The Kennedy Center’s prestigious Broadway Center Stage series concludes another strong artistic season of firsts–headlined by their first Broadway transfer of last season’s acclaimed star-studded hit Spamalot, as well as their first Tony nomination for Leslie Kritzer in the show–with an inspired production of Maury Yeston (music and lyrics) and Arthur Kopit’s (book) surprise 1983 Tony Winning Best Musical Nine. Inspired by quintessential arthouse movie Federico Fellini’s 1963 acclaimed 8 ½, his quasi-autobiographical depiction of a successful film director who is having a midlife crisis which leads to a severe case of director’s block on what his ninth movie should even be about. The film is to begin production the next day and he hasn’t even conceived a script.
8 ½ won Fellini Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Black & White Costume Design. The Broadway production of Nine, reconceived Kopit and directed by Tommy Tune, eased in at the end of a strong 1982 season that was dominated by Michael Bennett’s game-changing Dreamgirls, and swept half the awards away from the till-then favorite, winning Best Director for Tune as well as Best Score for Yeston, Best Featured Actress for Liliane Montevecchi, and Best Costume Design, the first of many for budding designer William Ivey Long, as well as top prize (the Dreamgirls vs Nine debate is still a volatile topic in the theatre world; perhaps the Broadway Center Stage series should mount the former to give modern audiences another comparison—just a thought). A moderately successful 2003 all-star revival starring Antonio Banderas won Best Revival and Best Featured Actress for then rising star Jane Krakowski. There is also a failed 2009 star-studded movie adaptation of the musical that basically just retrotted out Chicago in another story. (I still remember my review of that: “They call it Nine; I call it Two-and-a-Half.”) If you haven’t seen it, don’t bother.
The musical centers around frustrated artist Guido Contini (Steven Pasquale), who, facing his impending 40th birthday and in the midst of a mid-life crisis, is creatively stifled, searching for inspiration for his next movie, in the face of pressure from his ball-busting producer Liliane Le Fleur (Carolee Carmello), marital issues with his long suffering, extremely supportive wife Luisa (Elizabeth Stanley), and impatience from his needy mistress Carla (Michelle Veintimilla). To buy time and hopefully a creative spark, Guido and Luisa sneak away to a Venetian hot springs spa where, upon reflection, Guido begins to realize his personal and professional crises are intricately intertwined. Guido then embarks on a metaphysical self-exploration of the multitude of women who have influenced his personal, professional, intellectual, and sexual development to figure out the cause and cure for his dry spell. Director/Choreographer Andy Blankenbuehler, like his predecessor the always innovative Tommy Tune, weaves this all into an divine vision of perpetual motion with an all-female chorus that adds almost nonstop dance and constant feminine energy to Guido’s entire fever dream
It is from this realization that Guido unleashes a free-form parade of the landmark women who have shaped the man he is. Pasquale (returning star of BSC’s Guys & Dolls, Broadway’s Bridges of Madison County, TV’s Rescue Me), strongly escorts us along this metaphorical tale with his strong stage presence and luxurious baritone voice that he wraps velvetly around Yeston’s lyrical score. Pasquale’s Guido is equal parts matinee idol and creative genius, and seduces his audience as easily as he has his array of sacred feminines.
In addition to Liliane, Luisa, and Carla, he also checks in with the memories of his dear mother (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Saraghina (Leslie Margherita), an earthy prostitute who taught nine-year-old Guido (Charlie Firlik) about women and love , as well as his present day muse Claudia (Shereen Ahmed), the star of all his movies who may as well be an otherworldly spirit for the grace and fantasy presence she extends to his story.
Yeston gives each woman a moment to shine, and Stanley (Jagged LIttle Pill, Pal Joey) gets (maybe creates?) several, threatening to steal the show right out from underneath Pasquale’s strong lead (which she would have from a less stellar narrator). Stanley is an acting tour de force and gets the musical off with a strong thematic opening (“My Husband Makes Movies”) and blows up his movie, her marriage, and the entire musical with them in her powerful 11:00 anthem when she realizes he has, in desperation, used the most intimate and personal moments of their marriage as fodder for his story for his fantasy woman. Yeston composes three intentional showstoppers, Stanley creates a fourth.
