#nine

A conceptual musical about Guido Contini, the superstar auteur director who finds himself hiding out in a spa on the eve of his 40th birthday, stuck on what to do for his next film. He indulges himself in fantasies involving the many women in his life (present and past) who have shaped him, completely blind to the ways he hurts them, and chases the specter of his nine-year-old self through the halls. Will Guido find a way to have everything he wants? Or is it finally time to grow up?

Favorite Song: "Overture Delle Donne"

Favorite Lyric: "Guido you're not crazy / You're alright / Everyone wants everyone in sight / But knowing you'll have no one / If you try to have them all / Is part of tying shoes / Part of starting school / Part of scraping knees if we should fall / Part of getting tall"

Favorite Moment: The mini-opera in Act II that apparently was like an hour long at one point... Maury release the extended cut!

Who I Would Play: I don't have the range

I'm never entirely sure how "popular" Nine is- it won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1982 (beating Dreamgirls!) and there is a star studded (but awful) film adaptation, however I've never gotten the sense that it has the same sort of dedicated following as a lot of comparable pieces. I've always hesitated to recommend it to other people because it's a bit too... cerebral? To really be a crowd pleaser. But the craft on display is undeniable and it's hard not to be swept away in the beauty of it all.

One of the lushest scores to ever grace the Broadway stage, with the vocal overture alone earning it a spot amongst the greats. The central story about Guido's self-destructive behavior bringing about his ruin until he reconciles with his inner child and finally accepts that he needs to grow up and make choices is a powerful one, but the main draw of is the women, who fill out the rest of the cast and get the most iconic numbers in the show.

Guido's wife singing a somber torch song, making excuses for the man she loves for a room of reporters. His mistress cooing to him over the phone as she goes buck wild in her lonely hotel room. His producer performing a resplendent follies number to demand his film be a musical. Saraghina, the prostitute who taught him about sex, doing a bawdy dance with a tambourine in the sand. Every girl in Venice holding a torch for Casanova. It's diva moment after diva moment really.