Gigi Revival
Gigi - 2015 Broadway History , Info & More
Neil Simon Theatre (Broadway)
250 W. 52nd St. New York, NY 10019
Set in the magical world of La Belle Epoque in turn-of-the-century Paris, GIGI is a timeless romantic comedy about a young woman groomed in the custom of her family to be a companion to a bored, wealthy playboy, until the two unexpectedly realize this is in fact true love.
This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the debut of Gigi on Broadway. Lerner and Loewe's Tony Award-winning score was first heard in the 9-time Academy Award-winning Best Picture of the same name, directed by Vincente Minnelli. The movie, which was the last of the classic MGM musicals, was based on the Broadway play by Anita Loos and the popular novella by Colette.
Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's beloved musical GIGI will return to Broadway in a production directed by Tony Award-nominee Eric D. Schaeffer (Follies), in a new adaptation by acclaimed British playwright and Emmy-nominated screenwriter Heidi Thomas ("Cranforde," "Upstairs Downstairs," "Call the Midwife".)
Gigi - 2015 - Broadway Cast
PREVIEW Gigi - 2015 - Broadway
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FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Gigi
'Gigi' review: Prettied up for a new age
7 / 10
Starring the talented Vanessa Hudgens of 'High School Musical' in her confident Broadway debut, the show, efficiently directed by Eric Schaeffer, has been sanitized, flattened and sentimentalized from stylish sophistication to what feels like a cornfed love story with beautifully ornamented Belle Epoque staircases (by Derek McLane) and gorgeous period costumes (by that wizard, Catherine Zuber)...In making Gaston so close to Gigi's age, however, Heidi Thomas' adaptation robs even a frisson of inappropriate tension from the courtship. Nor does it help to have cast Corey Cott, a drab, boyish actor with a good voice but little charisma, as the playboy whose exploits are legend to all of Paris...While [Hudgens] has the flair of a stage natural and soars through her few ballet sequences in Joshua Bergasse's busy and pedestrian choreography, her voice has the steely, engaging quality of a Disney heroine singing through helium.
Theater Review: A Disney Star in a Girl-Power Gigi
5 / 10
The production's desperation to appeal to tweens instead of their parents results in a disastrous if not deliberate misreading of the tale. Perhaps that wouldn't matter if the show worked on its own terms, but it did not in 1973 when Lerner brought Loewe out of retirement to expand the movie into a stage property, and it certainly doesn't now. There is still, mercifully, the score, which even if all jumbled about still contains five truly great songs and several good ones too. (Most of the newly interpolated ones are distinctly third-drawer, however.) And visually there is much to admire. Derek McLaine's Art Nouveau settings are an elegant solution to the problem of a story in which one of the stars is Paris itself; Catherine Zuber's costumes are a marvel of shapeliness, accuracy, and detail. (That's a good thing in a show that often fails to hold the attention; you can always count buttons.) But most of the other decisions made by the creative team - the director is Eric Schaeffer - reduce rather than enhance the story.
Gigi History
Other Productions of Gigi
| 2015 | Washington, DC (Regional) |
Kennedy Center Production Washington, DC (Regional) |
| 2015 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Gigi - 2015 Broadway Awards and Nominations
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design | Catherine Zuber |
| 2015 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Victoria Clark |
| 2015 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical | Victoria Clark |
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