By Harry Haun
14 Nov 2009

	Maury Yeston

Yet another Oscar winner, Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient"), weighed in on that number. He did the final polish on Michael Tolkin's screenplay, finishing it just days before his death, and it was his suggestion that the number be shared with Kidman and Cruz. "Three women are leaving Guido at the same time, but only one of them devoted her life to him. Only one of them has been married to him for 20 years. Only one of them is giving up everything in her body and soul. Once we explored it, it did not make any sense for three women to share and participate in the depth of despair and anger that only one of them had really earned. So we restored it to a solo.

"I saw Marion Cotillard's movie three times, and 'Take It All' is as much inspired by Marion Cotillard as 'Folies Bergeres' was inspired by Liliane Montevecchi. I think that's, sometimes, when you do your best work because you realize 'Nothing that I write makes any sense if I don't have a brilliant actor to put it across the footlights to the audience.' Here, I knew I was writing for the specific gifts of a brilliant actress."

Kate Hudson also rates a new number — because, as a Vogue writer in Rome, she was uniquely suited to fill in some important background blanks for a modern audience.

"The greatest sin that you could make in a musical is to make an assumption that the audience knows all this before they come into the theatre. Quite the contrary. Why would younger audiences today know about the '60s? You need to give them this information so they can understand the nature of the character of Guido, the nature of his world, that he is the king of Italian cinema. The 1960s was a time when the whole sweep of Italian art films was thrilling the world. This was a world of glamour and style. Remember skinny ties, pointed leather shoes, the sports cars, the sunglasses? Remember café latte and the mod clothes, stars like Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale? They exuded class and intelligence.

"Therefore, Kate as a Vogue reporter — American to the core, seduced and enchanted by Guido's work, by his style, by his world — can educate contemporary audiences about this era while celebrating the 1960s. She can tell us everything about what Italian movies meant to the world at that time by singing 'Cinema Italiano,' a production number in which I could pull out all the stops, characterize her, entertain and, at the same time, depict this whole world that we're talking about."

Nine is blessed to have in its cast an authentic fixture from that vintage of Italian cinema — Sophia Loren, who won her Oscar in the '60s — a fact that sent Yeston scurrying back to the drawing board to come up with another new song.

In truth, the melody of it is in the stage show — a little waltz in the second act. "I've always been told that a lot of people who know the show consider it their favorite music. It wasn't sung. so I added a lyric. The number replaces a song called 'Nine' which Taina Elg sang as Guido's mother. It was a song for a high soprano. Sophia Loren is not a high soprano, so, in the same way that I was inspired to write certain things for Raul Julia, I was inspired to write 'Guarda la Luna' [Look at the Moon] for Sophia. It accomplishes exactly the same lyric function and dramatic function that the equivalent song did in the stage show, except that it does it in a way that capitalizes on the brilliance of Sophia Loren. That's the thrill of doing this — of being allowed to do something fresh, do something that could evolve into a form that would work not only in the film but work for the actor in the film."

A chronic and eternal tinkerer, Yeston believes in going with what you've got and admits to being very susceptible to the talent put in front of him. "I was inspired by Anita Morris to completely rewrite 'A Call From the Vatican.' I was inspired by Liliane Montevecchi to write 'Folies Bergeres,' which never even existed in the score — and she won a Tony Award for it. When we did it with Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera in 2003, the first thing I did was write a new tango for them in the first act. Well, of course. How could I not? I have two showbiz legends on stage. You don't just say, 'Let's make the show literally what it was 20 years ago.'"

In the past 27 years, Yeston has risen well beyond the rooftop penthouse of the New Amsterdam. When he checked out the fine print in his film contract, he discovered he had been anointed executive producer. "We obviously made whatever deal we're supposed to make in order to allow The Weinstein Company to produce the film of Nine," he said, "but, when I looked at the contract, I discovered that the contract made me and Arthur Kopit [who wrote the musical's book from Mario Fratti's adaptation from the Italian] executive producers. I had no idea. I didn't ask for it, and I'm very grateful. It was just given to us, sorta like The Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai."

("Nine" is rated PG-13 and will open in limited release on Dec. 18, expanding to nationwide markets on Dec. 25.)