The show tells the story of film director Guido Contini, who is dreading his imminent 40th birthday and facing a midlife crisis, which is blocking his creative impulses and entangling him in a web of romantic difficulties in early-1960s Venice.
The vision leads him to re-encounter a glorious moment on a beach with Saraghina, the prostitute and outcast to whom he went as a curious child, creeping out of his Catholic boarding school St. Sebastian, to ask her to tell him about love.
Her answer, be yourself (Ti Voglio Bene / Be Italian), and the dance she taught him on the sand echoes down to the forty-year-old Guido as a talisman and a terrible reminder of the consequences of that night—punishment by the nuns and rejection by his appalled mother (The Bells of St. Sebastian).
Unable to bear the incomprehensible dread of the adults, the little boy runs back to the beach to find nothing but the sand and the wind—an image of the vanishing nature of love, and the cause of Guido Contini's artistry and unanchored peril: a fugitive heart.
In the 2003 Broadway production, as the boy leads the women off into his own future to the strains of "Be Italian", Luisa steps into the room on the final note, and Guido turns toward her—this time ready to listen.
After nineteen previews, the Broadway production, directed by Tommy Tune and choreographed by Thommie Walsh, opened on May 9, 1982, at the 46th Street Theatre, where it ran for 729 performances.
Rounding out the cast were Christopher Evans Allen, Jeanie Bowers, Stephanie Cotsirilos, Kim Criswell, Kate DeZina, Colleen Dodson, Lulu Downs, Louise Edeiken, Laura Kenyon, Linda Kerns, Nancy McCall, Cynthia Meryl, Rita Rehn, Dee Etta Rowe, Jadrien Steele, Frankie Vincent, Patrick Wilcox, Alaina Warren Zachary.
Sergio Franchi starred as Guido for 330 performances, from May 9, 1983, to February 4, 1984, the date the production closed; composer Maury Yeston added a Franchi-style ballad, "Now Is the Moment", to the lovely Italian-sounding score.
[1] Other replacements were Maureen McGovern and then Eileen Barnett as Luisa, Wanda Richert as Carla, Priscilla Lopez as Liliane, and Barbara Stock as Claudia.
The most prominent was the canceling of a Baton Rouge venue so that show could serve for the Grand Opening of the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera season.
"[7] In contrast, the San Diego reviewer expressed admiration for Marcia Madeira's "flattering light design" and declared "Nine" to be "wonderful to watch.
"[8] On June 7, 1992, the largest production of Nine to date was presented in concert in London at Royal Festival Hall with Jonathan Pryce, Becky Norman, Elizabeth Sastre, Ann Crumb, Kate Copstick, Meg Johnson and Liliane Montevecchi.
On December 12, 1996, a small-scale production directed by David Leveaux and choreographed by Jonathan Butterell opened at the Donmar Warehouse, where it ran for three months.
Other cast members included Emma Dears, Kristin Marks, Tessa Pritchard, Sarah Parish, Norma Atallah and Susie Dumbreck.
It opened on April 10, 2003, at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 283 performances and 23 previews and won two Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.
Yeston replaced a waltz dance from the original Folies Bergere number with a showstopping Tango Duet for Banderas and Rivera, a revival cast recording was released by PS Classics.
The European premiere of Nine opened in Sweden, at the Oscarsteatern, Stockholm, September 23, 1983, with Ernst-Hugo Järegård (Guido), Siw Malmkvist (Luisa), Viveka Anderberg (Claudia), Suzanne Brenning (Carla), Anna Sundqvist (Saraghina), Berit Carlberg (Liliane La Fleur), Helena Fernell (Stephanie), Maj Lindström (Guido's Mother), Moa Myrén (Lady of the Spa), Ewa Roos (Mama Maddalena), Lena Nordin[17](Maria).
Other cast members included Monica Janner, Marit Selfjord, Berit Bogg, Ragnhild Sjögren, Solgärd Kjellgren, Ann-Christine Bengtsson, Siw Marie Andersson, Anna Maria Söderström, Susanne Sahlberg, Vivian Burman, Hanne Kirkerud, Susie Sulocki, Annika Persson, Charlotte Assarsson, Anna-Lena Engström, and Kim Sulocki (Guido as a child).
Other cast members included Nancye Hayes (as Liliane La Fleur), Peta Toppano as Claudia, Caroline Gillmer as Sarragina, Jackie Rees, Gerda Nicholson, Kerry Woods, Anna Lee, Sally Anne Bourne, Alana Clark, Sally Clark, Alison Jiear, Donna Lizzio, Cammie Munro, Marie-Jackson, Sharon Jessop, Alix Longman, Lisa O'Dea, Anne Sinclair, Janice Torrens, Penny Richards, and Mimi Rubin.
Performers included Juan Darthes (as Guido), Elena Roger, Ligia Piro, Luz Kerz, Sandra Ballesteros and Mirta Wons.
[18] The musical played in Malmö, Sweden at Malmö Opera in 2002 with Jan Kyhle (Guido), Marie Richardson (Luisa), Sharon Dyall (Claudia), Petra Nielsen (Carla), Marianne Mörck (Sarraghina), Lill Lindfors (Liliane La Fleur), Annica Edstam (Stephanie), Victoria Kahn (Gudio's Mother).
The original Japanese production premiered in Tokyo in 2005 with Tetsuya Bessho as Guido Contini and Mizuki Ōura as Liliane La Fleur.
In 2021 the Umeda Arts 2021 production in Tokyo and Osaka Nine won Japan's Yomiuri Theatre Award for Best Musical, Best Leading Actor: Yu Shirota, and Best Director: Shuntaro Fujita.
The musical premiered in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the fall of 2010 with Ernesto Concepción (Guido), Sara Jarque (Luisa), Wanda Sais (Carla), Marian Pabón (Lilliane Le Fleur), Tita Guerrero (Lina Darling), Michelle Brava (Claudia), Aidita Encarnación (Saraghina), Yezmín Luzzed (Stephanie), and Hilda Ramos (Mamma).
The Phoenix Theatre in Arizona revived Nine in the spring of 2011, starring Craig Laurie (Guido), Patti Davis Suarez (Mother), Jeannie Shubitz (Luisa), Kim Manning (Liliane), Jenny Hintze (Claudia), and Johanna Carlisle (Saraghina).
The Greek production opened in Pantheon Theatre in Athens in November 2015, starring Vassilis Charalampopoulos as Guido, Helena Paparizou as Saraghina.
[22] The musical premiered in Brazil, at Teatro Porto Seguro, in São Paulo,[23] directed by Charles Möeller and Claudio Botelho, starring Italian actor Nicola Lama as Guido, Carol Castro as Luisa, Totia Meireles as Lili la Fleur, Malu Rodrigues (Carla), Karen Junqueira and Vanessa Costa alternating as Claudia, Letícia Birkheuer (Stephanie), Beatriz Segall and Sonia Clara alternating as Guido's mother and Myra Ruiz (Saraghina).
[24] A Spanish production premiered on June 7, 2018, at the Teatro Amaya in Madrid, with a cast formed by Alvaro Puertas (Guido), Roko (Luisa), Patrizia Ruiz (Claudia), Chanel Terrero (Carla), Marcela Paoli (Liliane Le Fleur), Idaira Fernández (Saraghina), Chus Herranz (Stephanie), and Angels Jiménez (Guido's Mother).