By Steven Suskin
(Steven Suskin is author of the recently released Updated and Expanded Fourth Edition of "Show Tunes" as well as "The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations," "Second Act Trouble" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at ssuskin@aol.com.)
23 May 2010
More to the point, theatre-related-wise, but far less satisfying, is Nine [Sony]. Chicago, Kander & Ebb (and Bob Fosse)'s stark and stylish 1975 Broadway musical, was transformed into an award-winning box office bonanza in 2002; why not give the same treatment to Maury Yeston (and Tommy Tune's) stark and stylish 1982 musical Nine? Well, I'll give you nine reasons. Or maybe eight-and-a-half, or maybe just skip it. I was personally distressed that some of the film critics laid blame for the film's shortcomings at the original musical's weak score. Weak score? Judge what is left in the film and how it is used, if you wish; but any such reference to the Broadway score of Nine betrays an ignorance of the show. Yeston's score is one of the finest of the last 30 years; it is, in a very unusual way, remarkable. So much for critical acumen. As for the film, which has now been released on DVD and Blu-ray, it is what it is; not very successful cinema, but of obvious interest to theatre folk. Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and more, under the direction of Rob Marshall of the "Chicago" film. But oh, to see Raul Julia, Karen Akers, Anita Morris and the others once more!
THE DVD SHELF: "M," "Stagecoach" and Rob Marshall's "Nine"
