Nine
Imperial Opera presents
NINE the musical
23 - 26 October 2002 at 8pm
London Oratory School Theatre
Book by Arthur Kopit | Music and lyrics by Maury Yeston
Tickets £12, £6 concessions
Based on the film 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini
Adapted from the Italian by Mario Fratti
Synopsis
Guido Contini, a film director in the Fellini mould, has contracted with Maurice/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 prostitute 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.
The Production Team | |
| Director | David Phipps-Davis |
| Musical Director | Edmund Connolly |
| Choreographer | Josephine Hussey |
Characters
- 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
- Maurice/Liliane La Fleur, his producer
- Leo/Lina Darling
- Stephan/Stephanie Necrophorus
- Our Lady of the Spa
- Sarraghina, a prostitute
- Little Guido's three schoolmates
- A nun
- American Reporter
- British Reporter
- German Reporter
- Chorus
Musical Numbers
- Be Italian
- Be On Your Own
- The Bells of St Sebastian
- A Call From the Vatican
- Folies Bergère
- Getting Tall
- The Grand Canal
- Guido's Song
- I Can't Make This Movie
- Long Ago
- A Man Like You
- My Husband Makes Movies
- Nine
- Not Since Chaplin
- Only With You
- Overture Delle Donne
- Simple
- Unusual Way