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Nine (musical)
Encyclopedia
Nine is a musical
with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
. The story is based on Federico Fellini
's semi-autobiographical film
8½
. It focuses on film director
Guido Contini, savoring his most recent (and greatest) success but dreading his imminent 40th birthday and a midlife crisis
blocking his creative impulses and entangling him in a web of romantic difficulties in early-1960s Venice.
The original Broadway
production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, starring Raul Julia
. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical, and has enjoyed a number of revivals.
Fellini had entitled his film 8½ in recognition of his prior body of work, which included six full-length films, two short films, and one film that he co-directed. Yeston's title for the musical adaptation adds another half-credit to Fellini's output and refers to Guido's age during his first hallucination sequence. Yeston called the musical Nine, explaining that if you add music to 8½
, "it's like half a number more."
Luisa's efforts to talk to him seem to be drowned out by voices in his head: voices of women in his life, speaking through the walls of his memory, insistent, flirtatious, irresistible, potent. Women speaking beyond words (Overture delle Donne). And these are the women Guido has loved, and from whom he has derived the entire vitality of a creative life, now as stalled as his marriage.
In an attempt to find some peace and save the marriage, they go to a spa near Venice (Spa Music), where they are immediately hunted down by the press with intrusive questions about the marriage and—something Guido had not told Luisa about—his imminent film project (Not Since Chaplin).
As Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied—his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from the objective world (Guido's Song). His mistress Carla arrives in Venice, calling him from her lonely hotel room (A Call from the Vatican), his producer Liliane La Fleur, former vedette of the Folies Bergeres, insists he make a musical, an idea which itself veers off into a feminine fantasy of extraordinary vividness (The Script/Folies Berg eres). And all the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consummed by anxiety for him and a gathering dismay for their lives together (My Husband Makes Movies / Only With You).
Guido's fugitive imagination, clutching at women like straws, eventually plunges through the floor of the present and into his own past where he encounters his mother, bathing a nine year old boy—the young Guido himself (Nine). The vision leads him to re-encounter a glorious moment on a beach with Saraghina, the prostitute and outcast to whom he went as a curious child , creeping out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love. Her answer, be yourself (Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian), and the dance she taught him on the sand echoes down to the forty-year old Guido as a talisman and a terrible reminder of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his appalled mother (The Bells of St. Sebatian). Unable to bear the incomprehensible dread of the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find nothing but the sand and the wind—an image of the vanishing nature of love, and the cause of Guido Contini's artistry and unanchored peril: a fugitive heart.
Back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him, Claudia Nardi, a film star, muse of his greatest successes, who has flown in from Paris because he needs her. But this time she doesn't want the role. He cannot fathom the rejection. He is enraged. He fails to understand that Claudia loves him too, but wants him to love her as a woman 'not a spirit'—and he realizes too late that this was the real reason she came—in order to know. And now she does. He can't love her that way. And she is in some way released to love him for what he is, and never to hope for him again. Wryly she calls him "My charming Casanova!" thereby involuntarily giving Guido the very inspiration he needs and has always looked to her for. As Claudia lets him go with "Unusual Way", Guido grasps the last straw of all—a desperate, inspired movie—a 'spectacular in the vernacular'—set on "The Grand Canal" and cast with every woman in his life.
The improvised movie is a spectacular collision between his real life and his creative one—a film that is as self-lacerating as it is cruel, during which Carla races onto the set to announce her divorce and her delight that they can be married only to be brutally rejected by Guido in his desperate fixation with the next set-up, and which climaxes with Luisa, appalled and moved by his use of their intimacy—and even her words—as a source for the film, finally detonating with sadness and rage. Guido keeps the cameras rolling, capturing a scene of utter desolation—the women he loves, and Luisa who he loves above all, littered like smashed porcelain across the frame of his hopelessly beautiful failure of a film. "Cut. Print!"
The film is dead. The cast leaves. They all leave. Carla, with "Simple"—words from the articulate broken heart, Claudia with a letter from Paris to say she has married, and Luisa in a shattering exit from a marriage that has, as she says, been 'all of me' (Be On Your Own).
