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Listen to our review of the Kensington Arts Theatre’s production of Nine, the Musical [MP3 4:04 1.2MB].

Laura: Tonight we saw the Kensington Arts Theatre‘s production of Nine, The Musical playing in Kensington, Maryland.

Mike: Nine is the story of Guido Contini. He is a film director who has been contracted to do a film, but he hasn’t quite found a script. He doesn’t have any ideas for a script. He tries to get a weekend away with his wife and then realizes he has a few days until he has to have the show ready. So he starts making up ideas and starts filming and everything kind of comes apart and then comes back together at the end. What did you think of the show?

Laura: It wasn’t a bad musical, but it wasn’t a great musical either. I felt it was just kind of there. It didn’t stand out in any way. It wasn’t a bad show or a horrible show. It was just kind of unremarkable, I guess would be a good word that I would use to describe it.

Mike: Yes, I agree. The show didn’t stand out to me in any way. The set was very simple. It was set up as a choir. There were sixteen seats set up in rows with a conductor position in the front middle. Guido would conduct the singers. He was the only male, except for himself as a young child. Then you had sixteen other women who played other parts of his life. His mother was there as well as his wife, his lover, his producer. Overall the singing was ok. One problem was that the actors had Italian accents and it was distracting at times because I couldn’t always understand what they were saying or singing. When the singers were singing as a choir or singing solos out front, they all kind of overlapped and I couldn’t tell what they were saying.

Laura: Yes, I would agree with that. I felt that there were times when the singers would lapse into Italian and it just sort of all ran together. It was kind of a muddled mass. You really couldn’t differentiate who was supposed to be singing what.

Mike: The main character was Guido Contini. He was played by Dimitrios Drimonis. I think he did good with the part. He had a nice voice for many of his songs. Some of the songs like we said earlier he kind of got lost with the other voices going on. The few scenes that required acting were not deep acting scenes, were not dramatic scenes. Most of the plot moving forward was through the music. There were twenty-one songs in the show. It moved really quickly so it didn’t feel like it was two hours and twenty-one minutes long. It didn’t feel like it was that long because it really did move along at a nice pace.

Laura: Guido’s wife Luisa was played by Constance G. Grignon. She had a complicated role in that she was one of the people who had to change throughout the musical from being the supportive wife to giving up on him to deciding whether or not to reconcile with him again.

Mike: Guido as a child was played by Samuel J. Weich. He was a seventh grader. He did really well. He was almost stealing the show. He had a good voice for a couple of the songs he did at the end of the show. One of the songs he sang in was,”Be Italian.” That was fun watching him watch the actresses prance around in front of him.

Laura: The dance numbers were very well done. It wasn’t a big stage, but there was enough room for them to run around and kick up their heels.

Mike: Nine, the Musical is playing through June 10th by the Kensington Arts Theatre performing at the Kensington Armory in Kensington, Maryland.

Laura: Once you’ve seen the show, please feel free to make comments on our website, ShowBizRadio.net.

Mike: And now, on with the show.