Kensington Arts' 'Nine': Some Hits, Lots of Misses
Thursday, June 1, 2006; Page GZ21
Kensington Arts Theatre, with a burgeoning reputation for staging daring, challenging musicals, successfully reproduces Maury Yeston's music in "Nine, the Musical," mixing operetta, ballads, Italian folk motifs and old-fashioned torch numbers. Doe B. Kim's tiny, keyboard-based orchestra laudably brings the score to life. But Arthur Kopit and Mario Fratti's script is DOA.
"Nine" is based on Federico Fellini's 1963 cinema classic "8 1/2 ," a surreal, autobiographical voyage into the fantasies of a creatively hobbled, womanizing film director. "Nine" requires a swirl of fantasy onstage to overcome its weaknesses, or Antonio Banderas as the male lead, as Broadway recently provided. The Kensington troupe has neither.
  Dimitrios Drimonis, center, plays womanizing filmmaker Guido Contini in "Nine." He's surrounded by cast members, from left, Laura Anne Knockenhauer, Sophie Ballo and Constance Grignon. (By Ernie Achenbach) |
Instead, director Duane Monahan goes for a meat-and-potatoes approach, perhaps hoping the music would compensate for its uninspired staging. The spotlights blast everything with hot-white light, rendering evocative, dreamlike illumination impossible. And while Dimitrios Drimonis as filmmaker Guido Contini offers a pleasing velvety baritone, he is otherwise impassive.
It's grueling trying to understand the characters because their tongues are tangled in thick Italian accents. Monahan disobeys community theater rule No. 1: Skip "foreign" accents unless they're perfectly rendered. (Drimonis sounds like Roberto Benigni imitating Count Dracula.) They're unnecessary here anyway as the setting is Italy and the characters are Italians speaking Italian to each other. That means they have no accents.
Contini is an immature lout of 40 with an emotional age of 9. He's the only adult male in the cast, as more than a dozen women, including his dead mother, his wife, his mistress, a prostitute, terrifying nuns and his producer churn about in his hyperactive mind, mixing past and present. Why we're supposed to find Contini fascinating, and why women are drawn to him, is never demonstrated.
Much of the first act's score is saccharine and overly reliant on a cappella chorus passages from the women. It's only when Laura Anne Knockenhauer, as Contini's restless mistress Carla, sings the sultry "A Call From the Vatican" in her lollipop voice, writhing seductively in a bed sheet, that the music begins to percolate. The lilting ballad "Only With You" immediately follows, as Contini poignantly considers his reliance on his wife.
The extended "Folies Bergères" sequence then interweaves dialogue with several types of musical genres, allowing Liz Weber to shine with an old-fashioned music hall runway routine that has nothing to do with Contini's story. The door to the past is then fully opened as Kim Weaver harnesses her clear, soaring voice to the operatic "Nine," portraying Contini's mother singing to her young son (Samuel Weich). The cool beauty of the aria gives way to the sex-drenched "Be Italian," as prostitute Sarraghina, played with earthy sensuality by Katie McManus, unleashes the boy's appetites.
There were empty seats after intermission, but those who left early missed the best of the show. Yeston unleashes a lengthy, operatic dream sequence in which Contini's life comes into focus as his artistic crisis fractures into a spectacle of theatrical excess. The "Recitativo/Only You/Grand Canal Finale" progression is dramatic and dynamic, mixing grand themes and stylish flourishes as it brings most of the cast onstage. It is probably this extended passage that won the show the "Best Musical-Drama" Tony in 1982 and "Best Revival of a Musical" in 2003.
"Nine, the Musical" runs almost 2 1/2 hours, about 35 minutes of which are quite entertaining. Rate "Nine" a five, overall.
"Nine, the Musical" continues through June 10, performed by Kensington Arts Theatre at Kensington Town Center, 3710 Mitchell St. Showtimes are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. For tickets, call 240-396-4307. For information and tickets, visithttp:/