Guido is alone. "I Can't Make This Movie" ascends into the scream of "Guido out in space with no direction,' and he contemplates suicide. But, as the gun is at his head, there is a final life-saving interruption—from his nine year old self (Getting Tall), in which the young Guido points out it is time to move on. To grow up. And Guido surrenders the gun. As the women return in a reprise of the Overture (Reprises), but this time to let him go, only one is absent. Luisa. And Guido feels the aching void left by the only woman he will ever love. In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy led the women off into his own future to the strains of "Be Italian", Luisa stepped into the room on the final note, and Guido turned towards her—this time ready to listen.
production, directed by Tommy Tune
and choreographed by Thommie Walsh
, opened on May 9, 1982 at the 46th Street Theatre
, where it ran for 729 performances. The cast included Raul Julia
as Guido, Karen Akers
as Luisa, Liliane Montevecchi
as Liliane, Anita Morris
as Carla, Shelly Burch as Claudia, Camille Saviola
as Mama Maddelena, Kathi Moss as Saraghina, Cameron Johann as Young Guido, and Taina Elg
as Guido's mother. Raul Julia played Guido for one year from May 9,1982 to May 8, 1983. Bert Convy
was a replacement for Raul Julia's vacation (January 10, 1983 - ?). Sergio Franchi
starred as Guido from May 9, 1983 to close, February 4, 1984. Sergio Franchi also starred in the Road Show version in 1984. Other replacements were Maureen McGovern
as Luisa, Wanda Richert as Carla, Priscilla Lopez
as Liliane. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical. An original cast recording was released by Sony
.
at Royal Festival Hall with Jonathan Pryce
, Elizabeth Sastre, Ann Crumb
, Kate Copstick
, and Liliane Montevecchi
. 165 people were in the cast, including male characters, as originally conceived. The production was directed by Andrew MacBean
and a recording of the concert (with Elaine Paige
stepping in as Claudia) was released by RCA Victor.
On December 12, 1996, a small-scale production directed by David Leveaux
and choreographed by Jonathan Butterell
opened at the Donmar Warehouse
, where it ran for three months. Performers included Larry Lamb
(Guido Contini), Ian Covington (Young Guido), Sara Kestelman
(Liliane La Fleur), Clare Burt
(Carla), Eleanor David
(Claudia), Susannah Fellows (Luisa), Jenny Galloway
(Saraghina), Ria Jones (Stephanie Necrophorus), Dilys Laye
(Guido's Mother), Kiran Hocking (Our Lady of the Spa). Other cast members included Emma Dears, Kristin Marks, Tessa Pritchard, Sarah Parish
, Norma Atallah and Susie Dumbreck. It was designed by Anthony Ward
.
produced a Broadway revival with director Leveaux and choreographer Butterell. It opened on April 10, 2003 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre
, where it ran for 283 performances and 23 previews and won two Tony Awards, including best revival. The cast included Antonio Banderas
as Guido (who received a Tony Award nomination), Mary Stuart Masterson
as Luisa (who received a Tony Award nomination), Chita Rivera
as Liliane, Jane Krakowski
as Carla (winning the Tony), Laura Benanti
as Claudia, and Mary Beth Peil
as Guido's mother. Replacements later in the run included John Stamos
as Guido, Eartha Kitt
as Liliane, Rebecca Luker
as Claudia, and Marni Nixon
as Guido's mother. A revival cast recording was released by PS Classics. Jenna Elfman
was hired and advertised to join the cast as Carla at the same time that Stamos and Kitt were joining the production. A few days before the opening it was announced she needed more rehearsal time and that her understudy Sara Gettelfinger
would take over temporarily. Elfman never did join the company and Gettelfinger played the rest of the run.
The original Japanese production premiered in Tokyo in 2005 with Tetsuya Bessho as Guido Contini and Mizuki Ōura as Liliane La Fleur.
The musical will premiere in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Fall 2010 with Ernesto Concepción as Guido Contini, Sara Jarque as Luisa, Wanda Sais as Carla, Marian Pabón as Lilliane Le Fleur, Tita Guerrero as Lina Darling, Michelle Brava as Claudia Nardi, Aidita Encarnación as Saraghina, Yezmín Luzzed as Stephanie Necrophorus and Hilda Ramos as Mamma. Directed by Miguel Rosa who previously directed the Puerto Rico premiere of "Rent The Musical" in 2009.
Phoenix Theatre in Arizona revived "Nine" in spring of 2011.
