 NINE
Musical 2 Acts Book by Arthur Kopit. Music, adaptation and lyrics by
Maury Yeston. Based on the film 8.1/2 by Federico Fellini. Adapted from
the Italian by Mario Fratti 46th Street Theatre, Broadway - 9 May, 1982 (729 perfs)
A man revisits his past loves in this sumptuous, witty, wise and glamorous
musical for a cast of 1 man and twenty-two women.
STORY:
Guido Contini, a film director in the Fellini mould, has contracted
with Liliane La Fleur to write and direct a film, but is unable to
come up with a suitable plot. He is also, after recent box office failures,
drifting towards a nervous breakdown, from which he is held back only
by the support of his wife, Luisa. As his sanity disintegrates, he
drifts into nostalgic reverie, eventually focusing on the formative
sexual encounter of his life, which occurred at the age of nine.
He tries to lure the great actress Claudia Nardi into creating yet
another version of the character that had launched her career in one
of his earliest works, a character derived from Contini's precocious
sexual encounters with a whore dressed as a nun. At the same time,
he buys his mistress a nun's habit and encourages her to help him relive
his childish passion.
La Fleur decides that the film should be a musical based on the life
of Casanova, but Contini's rush into madness, which accelerates when his
wife leaves him, throws the production into chaos. In the final scene,
Contini has reverted to the personality he had at the age of nine. |
CAST:
Guido Contini, film director
Little Guido, Contini as a child
Luisa Contini, his wife
Carla Albanese, his mistress
Claudia Nardi, his protégée
Guido's mother
Liliane La Fleur, his producer
Lina Darling
Stephanie Necrophorus
Our Lady of the Spa
Mama Maddelena
Sarraghina, a prostitute
Guido's three schoolmates
A nun
His Italian admirers:
Diana, Maria, Francesca, Annabella, Giulietta, Renata and Gondolier
His German admirers:
Olga von Sturm, Heidi von Sturm, Ilsa von Hesse and Gretchen von Krupf
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