Carmello (The Addams Family, 1776), a force of nature as Liliane, not only drives the plot but leads the biggest of the showcase numbers when she insists Guido’s unmade movie be a musical, inspired by her former glory days as a star vedette in the illustrious “Folies Bergères”, hijacking Guido’s stream of conscious with a side trip into her own, which is of course bigger and incredibly more elaborate, as sensational as she recalls in her heyday.
Margherita (Matilda) brings a carnal sensuality (almost a mandatory trademark of Italian movies of the era) to siren Saraghina, a spirited prostitute who worked the beach near young Guido’s Catholic grade school, leading the rousing first act finale “Be Italian”, a gritty, tambourine pounding initiation into a young boy’s sexual awakening. At the very least, she instills in the impressionable boy’s psyche that the very gift of his innate Italian charms will be the keys to the sexual kingdom of woman to come.
The single exception to Blankenbuehler’s perpetual motion is local native Shereen Ahmed (My Fair Lady national tour) as his ethereal muse Claudia, summoned to grace the movie-to-be hoping she will inspire it. Ahmed is stunning and delivers the single quiet beautiful moment of the show in “Unusual Way”. Tired of playing variations of the same character in his movies and his life, she rejects his love of her spirit when she desires his love as a woman. Yet, she fulfills her role as muse when her admonishment of him as a Casanova inspires Guido to make the musical about the famed Italian philanderer.
Mastrantonio (Man of La Mancha, Scarface, The Color of Money) also delivers some gentle adoring moments as his mother with a surprisingly strong voice, warm and maternal with great emotional depth. In contrast, she also goes on the warpath when she finds the shenanigans that happened along the beach near St. Sebastian’s School. And young Firlik deserves much credit for tackling a very adult-oriented child’s role with a strong boy soprano voice and engaging stage presence. Young Guido Contini is no Oliver Twist or Annie Warbucks. He holds his own with veteran Pasquale, providing very adult advice for the floundering hero in their final number of the show, “Getting Tall”.
The only showstopper that misses the mark is the first of the show, Carla’s first appearance, a phone seduction from a neighboring hotel (“A Call from the Vatican”). The early number in every incarnation of the show has always been extremely memorable. In Tune’s staging for the original Carla, bombshell Tony nominee Anita Morris draped and contorted herself seductively and continuously all over the set of the baths in the notorious black lace body suit that was banned from the Tonys by standards and practices as too hot for prime time. Revival Carla, Tony winner and comic goddess Jane Krakowski, unfurled herself from the ceiling à la Cirque du Soleil, unraveling herself from a never-ending bedsheet into Guido’s lap and back up. Unfortunately, Blankenbuehler, as inspired as many other of his visualizations are throughout the show, doesn’t give Veintimilla enough to work with, merely wrapping her in the flowing gauzy drops in a possible stage-bound salute to Krakowski. Costume designer Alejo Vietti also fails to adorn her in anything as provocative as Morris’ scandalous body suit or Krakowski’s nude-illusion bedsheet to work with. So unfortunately, Veintimilla (The Visit) herself, abandoned by her creatives, lacks both the libidinous Jessica Rabbit sexuality of temptress Morris (who sang most of the number upside down with her feet in the air and her head below her assets) and the Ann-Margret sex kitten playfulness of comic master Krakowski (again suspended head down from the ceiling and having to support her body with her tight core alone), and the number which should be the early benchmark for all the future showstoppers to come, while still fun and setting the sensual tone for the rest of the evening, just set the bar a little lower than usual. The team did admittedly have difficult to impossible acts to follow but seemed to just concede from the start.