announced that Rob Marshall
would direct a feature film adaptation of Nine for the Weinstein Company
. Marshall had previously directed Chicago
for the Weinsteins while they were still at Miramax
. The screenplay is written by Anthony Minghella
with Michael Tolkin
serving as an uncredited co-scripter. The cast consists of Academy Award winners Daniel Day-Lewis
, Marion Cotillard
, Penelope Cruz
, Judi Dench
, Nicole Kidman
, and Sophia Loren
, with Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson
and Grammy winning singer Fergie. Among other cast changes in the film version, the character of Mama Maddelena does not appear, and Claudia's surname was changed from Nardi to Jenssen. The film's final coda is more hopeful and optimistic than the stage version. In addition, director Marshall cut most of the original production's score, with only "Overture delle Donne," "Guido's Song," "A Call from the Vatican," "Folies Bergeres," "Be Italian," "My Husband Makes Movies," "Unusual Way," and an extended version of "I Can't Make This Movie" making it into the final edit of the film. Composer Maury Yeston wrote three new songs for the movie including "Cinema Italiano," "Guarda la Luna" to replace the title song, and "Take It All" in place of "Be On Your Own," as well as the instrumental concluding the film. The film is co-produced by Marshall's own production company Lucamar Productions. The film was released in the US on December 18, 2009 in New York and Los Angeles and opened for wide release on December 25, 2009.
Act I
Act II
Note: The 2003 revival eliminated "The Germans at the Spa".
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
with a book by Arthur Kopit, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston
Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist, educator and musicologist.He is known for writing the music and lyrics to Broadway musicals, including Nine in 1982, and Titanic in 1997, both of which won Tony Awards for best musical and best score. He also won a Drama Desk Award for Nine...
. The story is based on Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's semi-autobiographical film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
8½
8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
. It focuses on film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Guido Contini, savoring his most recent (and greatest) success but dreading his imminent 40th birthday and a midlife crisis
Midlife Crisis
"Midlife Crisis" is a song by the American rock band Faith No More. It was released on May 26, 1992 as the first single from their fourth album, Angel Dust...
blocking his creative impulses and entangling him in a web of romantic difficulties in early-1960s Venice.
The original Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, starring Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical, and has enjoyed a number of revivals.
Background
Yeston began to work on the musical in 1973. As a teenager, he had seen the Fellini film and was intrigued by its themes. "I looked at the screen and said 'That's me.' I still believed in all the dreams and ideals of what it was to be an artist, and here was a movie about an artist in trouble. It became an obsession," Yeston told the New York Times. Playwright Mario Fratti began working on the book of the musical in 1977, but the producers and director Tommy Tune eventually decided his script did not work, and brought in Arthur Kopit in 1981 to write an entirely new book, working (as Fratti had) with Maury Yeston as composer/lyricist, but now using Yeston's music, and Fellini's film, as the source. Kopit's new book, along with Yeston's now completed score, became the script that was produced on Broadway in 1982.Fellini had entitled his film 8½ in recognition of his prior body of work, which included six full-length films, two short films, and one film that he co-directed. Yeston's title for the musical adaptation adds another half-credit to Fellini's output and refers to Guido's age during his first hallucination sequence. Yeston called the musical Nine, explaining that if you add music to 8½
8½
8½ is a 1963 Italian fantasy film directed by Federico Fellini. Co-scripted by Fellini, Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi, it stars Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director...
, "it's like half a number more."
Plot
Guido Contini, famous Italian film director, has turned forty and faces double crises: he has to shoot a film for which he can't write the script, and his wife of twenty years, the film star Luisa del Forno, may be about to leave him if he can't pay more attention to the marriage. As it turns out, it is the same crisis.Luisa's efforts to talk to him seem to be drowned out by voices in his head: voices of women in his life, speaking through the walls of his memory, insistent, flirtatious, irresistible, potent. Women speaking beyond words (Overture delle Donne). And these are the women Guido has loved, and from whom he has derived the entire vitality of a creative life, now as stalled as his marriage.
In an attempt to find some peace and save the marriage, they go to a spa near Venice (Spa Music), where they are immediately hunted down by the press with intrusive questions about the marriage and—something Guido had not told Luisa about—his imminent film project (Not Since Chaplin).
As Guido struggles to find a story for his film, he becomes increasingly preoccupied—his interior world sometimes becoming indistinguishable from the objective world (Guido's Song). His mistress Carla arrives in Venice, calling him from her lonely hotel room (A Call from the Vatican), his producer Liliane La Fleur, former vedette of the Folies Bergeres, insists he make a musical, an idea which itself veers off into a feminine fantasy of extraordinary vividness (The Script/Folies Berg eres). And all the while, Luisa watches, the resilience of her love being consummed by anxiety for him and a gathering dismay for their lives together (My Husband Makes Movies / Only With You).
Guido's fugitive imagination, clutching at women like straws, eventually plunges through the floor of the present and into his own past where he encounters his mother, bathing a nine year old boy—the young Guido himself (Nine). The vision leads him to re-encounter a glorious moment on a beach with Saraghina, the prostitute and outcast to whom he went as a curious child , creeping out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love. Her answer, be yourself (Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian), and the dance she taught him on the sand echoes down to the forty-year old Guido as a talisman and a terrible reminder of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his appalled mother (The Bells of St. Sebatian). Unable to bear the incomprehensible dread of the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find nothing but the sand and the wind—an image of the vanishing nature of love, and the cause of Guido Contini's artistry and unanchored peril: a fugitive heart.
