Show Synopsis:
Guido Contini is a famous Italian director who is dealing with writers block on a script, the fact that he just turned forty, and his fear that his wife Luisa will leave him. He begins to hear and interact with other women he has known and loved throughout his life, and it's not clear whether he is imagining the women or whether they have followed him to the spa in Venice where he is trying to relax with Luisa. His mistress Carla tries to seduce him, his producer Lilliane wants him to make a musical film, his mother bathes him on a beach in a childhood memory, and the prostitute Saraghina teaches him about love in between his classes at Catholic school. Then his great muse Claudia, a famous film star, joins him on the beach, but realizes she does not want the role that he is trying to write - unbeknownst to him, she wants him to see her as a woman and not just as a a muse. Guido begins to improvise a movie incorporating these different women and how he destroys them and their hearts. Guido is left alone and he begins to think of suicide, but remembers himself at age nine and realizes it is not time to die, simply time to grow up. Guido realizes he misses one woman- Luisa.
Character:
Claudia Nardi, a beautiful actress who longs for real love.
Song Context:
Guido has asked Claudia to join him in Venice, but she tells him she no longer wants to be his muse. She loves him but is willing to let him go if he feels he cannot love her as the human woman she is.
Fun Facts:
1) This musical is based on the film 8 1/2, which was a semiautobiographical film directed by the noted director Federico Fellini. 2) Shelly Burch originated the role of Claudia on Broadway, and she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.
3) In the 2003 Broadway revival, Laura Benanti played the role of Claudia, and said that the director was very influenced by the original film 81/2. In an interview with BroadwayWorld.com, she described her take on Claudia as ?when you?re Italian, you?re passionate!?So I wanted her to be passionate."
"In a very unusual way one time I needed you.
In a very unusual way you were my friend.
Maybe it lasted a day, maybe it lasted an hour.
But, somehow it will never end.
In a very unusual way, I think I?m in love with you.
In a very unusual way, I want to cry.
Something inside me goes week,
Something inside me surrenders.
And you're the reason why,
You're the reason why
You don't know what you do to me,
You don't have a clue.
You can't tell what its like to be me looking at you.
It scares me so, that I can hardly speak.
In a very unusual way, I owe what I am to you.
Though at times it appears I won't stay, I never go.
Special to me in my life,
Since the first day that I met you.
How could I ever forget you,
Once you had touched my soul?
In a very unusual way,
You've made me whole.
In a very unusual way
I owe what I am to you
Though at times it appears I won't stay, I never go.
Special to me in my life,
Since the first day that I met you.
How could I ever forget you
Once you had touched my soul?
In a very unusual way,
You've made me whole."