Loosely based on Federico Fellini’s autobiographical film 8½, Nine is a highly stylized fantasy about a famous writer-director-actor, Guido Contini, whose struggles to overcome writer’s block are exacerbated by the complications of his compulsive womanizing.

Set in a Venetian luxury spa, represented by abstract blocks of marble tile, and populated by a cast of 15 women elegantly dressed in black outfits finely fashioned by Lesley Neilson Bowman — along with an almost overwhelmed Richard Pettibone as Guido — the play summons up memories of those dark Italian movies of the 1950s and 60s that college students went to on dates — La Strada, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord, and so on (Fellini had made 71 movies by the time he did 8½.)

In this play, Guido’s problem is that his career is in crisis. His last three films have been flops and his producer is pressing him for a new script that he can’t manage to generate any ideas for. His wife is demanding a divorce, and so he takes her for a romantic getaway to the Venetian spa, hoping that this will salvage his marriage and jump-start his creative processes.

Unfortunately, there are other people at the spa, including his mistress, his ex-lover, his producer, a scornful critic (all these are, of course, women), the ghost of his mother, several mysterious women from his past, and a gaggle of reporters, fans and gossip columnists, all of whom want a piece of Guido.

This is not a conventional musical featuring a chorus line and a pair of romantic leads. There is no dancing to speak of, and no promise of any kind of happy ending for anyone. The voices of the women are beautiful, and Yeston’s music, under the direction of Steve Olivieri, is very handsome indeed.

There is also a lot of talent on stage.

Backing up Richard Pettibone, who has a fine time chewing the scenery in the Casanova role, are numerous actresses including Lynn Paulella as his wife, Luisa, Maria Vee as his mistress, Elie Finkelstein as his mother, Susan Pettibone as his flamboyant producer, Vicki Sosbe as the critic, and Traci Timmons as a beachcomber out of his past, who introduced the youthful Guido to the mysteries of sex.

Dylan Lynch is the only other male onstage, in the role of Guido as a boy.

The whole show is a melodious mélange of memory, fantasy, wishful thinking, and comic angst, as it portrays the dilemma of a genius who followed all his instincts down roads which are threatening to turn into blind alleys.

As always with TheatreWorks, it is extremely well done, with the usual standards of perfection in the acting, music, staging, light and sound. If you like it, you will find it exciting and strong. If you want your musicals more on the sentimental side, it may not be the show for you.

(Performances of Nine, the Musical continue Friday and Saturday evenings until August 13.

There are also matinees on Sundays, August 1 and 8. Tickets for all shows are $25.

Call 860-350-6863 for reservations and additional information.)