Back into the present, Guido is on a beach once more. With him, Claudia Nardi, a film star, muse of his greatest successes, who has flown in from Paris because he needs her. But this time she doesn't want the role. He cannot fathom the rejection. He is enraged. He fails to understand that Claudia loves him too, but wants him to love her as a woman 'not a spirit'—and he realizes too late that this was the real reason she came—in order to know. And now she does. He can't love her that way. And she is in some way released to love him for what he is, and never to hope for him again. Wryly she calls him "My charming Casanova!" thereby involuntarily giving Guido the very inspiration he needs and has always looked to her for. As Claudia lets him go with "Unusual Way", Guido grasps the last straw of all—a desperate, inspired movie—a 'spectacular in the vernacular'—set on "The Grand Canal" and cast with every woman in his life.
The improvised movie is a spectacular collision between his real life and his creative one—a film that is as self-lacerating as it is cruel, during which Carla races onto the set to announce her divorce and her delight that they can be married only to be brutally rejected by Guido in his desperate fixation with the next set-up, and which climaxes with Luisa, appalled and moved by his use of their intimacy—and even her words—as a source for the film, finally detonating with sadness and rage. Guido keeps the cameras rolling, capturing a scene of utter desolation—the women he loves, and Luisa who he loves above all, littered like smashed porcelain across the frame of his hopelessly beautiful failure of a film. "Cut. Print!"
The film is dead. The cast leaves. They all leave. Carla, with "Simple"—words from the articulate broken heart, Claudia with a letter from Paris to say she has married, and Luisa in a shattering exit from a marriage that has, as she says, been 'all of me' (Be On Your Own).
Guido is alone. "I Can't Make This Movie" ascends into the scream of "Guido out in space with no direction,' and he contemplates suicide. But, as the gun is at his head, there is a final life-saving interruption—from his nine year old self (Getting Tall), in which the young Guido points out it is time to move on. To grow up. And Guido surrenders the gun. As the women return in a reprise of the Overture (Reprises), but this time to let him go, only one is absent. Luisa. And Guido feels the aching void left by the only woman he will ever love. In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy led the women off into his own future to the strains of "Be Italian", Luisa stepped into the room on the final note, and Guido turned towards her—this time ready to listen.
Original Broadway
After nineteen previews, the BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
production, directed by Tommy Tune
Tommy Tune
Thomas James "Tommy" Tune is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won nine Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.-Early years:...
and choreographed by Thommie Walsh
Thommie Walsh
Thomas Joseph “Thommie” Walsh III was an American dancer, choreographer, and director.-Biography:Born in Auburn, New York, Walsh was interested in dance from the age of five, but seriously considered foregoing it as a career when he was rejected by Juilliard...
, opened on May 9, 1982 at the 46th Street Theatre
Richard Rodgers Theatre
The Richard Rodgers Theatre, is a Broadway theater in New York City, built by Irwin Chanin in 1925. When it was first opened, it was called Chanin's 46th Street Theatre. Chanin almost immediately leased it to the Shuberts, who bought the building outright in 1931 and renamed it the 46th Street...
, where it ran for 729 performances. The cast included Raul Julia
Raúl Juliá
Raúl Rafael Juliá y Arcelay was a Puerto Rican actor.Born in San Juan, he gained interest in acting while still in school. Upon completing his studies, Juliá decided to pursue a career in acting. After performing in the local scene for some time, he was convinced by entertainment personality Orson...
as Guido, Karen Akers
Karen Akers
Karen Akers is an American actress and singer, who has appeared on Broadway, cabaret and film.-Background:She was born Karen Orth-Pallavicini in New York City on October 13, 1945. Her ancestry was a mixture of European stock: her immigrant father, Heinrick C...
as Luisa, Liliane Montevecchi
Liliane Montevecchi
Liliane Montevecchi is a French actress, dancer, and singer.Montevecchi began her career as a prima ballerina in Roland Petit's dance company...
as Liliane, Anita Morris
Anita Morris
-Career:Among many roles, Morris's most prominent film role was as Carol Dodsworth, the mistress to Danny DeVito, in Ruthless People and for her sensual performance as Carla in the musical Nine opposite Raul Julia. While nominated for a Best Featured Actress Tony Award as Carla, she lost to Liliane...
