Vanessa Hudgens is Gigi (Officially)- Page 2

[brucebossa]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 4:24pm

I was 11 when the film came out. My family all went. We all went to Auntie Mame also, as another post mentioned they were both up for best film. I was a quite sophisticated 11, considering it was 1958 and I lived in Cleveland However, I never liked GIGI. Never understood how it beat Auntie Mame. And I was only 11. I guess it's pretty. But I never cared for the music all that much and also, although I like Hermione Gingold, Maurice Chevalier's charms were lost on me. And now that I'm older, I still believe all those things. Not crazy about GIGI to this day and I still cry at AUNTIE MAME.

As for the musical GIGI on stage, never seen it, didn't care and I can't believe it is coming back. As for Hudgens, when I watched all those High School Musical movies, I guess my eyes were always on Zac Efron, so I have no opinion or her acting or charm.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 4:35pm

I clicked on the link provided by the OP that reads:

She grew up doing musical theater and says that's "what brought me out of my shell. So being onstage is something I feel very comforting." She starred as Mimi in "Rent" at the Hollywood Bowl in 2010.

Still don't know why everyone hates this girl so much.

But, then why did they hire Carly Rae Jepsen in Cinderella or Wendy Williams in Chicago?

Because replacements are generally when producers stunt-cast. Williams was brought in after the show had been running almost 17 years. Hudgens won't be a replacement.

I'm waiting for them to announce Mylie Cyrus and Taylor Swift in the Wicked movie.

That's a pretty wonky comparison.

At any rate, I'd be very surprised if the show makes it to Broadway. And the role of Gigi isn't that vocally demanding.

[tazber]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 4:36pm

Smaxie, that was a great link.

Thanks for sharing.

[GetUp&LiveIt]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 4:40pm

Isn't the point of the revival that it has a completely reworked book by Heidi Thomas who is a great writer. I hate the film because it's so sexist. Don't we think the new book by Heidi will remove some of that. Isn't that the point?

Updated On: 9/10/14 at 04:40 PM

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 4:42pm

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron have both, to some extent, managed to escape their Disney Channel beginnings, but in two different directions. Efron has proved to be a charismatic young leading man/heartthrob type with a knack for comedy, and Hudgens has appeared in several high-profile indie films and critical darlings. He's the bigger star, but she's accumulated more critical buzz.

How will she be in Gigi? I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet decent- has Hudgens ever actually done poorly in anything post-HSM, or is she just a hard-working C-lister slowly climbing?

[JRybka]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 5:08pm

Considering who is directing it (Eric Shaeffer) and the success of the past shows that the Kennedy Center has (Side Show and Follies) I am sure they are not just throwing crap on a stage.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 6:32pm

I always felt there was a basic misogyny in GIGI due to a basic misogyny (or sexism) I've always felt was part of Alan jay Lerner's makeup that will be nearly impossible to erase from the property, even with a new book writer in the mix.

I mean, the girl is being groomed to be a courtesan for God's sake-- how on earth can that be made palatable for modern audiences without chucking the whole plot out the window? And even if you give the libretto a complete overhaul, you're still stuck with that whole virgin/dominatrix paradigm that Lerner seems obsessed with in every lyric he wrote--

"Those tender eyes so helpless and appealing
One day will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling!"

For me it's all an uncomfortable relic of a distant age.

[SnoopyQc]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 6:40pm

"Wow, a lot of people seem to hate Gigi. I don't know anything about it. What are people's issues with the show?"

I find the short story (by Colette) quite good. But the story has lost some of its charm in the film transcription. They tried to adapt a 50 pages story into a 2h film by add scenes and characters. Some additions are nice (like the character of Honoré), but most of them are boring and slow the movie.

Of course, the story can be call sexist by today standards, but we have to go back in time. In the novel (less in the movie) Gigi wants to chose what life she want to live, against her family's will.

