Kyle Riabko on Bringing the Songs of Burt Bacharach to London in Close to You

Canadian singer-songwriter Kyle Riabko earned raves off-Broadway in 2013 and then at the Menier Chocolate Factory this past summer with What’s It All About?, his smart, hip reimagining of the back catalog of Burt Bacharach. Now, the actor is leading its West End transfer to the Criterion Theatre where the same production is now in previews under a different Bacharach song title, Close to You. So, what is it all about? The charming Riabko tells us.

What was the thinking behind changing your title?
It was a collective decision and a creative one. I knew the phrase "What’s it All About?" was an important one to me and also one that you could take out lyrically and melodically—and also at the time I was 23 years old, so I was on a journey not just with Burt’s music but also of self-discovery. It felt like a philosophic exercise of sorts.

So now you’ve grown up and the new title reflects that?
[Laughs.] As we started performing the show for people, we realized what was happening was that the esoteric search for the meaning of life was there in the music, but that what we were watching were people—and couples in particular—remembering their feelings. It became a more emotional journey, so this different title felt right.

How do you feel about the long journey of the show to the West End?
London has been something we always wanted to do. Even at the very early days of working with Burt on this, he would always say, “You gotta get to London” because, as he puts it, they really discovered him here before they did in the States.

What’s interesting is that you didn’t get a commercial transfer in New York but you are enjoying one here.
This was very swift and it all just fell into line. When we were in New York, it wasn’t an easy time to transfer for anyone, but all the doors there are still wide open. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the process of creating this show, you can’t plan how it’s going to go.

There’s been some surprise that a musical paying homage to a songwriting legend who is now 87 is the brainchild of someone six decades younger.
Well, it sounds cheesy, I know, but it really is true that music is a universal language across borders and also across age barriers. When I was working with Burt on the piano and he was in a vocal booth, I certainly wasn’t thinking about the 60-year age difference.

Because?
I think because the questions Burt was asking himself about life were the ones that we all do and certainly I was, so it became very personal for me. The fact, for instance, that he didn’t have his first hit until he was 35, and I had spent so much of my life beating myself up at age 17 or 18 at not having a number one hit yet. So his friendship has come to mean a lot to me, alongside his qualities as a mentor and a teacher.

How did you approach creating the show?
For us, everything started with the arrangements. We sat down with the entire catalog and thought about what category the songs might fall into—whether they were about love lost or the naiveté of love or being in the middle of love—things like that. I also organized the songs in my mind with regard to colors. I would say, “Those are two green songs or red songs or blue songs” or whatever.

What was the challenge in bringing that music to life onstage?
[We had to ask] how do you convey the emotional shifts in a theatrical setting? That was why we were so pleased to find in [director] Steven Hoggett—someone who could visually convey the material in a way that was evocative and not literal. What we didn’t want with “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” were people coming onstage with seven umbrellas and spinning them around; we wanted it to be about the innards of the songs.

Are you able to keep the informal party vibe at the Criterion?
We’ve got our sofas on stage again so that helps it feel inclusive, and also the show has grown up over the past couple of years. It really feels now as if we’re ready for a bigger stage.

Speaking of bigger stages, would you like to originate a show on Broadway having taken over in Spring Awakening and Hair?
I would love to but I’ve always been a musician first, so this has been very helpful to me in thinking about other projects I might want to write for the stage and how to do that in a tangible way. It’s about staying inspired, but I’m focusing on this now.

Is Broadway the next stop?
I don’t think we know. The most important thing is for us to make this as successful an experience as we can. We’re really happy just to be able to continue playing the show.