as Carla, Shelly Burch as Claudia, Camille Saviola
Camille Saviola
-Early life:Saviola was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York, the daughter of Mary and Michael Saviola. She grew up near Yankee Stadium and graduated from Music and Arts High School then attended college for one year before dropping out to get into acting...
as Mama Maddelena, Kathi Moss as Saraghina, Cameron Johann as Young Guido, and Taina Elg
Taina Elg
Taina Elg is a Finnish-American actress and dancer. She has appeared on stage, film and television.-Biography:She was born in Helsinki, but later raised in Turku by her parents, Helena Dobroumova and Åke Elg, a pianist. In 1957 she won the Golden Globe for the Foreign Newcomer Award - Female...
as Guido's mother. Raul Julia played Guido for one year from May 9,1982 to May 8, 1983. Bert Convy
Bert Convy
Bernard Whalen "Bert" Convy was an Emmy Award winning American actor, singer, game show host and panelist known for his tenure as the host for Tattletales, Super Password, and Win, Lose or Draw.-Early life:...
was a replacement for Raul Julia's vacation (January 10, 1983 - ?). Sergio Franchi
Sergio Franchi
Sergio Franchi was an Italian tenor.Franchi was born in Cremona, Italy. His father wanted him to become an electrical engineer, so he studied both music and engineering simultaneously. The family moved to South Africa in 1952, where Sergio worked part-time as a draftsman, while continuing to study...
starred as Guido from May 9, 1983 to close, February 4, 1984. Sergio Franchi also starred in the Road Show version in 1984. Other replacements were Maureen McGovern
Maureen McGovern
Maureen Therese McGovern is an American singer and Broadway actress, well known for her premier renditions of the Oscar winning songs "The Morning After" from the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, and "We May Never Love Like This Again" from The Towering Inferno in 1974.-Early life:McGovern was...
as Luisa, Wanda Richert as Carla, Priscilla Lopez
Priscilla Lopez
Priscilla Lopez is an American singer, dancer, and actress.-Early life:Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York to Francisco Lopez, a hotel banquet foreman and Laura , who were moved to New York from their native Puerto Rico...
as Liliane. The musical won five Tony Awards, including best musical. An original cast recording was released by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
.
London productions
On June 7, 1992, the largest production of Nine to date was presented in concert in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
at Royal Festival Hall with Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
, Elizabeth Sastre, Ann Crumb
Ann Crumb
Ann Crumb is an American actress and singer.The daughter of composer George Crumb and sister of composer David Crumb, she made her Broadway debut in 1987 as a member of the original cast of Les Misérables...
, Kate Copstick
Kate Copstick
Kate Copstick is a Glasgow-born Scottish actress, television presenter, writer, critic, director and producer.-Career:She is best known for her roles on the children's TV shows No. 73 and ChuckleVision. She also played Marlene Marlowe in Marlene Marlowe Investigates and performed as part of the...
, and Liliane Montevecchi
Liliane Montevecchi
Liliane Montevecchi is a French actress, dancer, and singer.Montevecchi began her career as a prima ballerina in Roland Petit's dance company...
. 165 people were in the cast, including male characters, as originally conceived. The production was directed by Andrew MacBean
Andrew MacBean
Andrew MacBean is a theatre director and writer based in New York City, New York and London, England.He was born in Toronto, Ontario on February 7, 1963, grew up in Pickering and Toronto, and attended Queen's University at Kingston, where he received a B.A. in Drama and Music...
and a recording of the concert (with Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige OBE is an English singer and actress best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, North London, Paige attended the Aida Foster stage school, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16...
stepping in as Claudia) was released by RCA Victor.
On December 12, 1996, a small-scale production directed by David Leveaux
David Leveaux
David Leveaux is a British theatre director who has been nominated for five Tony Awards as director of both plays and musicals...
and choreographed by Jonathan Butterell
Jonathan Butterell
Jonathan Butterell is a choreographer and director, primarily for the stage. He has worked in the West End, on Broadway, and Off-Broadway.-Biography:...
opened at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
, where it ran for three months. Performers included Larry Lamb
Larry Lamb (actor)
Lawrence Douglas "Larry" Lamb is an English actor who has worked frequently in television. He is best known for playing one of the greatest villains of British soap Archie Mitchell in the BBC television soap EastEnders, Michael Shipman in the BBC television show Gavin & Stacey and Mischievous...
(Guido Contini), Ian Covington (Young Guido), Sara Kestelman
Sara Kestelman
Sara Kestelman is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Lady Frances Brandon, Lady Jane Grey's mother, in Lady Jane.-Biography:...
