Since its Broadway opening in 1982, Yeston and Kopit's Nine has always been a very difficult piece for directors to maneuver. Porchlight Music Theatre's Artistic Director, L. Walter Stearns is now taking his crack at it and more often than not he succeeds. Based on master film director Federico Felini's life as chronicled in the film ‘8 ½', Nine's protagonist, Guido Contini is a hard character for an audience to wrap their emotions around or even care about.

The premise revolves around Contini approaching his 40th birthday and the beginning of a mid-life crisis. The women of his life end up converging on his latest film project and force Contini to choose between them. More importantly, the women force him to look at what his life has become. In the middle of this is his wife Luisa, a former actress with dreams of stardom who gave up her dreams to be with the famous director and now much watch other women reap the fame bestowed by her husband.

Stearns has taken the minimalist approach to this Nine and for the space the show is being produced in at the Theatre Building, the results are visually pleasing. Heading the cast as Guido is one of Chicago's finest musical theatre actors, Jeff Parker who has a very natural likeable quality about him. This helps the audience not loathe the antics of his character to a point of not loathing the musical. Parker surely has the pipes and presence to make this production worth seeing. But as the musical unfolds, there are many more reasons that make this production stand out including the wonderfully stayed performance of Heather Townsend's Luisa and the powerhouse vocals of Danielle Brothers as Lillian LeFleur. The rest of the female ensemble are all of vocal greatness.

Choreographer Brenda Didier does some fun things with the big production numbers, including the showstopper, ‘Follies Bergeres'. Eugene Dizon's musical direction is also first rate, although the production would benefit from a monitor so the singers can pick up more quickly on the starting queues.

The problems that have always existed with Nine are even harder to mask with this minimalistic approach. For one, the first act is overly long, approaching an hour and fifteen minutes. The second act montage number ‘The Grand Canal' can use a trim of about 5 minutes without hurting any plot points. Also, some of the musical numbers seemed drastically under tempo, however, the sound balance of the band and singers was exceptionally good.

What does make Nine thrive is Maury Yeston's soaring score, which remains his finest. With numbers such as ‘My Husband Makes Movies', ‘Follies Bergeres', ‘The Bells of St. Sebastian' and ‘Unusual Way', the score realizes the passion of the characters.

With the film version due out shortly, Porchlight should be commended on bringing this difficult musical to Chicago audiences.

Nine plays through May 18, 2008 at the Theatre Building Chicago, 1225 W. Belmont St., Chicago. For tickets and show times, please visit www.thetheatrebuildingchicago.com or www.ticketmaster.com

Photo: Jeff Parker as Guido. Photo by: Michael Brosilow