A revival of the Garinei and Giovannini's musical comedy Rugantino opened Dec. 22 at Rome's Teatro Sistina, the long-time temple of Italian musical theatre.

Rugantino is perhaps the most popular comedy ever written by the golden couple of the Italian musical theatre, Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini. The show, whose score by Armando Trovajoli includes many popular songs such as "Roma nun fa' la stupida stasera" ("Rome, Don't Be Stupid Tonight"), has not been seen by Italian audiences for over twenty years. The original production of Rugantino dates back to 1963: many still remember the memorable performances of Nino Manfredi, Lea Massari, Aldo Fabrizi and Bice Valori. Since then, the musical comedy enjoyed a highly successful revival in the mid-70s and travelled to America, Canada and Russia.

The cast of the 1998 revival of Rugantino is led by the popular actress Sabrina Ferilli, who recently starred in a revival of Un paio d'ali (A Pair of Wings ), another Garinei and Giovannini hit, and teen-ager idol and film star Valerio Mastandrea, at his debut in musical theatre. Also featuring are Maurizio Mattioli and Simona Marchini. The show is directed by Pietro Garinei and features scenes and costumes by Giulio Coltellacci and choreography by Gino Landi. The Teatro Sistina management holds great expectations to the show, which will enjoy an open run and is not scheduled to tour in the 1998-99 season.

Further information on Rugantino  is available calling the box office at 011-39-06-48-26-841 or visiting the Teatro Sistina website.

A cast recording of the 1998 revival will shortly be published: further information is available from CAM. --By Stefano Curti
Italy Correspondent