare that you find that in a director, and we had a wonderful time working with him. I don't know what he would say about his experience, but we all love him very much, and I hope to do something else with him one day.

	Luker in Nine.
	photo by Paul Kolnik

Question: You had also gone into Nine, another Maury Yeston show. What's it like singing his music, which I love?
Luker: I do, too! I just think Maury has written, yet again, another gorgeous, glorious score in the tradition of big, grand, romantic fashion. I think romantic is the operative word for him. I think he is one of the most wonderful melodists we have. I love singing his music. When you work with Maury, he is always more than willing to change the key, change the phrasing, change the lyrics—whatever makes the show better and whatever makes you more comfortable as a singer. It's just a pleasure to sing his music. I have this wonderful ballad in Act Two in this show that is very stripped of any frills. It's a very honest moment in the show where I get to talk about my dead son, and it's just a beautiful song.

Question: I thought that was one of the most beautiful songs in the show.
Luker: Oh, thank you. It's a good one, yeah.

Question: I just wonder how you went about approaching the song…
Luker: Working with Tom Meehan—I adored him too—Tom and Doug and Maury, we tried, and I think got there, made this song come right out of the scene. I wanted it to be just an honest moment, and not too singy, not too high, and I liked the fact that it's not a long song. She sort of just says what she wants to say about her son, and there it is, and that's it. We rewrote the scene preceding it when we got to the theatre because it didn't seem to be working. Between Julian Ovenden, myself, Doug, everyone involved thought it needed to be reworked, so we all threw our ideas into the pot, and I think Tom Meehan wrote something, I think, very good, and we went from there. It's a pleasure to do a show that's new that you can do that with.