I loved The Lion King and The Producers, but I have never been invited back to see how they look now. Most new musical productions -- however ingenious and attractive -- I'm not desperate to see a second time. But even after such long runs, I'd still love to see Lion King and Producers. And now I can add Nine to that list. Frankly, I didn't initially care for Arthur Kopit's reworking of Mario Fratti's original BMI Workshop book for this adaptation of Fellini's "8 1/2." But I now see the problem was largely in the way the show was originally staged. Director David Leveaux and choreographer Jonathan Butterell have now made the fractured script work wonderfully in Scott Pask's brilliantly Industrial-Post-Modernist setting. Antonio Banderas is not Marcello Mastroianni, nor does he try. He is his own man, and a totally faithless charmer at that. His many handsome women - stylishly dressed by Vicki Mortimer - include Jane Krakowski, Nell Campbell, Laura Benanti, Mary Stuart Masterson, Deirdre Goodwin, Mary Beth Peil, Saundra Santiago, the inimitable Chita Rivera and Myra Lucretia Taylor as the fat whore, Saraghina. Maury Yeston's songs now also all sound like winners!