(Liliane La Fleur), Clare Burt
Clare Burt
Clare Burt is an English actress and singer, best known for her stage work and for her appearance on the television series The Bill.-Biography:Burt attended the independent fee-paying Sylvia Young Theatre School....
(Carla), Eleanor David
Eleanor David
Eleanor David is an English actress. She has appeared in multiple films and television programs including Pink Floyd The Wall directed by Alan Parker, Comfort and Joy directed by Bill Forsyth, Paradise Postponed, and Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy...
(Claudia), Susannah Fellows (Luisa), Jenny Galloway
Jenny Galloway
Jenny Galloway is a British actress, and singer best known for her stage career.Theatre credits include:* Madame Thénardier - Les Misérables* Widow Corney - Oliver!...
(Saraghina), Ria Jones (Stephanie Necrophorus), Dilys Laye
Dilys Laye
Dilys Laye was an English actress and screenwriter, best known for comedy roles. She died of cancer aged 74.- Early life :...
(Guido's Mother), Kiran Hocking (Our Lady of the Spa). Other cast members included Emma Dears, Kristin Marks, Tessa Pritchard, Sarah Parish
Sarah Parish
Sarah Parish is an English actress.Parish is known for her work on such TV series as: Peak Practice, Hearts and Bones, Cutting It, Doctor Who, Mistresses, Merlin and the new ITV medical drama Monroe....
, Norma Atallah and Susie Dumbreck. It was designed by Anthony Ward
Anthony Ward (set designer)
Anthony Ward is a British set and costume designer who has designed many of the most high-profile and successful plays and musicals of the last few years.-Awards and nominations:...
.
Broadway revival
In 2003, the Roundabout Theatre CompanyRoundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
produced a Broadway revival with director Leveaux and choreographer Butterell. It opened on April 10, 2003 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre
Eugene O'Neill Theatre
The Eugene O'Neill Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was built for the Shuberts as part of a theatre-hotel complex named for 19th century tragedian Edwin Forrest...
, where it ran for 283 performances and 23 previews and won two Tony Awards, including best revival. The cast included Antonio Banderas
Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
as Guido (who received a Tony Award nomination), Mary Stuart Masterson
Mary Stuart Masterson
Mary Stuart Masterson is an American film, stage and television actress and director.-Early life:Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter Masterson Jr., and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the...
as Luisa (who received a Tony Award nomination), Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is an American actress, dancer, and singer best known for her roles in musical theater. She is the first Hispanic woman to receive a Kennedy Center Honors award...
as Liliane, Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski
Jane Krakowski is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her performance of Elaine Vassal on Ally McBeal, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and for her current role as Jenna Maroney on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, for which she has been nominated for three Emmy...
as Carla (winning the Tony), Laura Benanti
Laura Benanti
Laura Benanti is an American actress of television, film and Broadway theatre noted for her award winning performance as Louise in the 2008 production of Gypsy.-Early years:...
as Claudia, and Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil
Mary Beth Peil is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Born in Davenport, Iowa in 1940, Peil trained as an opera singer at Northwestern University under Lotte Lehmann. There she became a member of the Gamma Phi Beta sorority...
as Guido's mother. Replacements later in the run included John Stamos
John Stamos
John Phillip Stamos is an American actor, singer and musician best known for his work in television, especially in his starring role as Jesse Katsopolis on the ABC sitcom Full House. Since the cancellation of that show in 1995, Stamos has appeared in numerous television films and series. From 2006...
as Guido, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
as Liliane, Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker
Rebecca Luker is an American musical theatre actress and soprano who has appeared in several prominent Broadway productions.-Life and career:...
as Claudia, and Marni Nixon
Marni Nixon
Marni Nixon is an American soprano and playback singer for featured actresses in movie musicals. She has also spent much of her career performing in concerts with major symphony orchestras around the world and in operas and musicals throughout the United States.-Biography:Born Margaret Nixon...
as Guido's mother. A revival cast recording was released by PS Classics. Jenna Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Jennifer Mary "Jenna" Elfman is an American television and film actress. She is known for her role as Dharma on the ABC sitcom Dharma & Greg and as Billie on the short-lived CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose....
was hired and advertised to join the cast as Carla at the same time that Stamos and Kitt were joining the production. A few days before the opening it was announced she needed more rehearsal time and that her understudy Sara Gettelfinger
Sara Gettelfinger
Sara Gettelfinger is American actress, singer, and dancer.-Early life and education:Gettelfinger was raised in Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana. She graduated from the Youth Performing Arts School at duPont Manual High School in 1995...
would take over temporarily. Elfman never did join the company and Gettelfinger played the rest of the run.
