Yeston Discusses ‘Nine,’ Fergie

“Writing is not something that you do. Writing is something that you are,” said two-time Tony Award winning composer Maury Yeston. A full house in Harvard Hall 201 on Tuesday, February 15 welcomed Yeston to Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 31: “American Musicals and American Culture,” taught by William Powell Mason Professor of Music Carol J. Oja. Yeston’s visit was an hour-long question-and-answer session during which students in the class asked pre-prepared questions about his work on the musical “Nine,” his influences, and his background.

Yeston was raised in Jersey City, N.J., just a subway ride away from New York City, which he said “[made] the dream almost credible and much more in reach.” Piano lessons from his mother fostered Yeston’s musical prowess at a very early age, though he said his interest in musical theater fully emerged after seeing the Broadway play “My Fair Lady” in its first run when he was a young child. Yeston attended Yale University as an undergraduate, but musical theater was not his main focus. “I was doing so much of everything. I hit the ground running at Yale, as one of the last bastions of the enlightened amateur. My life as an undergraduate at Yale was just learning everything I could, voraciously,” he said. He studied Japanese Literature and Philosophy, and even composed a cello concerto debuted by Yo-Yo Ma. His work on Broadway began with “Nine” in 1982, followed by “Grand Hotel” and “Titanic.”

Many of the students’ questions were about “Nine,” for which Yeston won a Tony Award for Best Original Score, and from which the class studied select numbers. When asked to choose his favorite number from “Nine,” Yeston requested that the audience answer instead, because he couldn’t possibly choose just one. The class responded almost unanimously with “Be Italian.” The highlight of the visit was Yeston’s impromptu performance of the song, during which he walked the audience through the piece, stopping between every few bars to explain his thought process and tell anecdotes about the song’s conception.

The film adaptation of “Nine” was released in 2009, and Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas performed “Be Italian” in the film. “Fergie was extraordinary,” said Yeston, when asked what he thought of her performance. “She got the job from studying, and was so grateful to get the job.”

Yeston was at ease in front of the class; along with his Broadway experience, he has made a secondary career out of providing instruction and guidance to aspiring musicians. Returning to his alma mater, Yeston served as Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Music Studies at Yale University for eight years, and has been director of the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Musical Theater Advanced Workshop in New York City since the early ’80s. His time at BMI began as a student, and he studied alongside future prominent composers including Alan Menken, who composed music for many of Disney’s most successful animated classics, such as “The Little Mermaid,” “Aladdin,” and “Beauty and the Beast.”

After their teacher passed away, Yeston took over the position and taught the course for free. Yeston claims one of the best parts of the job was that he was able to spot early talent in composers like Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, the creators of the Tony Award-winning “Avenue Q.” “These are people I instantly knew were extraordinary … The day that those guys walked in I knew they were going to go the distance, I just had that feeling,” Yeston said.

One of Yeston’s professed goals is to provide others with the same kind of advice, guidance, and support that he considers himself incredibly lucky to have received in the first stages of his career. “There are very direct connections between the great practitioners of musical theater and the younger generations,” he said. One of the producers of “My Fair Lady,” whom Yeston knew when he was younger, suggested that Yeston’s music be brought to Alan Jay Lerner. Lerner, who wrote the screenplay and lyrics to “Gigi,” “My Fair Lady,” and “Camelot,” soon became a mentor and friend to Yeston and helped initiate his career in musical theater.

Yeston’s charismatic answers and comical anecdotes made for a receptive and engaged audience. Professor Oja referred to Yeston as a “true theoretician of musical theater,” and commented on his impressive ability to explain the development of his acclaimed work. “He is able to say how he does what he does, when most artists just do,” she said. Class member Lauren J. Tomkinson ’14 also enjoyed the event. “I liked how he related his personal experiences to his work and how animated and personable he was.”

A true believer in going after you want in life, Yeston advises undergraduates to follow the same principle that allowed him to have more than one career: “There’s an idea that you should realize your full potential, I think that’s true. I’ve been a teacher, a lyricist, and a composer. I’ve been involved in filmmaking. There’s just no end to it. I think that process starts when you’re an undergraduate. There’s no reason to abandon passionate curiosity.”