Nine | |
---|---|
![]() Original Playbill | |
Music | Maury Yeston |
Lyrics | Maury Yeston |
Book | Arthur Kopit |
Basis | |
Productions | 1982 Broadway 1984 US national tour 1996 West End 2003 Broadway revival |
Awards | 1982 Tony Award for Best Musical 1982 Tony Award for Best Original Score 2003 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical |
Nine is a musical initiated by and with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. It is based on the 1963 film 8½.
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.
Conceived and written and composed by Yeston as a class project in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in 1973, it was later adapted with a book by Mario Fratti, and then with another book by Arthur Kopit. The original Broadway production opened in 1982 and ran for 729 performances, starring Raul Julia. The musical won five Tony Awards (including Best Musical) and has enjoyed a number of revivals.
A film adaptation was released in 2009.