Spinning Tree Theatre to Present Rarely Produced Gem NINE

Spinning Tree offers Kansas City audiences opportunity to see rarely-produced Broadway gem NINE.

Based on Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film "8 ½", the musical NINE focuses on celebrated filmmaker Guido Contini. Facing a midlife crisis - and without a subject for his newest film - Contini feels heightened pressure from the women in his life. Composer and lyricist Maury Yeston: "The great secret of NINE is that it took '8 ½' and became an essay on the power of women by answering the question, 'What are women to men?' And NINE tells you: they are our mothers, our sisters, our teachers, our temptresses, our judges, our nurses, our wives, our mistresses, our muses."

Vigthor Zophoniasson stars as Guido Contini, with Lauren Braton as his wife Luisa, Judy Simmons as his mother, and Angela Hagenbach as his producer Liliane La Fleur, with Taylor Harvey, Leah Swank Miller, Devon Barnes, Ashley Otis, Ryan Tucker, Devyn Trondson, Callie Fabac, Christian Harris and Marshall Jones. Michael Grayman directs, with music direction by Gary Green and musical staging by Andrew Parkhurst. Green and Pamela Baskin-Watson play piano onstage.

NINE was initially created by Yeston as a class project in Lehman Engel's BMI Music Theatre Workshop in 1973. The book is by Arthur Kopit. Originally directed and choreographed by Tommy Tune, NINE won Tony Awards for Best Musical and Best Original Score (1982) and Best Revival of a Musical (2003).

The 2016-2017 season continues with an encore production of Shipwrecked! An Entertainment starring Charles Fugate, Bob Linebarger and Megan Herrera, directed by Vanessa Severo, and the Kansas City professional premiere of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. Spinning Tree Theatre exclusively utilizes local, professional talent and aims to produce works that celebrate and reflect the diversity of Kansas City.

NINE, a Spinning Tree Theatre production, plays November 3-20, 2016 at The Living Room, 1818 McGee, Kansas City, MO. Tickets and performance schedule available by calling Central Ticket Office: (816) 235-6222 or at www.spinningtreetheatre.com. Limited seating; general admission. Tickets are $36, with discounts for students, seniors and groups.