A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

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A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

Posted: 1/18/10 at 5:27pm

I've only recently seen clips of the Broadway revival of "Nine" done in 2003 with Antonio Banderas. The one scene that's continually fascinating me is Jane Krakowski's "A Call From the Vatican". I'm trying to wrap my head around how it's done, but I can't. I'm continually impressed and horrified from her apparent lack of harness or the like. From what little I can find online, Jane just mentions something about it being "special fabric" that locks into place somehow, but that actually just confused me more. Does anyone here know anything more about how this was done?

"Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!"

A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

Posted: 1/18/10 at 5:34pm

Was anyone else at a performance where Jane's t*t popped out? I was! I'll never forget it!

And let's not forget how Mooriah came to the show (only to see this number and leaving with her entourage as soon as it was over, of course) and outright stole the trick for her concert tour but because of her, ahem, voluptuousness, could not make it as seamless as Jane did under Leveaux's direction so it was not nearly as effective.

P

A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

Posted: 1/18/10 at 5:35pm

Whatever the process was, she did it seamlessly and effortlessly. She deserved that Tony for generating heat and laughs while being technically precise. The fabric seems to envelope her lower torso and she grabs a wrist strap. The material looks rubbery/spandexy and seems seal her in. I just wondered how they kept her breastesses from falling out-that is the stage craft I wanna know. I am imagining a few audiences got a nip slip or a wardrobe malfunction.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

Posted: 1/18/10 at 5:40pm

TM: An incredible stunt like that could overshadow a performance, but your performance of the number is so great that the whole thing seems organic.

JK: Thank you so much. I learned a lot from a wonderful woman named Mam Smith; she's part of the Anti-Gravity troupe that created the tricks. I would go after rehearsal and we'd spend hours learning many different kinds of things that you can do with a bed sheet. Ultimately, some of them were too tricky or it looked like I was trying too hard. I think what we came up with is sort of spectacular yet simple. Originally, David Leveaux had contacted Foy, but they wouldn't do the stunt unless I was wearing a harness; that's just their policy and their tradition. So we actually threw away the idea of my flying for a couple of weeks. But I was, like, "We've got to find someone else who will show me how to do this without all the wires and the harness!" Then I remembered the aerial numbers I'd seen at Broadway Bares. I called around and asked people, "Hey, who used to do those numbers at Broadway Bares where people were so sexy on those strips of fabric?" That's how we got in contact with Anti-Gravity.
Jane Krakowski Takes Manhattan

A Call From the Vatican - Nine 2003

Posted: 1/18/10 at 5:47pm

'My concept of 'Nine' in general is that Guido Contini should consider women as coming from heaven,' Mr. Leveaux said recently by telephone from London. 'I had the idea that Carla should fly.' The image may have come easily, but 'it took upwards of 20 people and six months to make that idea work,' he said.

Those involved included professionals from the aerial troupe AntiGravity, who introduced the team at 'Nine' to a synthetic fabric called trico. 'It's strong, it has stretch in it so that it's not brittle, and actually it's very light,' Mr. Leveaux said. For the machinery to hoist the sheet, they hired Foy Inventerprises, which long has specialized in theatrical flying. Backstage, a Foy pulley system, operated by a computer-controlled winch, lifts Ms. Krakowski upside down more than 50 feet into the air; then a manual system carries her 35 feet along tracks in the ceiling to the spot above the stage from which she will descend.

Bill Nagle, a stage carpenter, operates the mechanisms of this scene at every performance. 'I fly scenery a lot,' he said. 'This is the first time I've flown a person. I was nervous about it. Flying a person, you can't make any mistakes. Sometimes with scenery, if it lands a little hard, it's not great, but you go on.'

What stopped him from being nervous, he said, was that Ms. Krakowski was not. Flying 'actually has helped me with my performance,' she said. 'You have to pay attention to all these details to keep safe and comfortable, so I've never gotten nerves throughout my number.'

At the same time, she said, dangling 35 feet in the air, upside down, waiting for the number to begin, has given her a 'solitary moment' to concentrate on her character.
Exit Carla, Stage Top

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