The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces 2018 Kennedy Center Honoree and three-time Tony Award® winner Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton, Bandstand, In the Heights) will direct and choreograph the upcoming Broadway Center Stage production of Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit’s landmark Tony Award®–winning musical Nine. Running August 2–11, 2024 in the Eisenhower Theater, the production will star Steven Pasquale (The Bridges of Madison County, the Kennedy Center’s Guys and Dolls) as Guido Contini, Shereen Ahmed (My Fair Lady) as Claudia, three-time Tony Award® nominee Carolee Carmello (1776, Parade) as Liliane La Fleur, Sasha Hutchings (Oklahoma!, Hamilton) as Our Lady of the Spa, Lesli Margherita (Matilda, Dames at Sea) as Saraghina, Academy Award® and Tony Award® nominee Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Man of La Mancha, Scarface) as Guido’s Mother, Jen Sese (Hamilton, Hair) as Stephanie Necrophorus, Tony Award® nominee Elizabeth Stanley (Jagged Little Pill, On The Town) as Luisa Contini, and Michelle Veintimilla (The Visit, Gotham) as Carla Albanese. The complete cast will be announced at a later date.
“I’m thrilled to be returning to the Kennedy Center, where I’ve been blessed to have made so many amazing creative memories,” said Andy Blankenbuehler. “Working on Nine has long been a dream of mine. Theater lovers all know how glorious these songs will sound with this unbelievable cast of actors, but I’m also very excited to bring this deeply complicated and rich story of love, creativity, and acceptance to life through dance. With Maury Yeston’s unbelievable score, anything is possible.”
“Andy has a unique gift to integrate a vision of song, dance, story, and character. I am elated to have him back at the Kennedy Center and work together on this glorious, moving, one-of-a-kind musical. With this incredible cast, this new production of Nine is a not-to-be-missed event,” said Jeffrey Finn, Broadway Center Stage Artistic Director and Kennedy Center Vice President and Executive Producer of Theater.
Based on the groundbreaking, Academy Award®–winning Federico Fellini film 8 ½, Nine takes it up (half) a notch by putting Fellini’s semi-autobiographical story to music. Famed director Guido Contini (Pasquale), suffering from “director’s block” on his latest film and from a strained marriage to the neglected Luisa (Stanley), retreats into his mind, where a parade of women—lovers past and present—bombard his senses and throw reality into question. Suffused with a haunting score by Maury Yeston and book by Arthur Kopit, the Tony Award®–winning musical blends genres and styles to explore love, rejection, how we love, and why we reject.
Nine will include musical direction by Lily Ling, scenic design by Tony Award® winner Derek McLane, lighting design by Cory Pattak, costume design by Alejo Vietti, sound design by Haley Parcher, and wig design by Tom Watson. The production stage manager is Matthew Lacey. Casting is by Geoff Josselson.
Tickets for Broadway Center Stage: Nine are now on-sale via the Kennedy Center website, in-person at the box office, or by calling 202-467-4600.
The Broadway Center Stage series, now in its fifth season, has been acclaimed by the Washington Post as “a raging success at the Kennedy Center reflecting a Broadway sheen.” Its hit production of Monty Python’s SPAMALOT recently enjoyed critically-acclaimed Broadway engagement and will embark on a national tour in 2025.
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