Tony and Grammy-winning composer David Yazbek brings his one-man show to downtown Mountain View this Sunday, Feb. 8.
The performance, “David Yazbek: My Broadway,” is a fund-raiser for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. It is set for 7:30 p.m. at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.
“I get to play my songs from my albums and my musicals, and most importantly, I get to tell the stories behind them,” Yazbek said.
Alone onstage with just a piano, Yazbek will tell his story of being a rock and jazz-inspired Broadway composer and how he embraces life as a musician.
“The theme is about embracing life and how it’s finite; about my conflicted feelings about being a Broadway guy as opposed to a rock star or a poet; and finally, realizing that this is what I do, and I love doing it,” Yazbek said. “I can totally embrace it, fully embrace it.”
Yazbek’s award-winning career started more than 50 years ago as a writer for “Late Night with David Letterman,” earning a 1984 Primetime Emmy for helping write the show. Yazbek then moved to writing music, including rock albums, TV theme songs and musicals. His most recent musical works include “Dead Outlaw,” “Tootsie” and “The Band’s Visit,” which won a Tony (2018) and Grammy (2019).
All of it is fair game for what the audience might hear in the 90-minute “My Broadway.”
“You’ll see a lot of songs – sometimes pieces of songs, sometimes whole songs, probably two-thirds songs from my shows,” Yazbek said. “It’ll be 60/40 in favor of singing and playing.”
All this follows another one-man show by Hershey Felder, Yazbek’s close friend who organized Sunday’s performance. Felder’s closing show of “The Piano and Me” at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts will be at 2:30 p.m. that day.
“He’s whimsical, fun, clever and wonderfully twisted in the best way,” Felder said. “I tell stories about dead composers, and he’s a living one. Getting a story of what happens from the actual guy is amazing.”
For tickets ($60 and $85) and more information, visit tinyurl.com/YazbekBroadway.
