In 2003, Roundabout Theatre Company was flying high with their long-running revival of John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff's Cabaret. After the Sam Mendes-directed production owned to Tony-winning success in 1998, the production kept going and going, thanks in part to a string of starry replacements for both the Emcee and Sally Bowles (not unlike the currently running revival).
And so, Roundabout decided to follow this up their Cabaret revival with Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit's 1982 Best Musical-winning Nine, a musical adaptation of the Fellini film 8 1/2. The story follows a Fellini-esque film director, Guido Contini, who is suffering from writer's and director's block as he nears his 40th birthday. With pressure to start shooting on an (as of yet) unwritten movie, Guido is forced to contend with his inner demons, his childhood traumas, and his need to grow up. The songs in the show are sun by the many women in Guido's orbit (he's somewhat of a lady's man, to put it mildly). Yeston's Tony-winning score includes such favorites as "My Husband Makes Movies," "A Call From the Vatican," "Be Italian," "Simple," and "Getting Tall."
The original production, directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune, was the surprise winner of the 1982 Tony Awards, beating out another favorite, Dreamgirls. Tune's staging featured a unit set with the white tile of an Italian spa and platforms for each of Guido's women鈥擥uido is usually the piece's sole adult male character. The 2003 revival was slightly more literal, with David Leveaux directing and Jonathan Butterell choreographing.
And to star as Guido, the team took a cue from the long-running Cabaret and found a bonafide A-list star in Antonio Banderas, a Hollywood favorite who had made his penchant for musical theatre known with a performance in the film version of Evita. He also had a very public (if ultimately unsuccessful) bid to play the title role in the screen version of The Phantom of the Opera. The women around Banderas were just as starry, though more from the world of Broadway. Chita Rivera played film producer Liliane La Fleur, with Laura Benanti as film star Claudia, Jane Krakowski as girlfriend Claudia, Maru Stuart Masterson as wife Luisa, and Mary Beth Peil as Guido's Mother.
Though Nine wouldn't exactly replicate the totality of Cabaret's success, the production did extend beyond its initial limited run for a commercial engagement. It also got some starry replacements鈥攊ncluding John Stamos, Eartha Kitt, Rebecca Luker, and Mary Beth Peil鈥攂efore it closed after eight months and 283 performances. The production received eight 2003 Tony Award nominations, winning for Best Revival of a Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The latter went to Krakowski, in no small part because of a particularly memorable bit of staging that had her singing "A Call From the Vatican" while descending from the top of the Eugene O'Neil Theatre's proscenium in a sexy silks routine.
Nine remains Banderas' only Broadway credit, though not his final live musical. He regularly performs and directs with his company Teatro del Soho CaixaBank in Spain鈥攚hich has staged Spanish-language productions of Broadway classics, such as Company and Gypsy.
Take a look back at the 2003 revival of Nine in the gallery below.
Learn what other theatrical events occurred on April 10 by visiting the 半岛体育 Vault.
