After almost 30 long years, the great musical Nine: The Musical is returning to the Melbourne stage for a one night charity concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre on Monday 31 October 2016 – to raise funds for the Think Pink Foundation.
Australia’s top female musical theatre talents are coming together to support this special charity event. The all-star cast includes Fem Belling, Alinta Chidzey, Chelsea Gibb, Claire Lyon, Lucy Maunder, Maria Mercedes, Samantha Morley, Angela Scundi and Susan-ann Walker.
Michael Cormick plays Guido Contini, an Italian film director who on turning 40 is facing a midlife crisis. Directed by Stephen Wheat, the creative team also includes choreography by Michael Ralph and musical direction by David Wisken, who leads a 30 piece orchestra.
Based on Federico Fellini’s semi-autobiographical film 8½, the original Broadway production opened in 1982 and won five Tony Awards – including Best Musical and Best Score. It also won the 2003 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. A film adaptation was released in 2009.
Set in 1960s Venice, Nine: The Musical unlocks a web of Italian film director Guido Contini’s romantic entanglements as he suffers a midlife crisis at the worst possible time – in the middle of his life. Torn between his relationships with three women (wife, mistress, actress/muse) and haunted by images and memories from his past, bereft of an idea for a new film after suffering three flops, Guido watches the boundaries between his inner life and reality begin to blur. Though on the verge of forty, he is still emotionally a child of nine – who must grow up if he is to have a chance at recapturing his creative powers, his career, and his wife.
Maury Yeston is a composer, lyricist, author and teacher, and moves easily between the worlds of theater, film, and academia, writing concert music, Broadway shows, and holding teaching posts as a respected musicologist. Besides Nine, his works include: Titanic – which also won Tony Awards for best musical and best score; and Phantom.
Yeston also wrote a significant amount of the music and most of the lyrics to the Tony-nominated musical Grand Hotel, a number of Off-Broadway musicals including: Death Takes a Holiday; a song cycle entitled December Songs; and the full length story-ballet, Tom Sawyer: A Ballet in Three Acts.
After presenting the acclaimed Sondheim on Sondheim at the Melbourne Recital Centre in 2015, Nine: The Musical builds on Manilla Street Productions’ reputation for presenting Australia’s leading theatrical talent in new or little performed works.
“[Yeston’s] score is a literate mixture of show biz and operatic musical genres that contains some of the season’s most novel and beautiful songs … anyone who cares about the progress of the Broadway musical will have to see it.” – Frank Rich (on the original 1982 Broadway production), New York Times
NINE
Melbourne Recital Centre, Corner Southbank Boulevard and Sturt Street, Southbank
Performance: Monday 31 October 2016 – 8.00pm
Information and Bookings: www.melbournerecital.com.au