SPOILERS
In the original novel, Gigi never go out with Gaston. It's her refusal that leads to the proposal.

[bwaylyric]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 10:29pm

Hopefully people won't mistake this for GIGLI (the musical?) and she's gonna play the J-Lo role.

[Sally Durant Plummer]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 10:46pm

I think Gigi (the film) is marvelous. It's a period piece, and quite a good one too. Is it sexist? Yes. Is Gone With the Wind racist? Yes, but's it's still a damn good film and novel. Just because a work is a property of a different time does not mean it is bad. It just means society has naturally progressed.
Gigi's score is amazing. I listen to the OBC constantly and I am very excited that a version of the show will be back on Broadway. I'm nervous the orchestra will be diminished, and the Overture and Entr'acte will be cut :/
As for Vanessa, I'm hoping for the best. She's not a huge star, so she's not really going to attract people to the show, so that can't have been the only reason she was cast. I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised by her.
Karen Wolf sounds perfectly lovely on the recording, but the role is very easy to be dull. I'm still hoping a "naughty" recording will turn up of the OBC. Maybe in my dreams.

Updated On: 9/10/14 at 10:46 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 11:12pm

I keep reading this as "Gigli" which I'd be interested in.

[dcat91]

Posted: 9/10/14 at 11:25pm

Greeeeaaat.....

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:29am

Why not just put "My Fair Lady" back on Broadway?!?

[lovebwy]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:44am

Oh how I weep for my lady Broadway.

[Someone in a Tree2]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 11:12am

"Why not just put "My Fair Lady" back on Broadway?!?"

God, yes, please.

[Kad]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 11:16am

I have heard Hudgens is extremely charming in the role.

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 11:20am

Kad-I was wondering why everyone is so quick to dismiss her. I'm thinking about going to see it. I think they could have taken a 'safer' route from many angles, and I'm intrigued by her casting.

[theatregeek6]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 12:21pm

Saw the 1974 stage version (yes I'm old- F you) and found it blah. Just like the movie. It has good bones but needs a seriously different thinking (bad grammar) director and choreographer to liven this thing up.

[tazber]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 12:45pm

Let's dream cast:

James Barbour - Honore Lachailles

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 12:47pm

I thought the show was already cast and that Howard McGillin was Honore.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:03pm

I think Tazber's post is meant as a joke.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:06pm

Why do some confuse a sexist setting or a depiction of a sexist society (most societies since the beginning of time have been sexist and newsflash: our own still has a long way to go) with a sexist work?

I find this complaint particularly odd vis a vis Gigi, a work which, though a comic romance or musical comedy actually has its protagonist complain and in no uncertain terms rebel from a situation in which she knows she will be being wickedly exploited and end up being abused by the system laid out for her. If the cry of sexism is that she instead becomes a wife then one should equally complain about almost any 19th-early 20th century romance.



Updated On: 9/11/14 at 01:06 PM

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:24pm

henrik-I read the original Collette piece and thought it was FEMINIST (I am sure I'll get flamed for saying that). Gigi tells her grandmother, great aunt and Gaston, all involved in pawning her off as little better than a courtesan, that she will determine her own destiny. She won't settle for being 'kept' but wants to be married. (The idea of marriage might be considered traditional and conservative, but the idea that Gigi is determining her own destiny-taken in the context of that time-is highly unusual). Gigi doesn't want to end up someone's discarded lover. I always questioned when my feminist mom took me to task for liking it, saying that Gigi was rebelling against the norms or at least what her family expected and making up her own mind.

[Smaxie]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 1:31pm

I agree with you both. It is depicting a time and place, and features a heroine breaking out of the life that has been chosen for her, making her own rules and expressing her reluctance to be disposable. That all exists in the Colette original as well as in Lerner's adaptation.

[dreaming]

Posted: 9/11/14 at 2:28pm

It also shows her going against the class system-she would not have been considered 'good enough' to be Gaston's wife, yet she felt she was worthy of it.