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“Nine” is a dreamlike musical that delves inside the mind of a libidinous man whose, shall we say, European ideas about women and his accumulation of unresolved relationships have brought his professional life to a standstill. Sound familiar?
“It’s Tiger Woods, set to music,” quips actor Beth Flynn, “I don’t think people will have a hard time relating.”
Jokes like that are making the rounds backstage as the Arvada Center prepares to open “Nine” on Tuesday. But lead character Guido Contini is no Tiger Woods.
He’s the alter ego of Italian film director Federico Fellini. And his problem is not that he loves too many women. It’s that he loves them all too well.
“He loves them, he shares them, and he is consumed by them,” says Broadway actor Randal Keith, who is returning to the stage where in 2008 he starred in “Les Miserables” for just 11 days before an onstage slip fractured his foot in three places.
“Nine” is a 2003 musical reinvention of Fellini’s autobiographical 1963 film “8 1/2,” as well as Tommy Tune’s 1982 Broadway adaptation starring Raul Julia. As it begins, our directionless film director is so creatively blocked after a string of failures that he retreats into a scattered introspection of fantasies, memories and dreams in search of meaning and creative inspiration.
The six most significant women of “Nine” are Guido’s saintly mother and devoted wife, his prostitute and producer, his mistress and muse. And with the exception of the greedy producer, they’re all women Guido has loved intensely.
And like Fellini, Guido doesn’t love them just in the physical sense. “He worships them all, and he has a real connection with each of them,” says Keith. “He’s never used these women for simple gratification. If ever he had a one-night stand, it was never planned to be one.”
Keith says this while darting his eyes almost apologetically at actor Megan van de Hey, who plays Guido’s wife, Luisa.
“I love how you are justifying all of this to me,” she says with a laugh.
Guido’s relationship with Luisa may seem sensational or archaic from a modern, moralizing American mindset. Not so from the more liberated ’60s European sensibility.
“I always got the sense that affairs happened a lot more often then, and it was never intended to be demeaning to the wife,” says Keith. “It was just part of the culture.”
But what makes this musical so sumptuous for these modern women of “Nine” is its attitudes toward women — all of them.
There are 21 of them populating director Rod Lansberry’s cast. It’s a veritable bevy of beauties of all ages, sizes, accents and ethnicities. That’s why, even though Fellini was essentially a 9-year-old Peter Pan in a 40-year- old’s body, women loved him for loving them.
“And he loved all different kinds and shapes of women,” says Van de Hey.
Turns out Fellini was a compulsive sketcher of women. He did it all the time. And these crude drawings, says Flynn, were almost pornographic in how they exaggerated the voluptuousness of the female form.
“He took the features of a woman that he loved the most, and he just exploited them,” added Van de Hey. “And I think that’s very encouraging, quite frankly. I look at all the little ‘skinny minis’ we have running around in this show, and I go, ‘Aha! Take that!’ “
Whether audiences have seen “8 1/2,” Broadway productions of “Nine” in 1982 or 2003, or Daniel Day-Lewis’ 2009 film, one thing is for sure: They are not in for a night of typical musical theater.
The Arvada Center scheduled this staging of “Nine” — the first on any Colorado stage in 12 years — around the time Rob Marshall’s film project was announced. But any hope of a box-office piggyback faded when the film was panned as chaotic and strangely distant. Even with Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren running around Lewis’ mind.
But, odd as this is to say about a musical that’s based on a film, “Nine” is very much meant to be seen live. In performance, this musical is a visual aphrodisiac. I called the parade of leading ladies from the 2003 Broadway revival “a carnal buffet for the weaker-kneed sex.”
And as far as his own cast is concerned, Keith isn’t putting up any arguments.
“Are you kidding?” says a man 19 years happily married. “One guy, 21 women? I’m in heaven. How can I complain?
Van de Hey offers to answer that question for him.
“The first week, Randal was a little concerned there was not as much groping as he was anticipating,” she claims. And to that, Keith says, even his wife would agree. “She really thought I would be all over these women a whole lot more than I actually am.”
