BWW Reviews: Sanitized GIGI Thanks Heaven For Legal Girls

When it comes to Broadway musicals, Alan Jay Lerner was never exactly regarded as a feminist icon. Women in his shows have been sold or bargained for as wives (Paint Your Wagon, Camelot), treated as subjects for experimentation (My Fair Lady, On A Clear Day You Can See Forever) and have served as public ornamentation for powerful men (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). Not to mention Lolita, My Love, a musical version of Vladimir Nabokov's novel that shut down on its way to New York.

Then there's Gigi, which began as a 1944 novella by Colette, the tone of which is generally regarded as a nostalgic look at a carefree late 19th Century Paris. The title character is a 15-year-old girl being schooled in the ways of French courtesans; learning the kind of elegance, manners and charm preferred by older, well-to-do gentlemen seeking companionship. The book involves Gigi's relationship with the much older playboy, Gaston, who defies convention by falling in love with her.

Yes, to the modern eye, and perhaps to the eyes of the era, there is child prostitution involved, but to those involved in the practice it was also seen as a way of rising above the class you are born into.

Gigi first hit Broadway in 1951 as a play by Anita Loos, where a little-known Audrey Hepburn played the now 16-year-old title character. She remained that age when Leslie Caron portrayed her in a lavish 1958 MGM movie musical by Lerner and Frederick Loewe that won nine Oscars and is regarded as a classic American film. The role of Gaston's uncle Honoré, a minor character in Colette's novella, was built up to a star role for the aging Maurice Chevalier. Having Honoré speaking directly to the audience and offering commentary on the action made it clear that we were watching the story through a male eye.

Lerner and Loewe's short-lived 1973 stage adaptation of their film starred Alfred Drake as Honoré in his last Broadway musical appearance. That stage musical is now being revived in a heavily revised and awkwardly sanitized adaptation by Heidi Thomas, who has stated that her goal was to stay true to the spirit of Gigi while changing the material to something that would be more acceptable to modern audiences.

Gigi is now said to be "of age" in the script, and while no number is specified, Thomas has been quoted in the press as saying she's 18. The role of Honoré has been shaved down to focus on the points of view by Gigi's Mamita and her Aunt Alicia, who oversees her training. In this version Mamita makes it clear that she only wants Gigi to learn manners and charm and not to fully become a courtesan.

Gaston is now only a handful of years older than Gigi, and the young lady is far more outspoken about what she expects from him and why she accepts her role as a courtesan.

Thus, a romanticized look at a long-ago sexual convention has been changed to a revolt against gender inequities; certainly a worthy subject, but one that might be better expressed with an entirely new musical based on Colette's novella, or perhaps Loos' play.

Aside from the courtesy of allowing the work of deceased playwrights to remain as they wrote them, the main trouble is that the Lerner and Loewe score doesn't serve the story that Thomas is trying to present.

The film's best-known song, "Thank Heaven For Little Girls," was sung by Chevalier as a humorously innocent observation that every alluring grown-up woman began as sweet little tyke. Although there's nothing in the lyric to suggest that Honoré is lusting after children, there has been much made of the song being taken away from the character to eliminate the "ick factor." The song is now a duet for Mamita and Alicia, thanking heaven that innocent little girls grow up to be potential money-makers as courtesans. The differences in what the two characters wish for in Gigi's future might be better expressed in new song written for that moment.

"Say A Prayer For Me Tonight," originally written for Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and sung by Gigi in the film, is now a second act solo for Mamita, a move that makes absolutely no sense for the plot or the character. The only conceivable reason is to give a big moment to Victoria Clark, whose lovely performance is one of the evening's joys.

Clark is also added to Honoré's other signature moment, making "I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore" a duet with Howard McGillin, who exudes charming panache as her long-ago paramour. When these two seasoned pros are alone together, as they are in the first act's classic, "I Remember It Well," the stage is aglow with warm romance.

When Corey Cott, as Gaston, is left alone on stage to sing the title song, it's a wonderfully giddy discovery of romantic love, but the actor's appearance and manner seem far too young for the complexity of the melody and the maturity of the lyric. It's a fine and appealing performance, but he's miscast as a fellow who has lived long enough to become a world-weary playboy with a scandalous reputation.

Late in act two, Thomas gives Vanessa Hudgens' Gigi a fine speech about how young women train to be courtesans because it's one of the only opportunities for them to advance in the world. It's a moment that would probably be expressed through song in a new musical. It's also a moment that comes out of nowhere, as Hudgens is made to spend most of the evening in a perpetual state of perkiness, never hinting of any ambitions. She sings in a nice belt and provides a merry presence, but up until late in evening there's no texture in her performance.

But then, there are few textures in director Eric Schaeffer's perfunctory staging. Only in Dee Hoty's performance as Aunt Alicia, regally expressing a clinical and capitalistic view of romance, is there some legitimate spice offered. Derek McLane's imposing set, though attractive when sporting colors that suggest Tiffany stained glass, appears to cramp the movement of choreographer James Bergasse's dancers and Loewe's glorious melodies sound hollow played by a small orchestra with a synthesizer.

Lerner and Loewe's musical may work better on screen than on stage, but the material alone, capably done, should at least provide some fizz. For the most part, this production merely fizzles.

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