Nine

Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston

Book by Arthur Kopit & Mario Fratti
Produced by Michel Stuart, Harvey Klaris & Roger Berlind
Choreography by Tommy Tune & Thommie Walsh
Directed by Tommy Tune
Opened May 9, 1982 at the 46th Street Theatre, (New York) and ran for 732 performances
Info
Original Cast Included: Liliane Montevecchi,Taina Elg,Karen Akers,Shelly Burch,Raul Julia,Anita Morris
,Camille Saviola,Stephanie Cotsirilos and Cameron Johann

NINE
Tratto da "Otto e Mezzo" di Federico Fellini
Debutto e repliche BD 1982 ( 732 )
Musica Maury Yeston
Liriche Maury Yeston
Libretto Arthur Kopit e Mario Fratti
Stile MUSICAL PLAY
TRAMA
La storia di Guido Contini, regista in cerca di creatività, ma sull’orlo dell’esaurimento nervoso. Rifuggendo
dalla realtà e ossessionato dalle donne, il regista ha una serie di visioni sulla sua vita passata, le sue numerose
amanti, il suo rapporto con la religione e la sua carriera.
FILM

COMMENTO
Il regista Federico Fellini proibì, all’epoca dell’uscita del musical, che il suo film fosse citato sui titoli delle
locandine, considerando lo spettacolo poco coerente con la trama del film. È il primo musical di successo di
Yeston, autore tra l’altro, di "Grand Hotel" e "Phantom". Recentemente il regista italiano Saverio Marconi è
stato chiamato a Parigi per dirigere la versione francese di questo musical.
PREMI Tony Awards per il Migliore Musical, Score, Attrice protagonista.

Nine

"The trouble with Contini/He's the king of mediocrity/A second-rate director/Who thinks that he is Socrates
Book by Arthur Kopit (translation by Mario Fratti)
Music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
Musical supervision and orchestration by Jonathan Tunick
Musical direction by Wally Harper
Choreographed by Tommy Tune and Thommie Walsh
Directed by Tommy Tune
Opened 5/9/82 at the 46th Street Theatre in New York (732 performances).
Main Players/Characters
Raul Julia Guido Contini
Karen Akers Luisa Contini
Anita Morris Carla
Shelly Burch Claudia Nardi
Liliane Montevecchi Liliane La Fleur
Kathi Moss Saraghina
Tania Elg Guido's mother
Laura Kenyon Lina Darling
Stephanie Cotsirilos Stephanie Necrophorus
Camille Saviola Mama Maddelena
Cameron Johann Young Guido

Plot Summary
This musical was based on the film 8 1/2.

Forty-year-old Guido Contini is a famous Italian film director with three women in his life: his wife Luisa, his
mistress Carla, and the actress Claudia (his protege). His last three films have been flops, and he's having a
midlife crisis. In an last attempt to rejuvenate his failing marriage, he takes Luisa to a spa in Venice. However,
Carla is also there, and while Guido claims to Luisa that it's over between him and Carla, their relationship is
obviously still in existence. His Parisian producer, Lilaine, is bugging him to come up with an idea for a film.
The presence of Claudia inspires a movie plot in him.

Much of the show takes place as fantasy movie sequences or as flashbacks to Guido's childhood--his mother
and aunts fawned over him, he got a lesson in sexuality from a local whore (Saraghina), and he was punished
and generally made to feel guilty at St. Sebastian's, his Catholic school. What the plot boils down to is that
because Guido is too immature to commit to any one of his women, he manages to alienate all of them and
finds that he is unable to finish his movie. He becomes disoriented and fantasizes suicide, but is saved by his
nine-year-old self, who helps him separate his younger self from his older self. Guido goes off in search of
Luisa, having finally realized that he loves her deeply.