Broadway Review: ‘Gigi’ Starring Vanessa Hudgens
6 / 10
There's nothing to offend their tender sensibilities in this antiseptic version of 'Gigi'...Rather than empowering Gigi, putting more years on her makes this young adult seem dimwitted instead of innocently naive. In the same blundering way, drastically dropping the age of her jaded older suitor incongruously forces the boyish Corey Cott ('Newsies') into the unconvincing guise of that sophisticated boulevardier Gaston Lachaille. Now that the kids are perfectly matched, there's no longer any intergenerational sexual tension between the principals. Further distorting the characters' original relationship, Hudgens ('High School Musical') has the clarion voice and aggressive delivery of an unabashed Broadway belter, which gives Gigi vocal dominance over Gaston's delicately voiced tenor...Who hasn't lost their minds in this ill-conceived adaptation? The designers, for sure, have held their own...But if the physical look of the show suggests Paris...whenever someone opens his mouth, we're dragged back to America, where nice people don't do naughty things.