But there are competing interests at play here: Satisfying Fellini-philes while welcoming unfamiliar audiences afraid they might not understand this strange world.
First, for the philes: This musical, as any homage to Fellini’s genius must be, is, in places, requisitely existential, form-bending . . . even bizarre. The New York staging had Jane Krakowski (“30 Rock”) descending from the rafters 50 feet up while wrapped in nothing but a stretchable silk bed sheet — and no harness in sight. Later, a wall-sized tiled fresco of Botticelli’s “The Three Graces” turned into a weeping wall, which transformed the stage into the Venetian Grand Canal. It was surreal and magical and utterly intoxicating.
And yet, Keith says, the story plays far more linearly on the stage than any Fellini film does on a screen.
“We set it up right from the very beginning that all of these women are in my head, so I think it’s easier to follow than any Fellini film,” he says.
“At its essence, this is just the story of a man who is stuck in his 9-year-old self, and he realizes the only way he can move on with his life is to stop being a child and take responsibility for his life.”
But the journey for audiences, Van de Hey says, is a cavalcade of exaggerated emotions.
“You are going to feel wonderful joy, terrible sorrow and a lot of hurt,” she promises. “And through all of it . . . this is fabulous musical theater.”
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
The women running around in Guido Contini’s head
Randal Keith plays Guido Contini, a Fellini-like film director, who in despair over being creatively blocked, looks back on the major women in his life, as he saw them. Here are Keith’s descriptions of them, speaking for his character:
Susan Long as “The Mother”: “Like any good, Italian Catholic boy, I worship my mother. She’s my angel who looks over me, and I turn to her every time I get distressed. In my memory, she was a saint to me.”
Beth Flynn as Sarraghina, the whore: “I encountered Sarraghina when I was 9, when I and the other boys would sneak away from Catholic school and go to the beach, where she taught me about life and love – and living them both to the fullest.”
Alex Ryer as Liliane La Fleur, the producer: “She is greed. Fellini didn’t have many producers who would ever work with him a second time. She wants things her way, and she’s only in it to make a profit.”
Megan van de Hey as Luisa Contini, the wife: “She is my strength, my rock, my foundation. And even with all of my affairs, I would never leave her because I love her more than anybody else.”
Anna Hanson as Carla Albanese, the mistress: “She is my passion. Truly just a sexual, physical relationship, even though she wants it to be much more.
Jennifer deDominici as Claudia Nardi, the muse: “She was part of all my huge film successes, so I pull her back in now, trying to re-create the past, because my movies have not been going so well without her.”
The rest of the cast
Lina Darling/Venetian Gondolier: Zina Mercil
Stephanie Necrophorus: Valerie Hill *
Our Lady of the Spa: Mercedes Perez *
Mama Maddelena: Sharon Kay White *
Maria: Ronni Stark
Giulietta: Michelle Sergeeff*
Annabella: Mary Joe Duggan
Francesca: Alison Mueller
Diana: Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck *
Renata: Susie Roelofsz*
Olga Von Sturm: Piper Arpan *
Heidi Von Sturm: Brianna Firestone
Ilsa Von Hesse: Shannan Steele*
Gretchen Von Krupf: Heather Fortin Rubald*
Little Guido: Matthew Gary and Jacob Pearce
School Boy: Nicholas von Tscharner
School Boy: Logan Smith
“Nine”
Musical. Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. Written by Arthur Kopit and Maury Yeston. Directed by Rod Lansberry. Starring Randal Keith. Tuesday through May 16. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sundays, 1 p.m. Wednesdays. $47-$57. 720-898-7200,
Theater in Colorado: News of the week
John Moore’s column: Nick Sugar will return to the stage after a four year absence to star in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at the Avenue Theater … Theatre Communications Group throws its support behind Curious’ Supreme Court battle over stage smoking … A celebration is set for for this week to include a performance of works by Renye Ress. That and this week’s theater openings and closings … and video from Magic Moments’ “The Child.”
Video from “Nine”: “Guido’s Song”
Video from “Nine”: “Be Italian”
Video courtesy Tomas Martinez, The Arvada Center