The Broadway Center Stage series has always featured impressive technical design, but Nine sets a new high for artistic interpretation, and a beautiful collaboration it is from all branches. From the initial “turn off your cell phones” curtain speech, which is delivered in melodious Italian with English subtitles projected on the stage curtain, the last translated line being “This musical is not entirely in Italian. (break) But wouldn’t that be beautiful…..” This is the moment you know you’re in for something special.
Scenic Designer Derek McLane dismisses Tune’s original concept of the stage as the Venetian baths. He instead draws inspiration from the many parochial influences in the story, making for more of an Italian epic to Guido’s struggles with the Catholic church, school, and faith referenced throughout. A simple series of floor-length white gauzy fabric sheets act as backdrops, stage legs, (and props for Carla’s big “Vatican” number, giving more depth to the ruse that the call is not from his mistress, but the pontiff wishing him well on his newest endeavor.) In fact, the conductor’s podium for the always wonderful on-stage orchestra, is an imposing structure upstage-right that bears a striking resemblance to the pulpit of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Costume designer Alejo Vietti designs a visually stunning array of black on black for his entire cast in a salute to William Ivey Long’s original salute to the black and white movie. It’s a single costume show for most everyone, but each of those costumes is a well thought out definition of each character. And on Blankenbuehler’s constantly dancing ensemble, they become the part of the set, a mobile backdrop filling in all the negative space allowed by McLane’s elegant set design. Vietti also gets special praise for one surprising and spectacular on-stage transformation costume that adds an additional layer of stage magic to the already present movie magic throughout.
Lighting Designer Cory Pattak adds into the stunning visuals with dramatic lighting effects that are at times breathtaking. Lighting the stark contrast of black and white is a deceptively difficult task, and Pattak makes it look effortless and purposeful, adding to the compounding visual layers that define the cinematic roots of the piece.
Always meriting recognition, the constantly impressive Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, here under the masterful direction of conductor Lily Ling, provides the lush accompaniments that sound less like a traditional Broadway production, and more like the sweeping grandeur of a classic cinematic score. And Sound Designer Haley Parcher balances it all flawlessly, providing the usually stellar sound we’ve come to expect at the Kennedy Center, adding to the polished effect of movie music.
Blankenbuehler executes his strong vision for the piece in both roles as director and choreographer, giving us a very cinematic experience for a stage piece, artistically interweaving aspects of flesh, soul, and spirit, as well as reality and fantasy, and truth and fiction. Cinema, especially foreign films, can a very ethereal, fluid visual experience full of imagery and symbolism, and Blankenbuehler beautifully captures that illusive experience for the stage. In this landmark artistic production at the Kennedy Center, Blankenbuehler, a three-time Tony winning choreographer (for In the Heights, Hamilton, and the very underrated Bandstand, which he also directed), makes his mark as a visionary director/choreographer, showing strong stage instincts as well as establishing a visually stunning style for the musical, poising himself to join the ranks of Susan Strohman or even Tommy Tune.
The Kennedy Center should feel a sense of great accomplishment with the end of this season, and the early announcements of next season offer a new series of firsts. The lead-off show will their first audience-participation experiment with The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. And, Omigod, you guys, the season will end with perpetual crowd pleaser Legally Blonde. In between will be their exciting first World Premier musical production, Schmigadoon!, based on the Apple TV original series saluting (and skewering) the big name musicals of Broadway’s Golden Era. While it’s enough that the Kennedy Center has given us a full schedule of top quality national touring productions, it’s an extra blessing that their amazing addition of their critically acclaimed resident theatre company that Broadway Center Stage series has evolved into supplements their unusually strong programming with the best hometown regional theatre, featuring the talents of the best creatives and repertory performers available, is a blessing that the community should be extra grateful for. Thank you for another strong, entertaining, and artistically amazing season of Broadway Center Stage. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for the future.
Photos courtesy of Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman
Running Time: Approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes with one intermission.
Nine currently plays through August 11, 2024, at the Eisenhower Theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online