International productions
The Argentinian Production of "Nine" (1998) is one of the most acclaimed and remembered presentations, and it won several ACE Awards. Performers included Juan Darthes as Guido, and Elena Roger, Ligia Piro, Luz Kerz, Sandra Ballesteros and Mirta Wons among the cast.The original Japanese production premiered in Tokyo in 2005 with Tetsuya Bessho as Guido Contini and Mizuki Ōura as Liliane La Fleur.
The musical will premiere in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Fall 2010 with Ernesto Concepción as Guido Contini, Sara Jarque as Luisa, Wanda Sais as Carla, Marian Pabón as Lilliane Le Fleur, Tita Guerrero as Lina Darling, Michelle Brava as Claudia Nardi, Aidita Encarnación as Saraghina, Yezmín Luzzed as Stephanie Necrophorus and Hilda Ramos as Mamma. Directed by Miguel Rosa who previously directed the Puerto Rico premiere of "Rent The Musical" in 2009.
Phoenix Theatre in Arizona revived "Nine" in spring of 2011.
Film
On April 12, 2007, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
announced that Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall is an American theater director, film director and choreographer. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe nominee and four-time Emmy winner whose most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago.-Life and career:Marshall was...
would direct a feature film adaptation of Nine for the Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company
The Weinstein Company is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979...
. Marshall had previously directed Chicago
Chicago (2002 film)
Chicago is a 2002 musical film adapted from the satirical stage musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Jazz-age Chicago....
for the Weinsteins while they were still at Miramax
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...
. The screenplay is written by Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
with Michael Tolkin
Michael Tolkin
Michael L. Tolkin is an American filmmaker and novelist. He has written numerous screenplays, including The Player , which he adapted from his 1988 book by the same name, and for which he received the 1993 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay...
serving as an uncredited co-scripter. The cast consists of Academy Award winners Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
, Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
, Penelope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
, Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
, Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
, and Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren
Sophia Loren, OMRI is an Italian actress.In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Two Women, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance...
, with Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
and Grammy winning singer Fergie. Among other cast changes in the film version, the character of Mama Maddelena does not appear, and Claudia's surname was changed from Nardi to Jenssen. The film's final coda is more hopeful and optimistic than the stage version. In addition, director Marshall cut most of the original production's score, with only "Overture delle Donne," "Guido's Song," "A Call from the Vatican," "Folies Bergeres," "Be Italian," "My Husband Makes Movies," "Unusual Way," and an extended version of "I Can't Make This Movie" making it into the final edit of the film. Composer Maury Yeston wrote three new songs for the movie including "Cinema Italiano," "Guarda la Luna" to replace the title song, and "Take It All" in place of "Be On Your Own," as well as the instrumental concluding the film. The film is co-produced by Marshall's own production company Lucamar Productions. The film was released in the US on December 18, 2009 in New York and Los Angeles and opened for wide release on December 25, 2009.
Musical numbers
Act I
- "Overture Delle Donne" - Company
- "Not Since ChaplinCharlie ChaplinSir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
" - Company - "Guido's Song" - Guido
- "Coda di Guido" - Company
- "The Germans at the Spa" - Maddelena, Italians, Germans
- "My Husband Makes Movies" - Luisa
- "A Call From the Vatican" - Carla
- "Only With You" - Guido
- "The Script/Folies Bergeres" - Lilli, Stephanie, Company
- "Nine" - Mamma, Company
- "Ti Voglio Bene/Be Italian" - Saraghina, Boys, Company
- "The Bells of St. Sebastian" - Guido, Boys, Company
Act II
- "A Man Like You/Unusual Way/Duet" - Claudia, Guido
- "The Grand Canal" (Every Girl in Venice/Amor/Only You/Finale) - Guido, Company
- "Simple" - Carla
- "Be On Your Own" - Luisa
- "I Can't Make This Movie" - Guido
- "Getting Tall" - Young Guido
- "Nine/Long Ago/Nine" (Reprise) - Guido
1982 Tony Awards
- Tony Award for Best MusicalTony Award for Best MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Musical, first awarded in 1949. This award is presented to the producers of the musical.-1940s:* 1949: Kiss Me, Kate – Music and lyrics by Cole Porter, book by Samuel and Bella Spewack...
- Produced by Michel Stuart, Harvey J. Klaris, Roger S. Berlind, James M. Nederlander, Francine LeFrak, Kenneth D. Greenblatt (WINNER) - Tony Award for Best Book of a MusicalTony Award for Best Book of a MusicalThe Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical is awarded to librettists of the spoken, non-sung dialogue, and storyline of a musical play. Eligibility is restricted to works with original narrative framework; plotless revues and revivals are ineligible...
