A haunting examination of love versus life's reality

Rarely staged in London, Charing Cross Theatre welcomes the musical that inspired the Brad Pitt romantic weepy, Meet Joe Black. Written by multi Tony Award winners Thomas Meehan and Peter Stone, experience a love story in post- WW1 Italy where we see the Reaper take on the visage of a handsome young prince in order to understand human love and emotion.

For three days, he expects to wander around the human world; however a chance encounter with an ailing Duke, to whom he reveals his true persona changes everything. When he falls in love with the duke's daughter, he faces a stark choice; to return to his duties, or live out his life with her and die a mortal.

The hauntingly romantic score is provided by Tony winning composer Maury Yeston, who was behind the score of both Nine, and the stage musical Titanic. The musical itself was based on a 1927 Italian play, La Morte in Vacanza by Albert Casella, which in turn inspired the 1934 pre-code Hollywood movie Death Takes A Holiday that starrred Fredric March and Evelyn Venable as the two lovers.