- Arthur Kopit (nomination) - Tony Award for Best Original ScoreTony Award for Best Original ScoreThe Tony Award for Best Original Score is the Tony Award given to the composers and lyricists of the best original score written for a musical in that year. The score consists of music and lyrics...
- Maury Yeston (WINNER) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Raul Julia (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Karen Akers (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Liliane Montevecchi (WINNER)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Anita Morris (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Scenic Design - Lawrence Miller (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Costume DesignTony Award for Best Costume DesignThese are the winners and nominees for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The award was first presented in 1947 and included both plays and musicals...
- William Ivey Long (WINNER) - Tony Award for Best Lighting DesignTony Award for Best Lighting DesignThis is a list of the winners of the Tony Award for Best Lighting Design in a play or musical, first presented in 1970. In 2005 the category was divided with each genre represented separately.-1970s:* 1970: Jo Mielziner – Child's Play...
- Marcia Madeira (nomination) - Tony Award for Best ChoreographyTony Award for Best Choreography-1940s:* 1947: Agnes de Mille – Brigadoon / Michael Kidd – Finian's Rainbow* 1948: Jerome Robbins – High Button Shoes* 1949: Gower Champion – Lend An Ear-1950s:* 1950: Helen Tamiris – Touch and Go* 1951: Michael Kidd – Guys and Dolls...
- Thommie Walsh (nomination) - Tony Award for Best Direction of a MusicalTony Award for Best Direction of a MusicalThis is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. Prior to 1960, category for direction included plays and musicals.-1950s:Note: this category was for both dramatic and musical productions...
- Tommy Tune (WINNER)
1982 Drama Desk Awards
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicalDrama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicalThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since. Before the 21st Drama Desk Awards, acting awards were given without making distinctions between roles in straight dramas as opposed to musicals, nor were there...
(WINNER) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a MusicalDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a MusicalThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical was first awarded in the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has subsequently been awarded every year. In the 1993-1994 Drama Desk Awards the award was given under the name of Outstanding Supporting Actress - Musical...
-
- Shelly Burch (nomination)
- Liliane Montevecchi and Anita Morris (WINNERS - tie)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a MusicalDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a MusicalThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical was first awarded at the 1974–1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since...
- Tommy Tune (WINNER) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics - Maury Yeston (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicDrama Desk Award for Outstanding MusicThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music is an annual award presented by the Drama Desk, a committee comprising New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
- Maury Yeston (WINNER) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design - William Ivey Long (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lighting Design - Marcia Madeira (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical
1996 Laurence Olivier Award
- Laurence Olivier AwardLaurence Olivier AwardsThe Laurence Olivier Award is presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre. Named after the renowned British actor Laurence Olivier, they are given for West End shows and other productions staged in London...
for Best New Musical (nomination)
2003 Tony Awards
- Tony Award for Best Revival of a MusicalTony Award for Best Revival of a MusicalThe Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical has been awarded since 1994. Before that time, both plays and musicals were considered together for the Tony Award for Best Revival....
- Produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes: Artistic Director; Ellen Richard: Managing Director; Julia C. Levy: Executive Director of External Affairs; Gene Feist: Founding Director) (WINNER) - Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical - Antonio Banderas (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Jane Krakowski (WINNER)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Mary Stuart Masterson (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical - Chita Rivera (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Lighting Design - Brian MacDevitt (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical - David Leveaux (nomination)
- Tony Award for Best OrchestrationsTony Award for Best Orchestrations-1990s:1997*Jonathan Tunick – Titanic**Michael Gibson - Steel Pier**Luther Henderson - Play On!**Don Sebesky and Harold Wheeler - The Life1998*William David Brohn – Ragtime**Robert Elhai, David Metzger and Bruce Fowler - The Lion King...
- Jonathan Tunick (nomination)
2003 Theatre World Awards
- Theatre World Award - Antonio Banderas (WINNER)
- Theatre World Award - Mary Stuart Masterson (WINNER)
2003 Drama Desk Awards
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a MusicalDrama Desk Award for Outstanding RevivalThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors. It honors the Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-Broadway, or legitimate not-for-profit theater revival of a production previously staged in New York City.It...
- Produced by The Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes: Artistic Director; Ellen Richard: Managing Director; Julia C. Levy: Executive Director of External Affairs; Gene Feist: Founding Director) (WINNER) - Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical - Antonio Banderas (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical -
- Mary Stuart Masterson (nomination)
- Chita Rivera (nomination)
- Jane Krakowski (WINNER)
- Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical - David Leveaux (nomination)