Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?- Page 2
Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Joined: 12/31/69
#25Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 5/2/16 at 10:16pm
one of my best friends was the associate director. I think part of the reason it came to Broadway at all was because of a first time producer. She miscalculated the interest in the piece. Its def a classic movie but an outdated concept for 2016. I mean the premise has to do with an older man waiting for a little girl to become a woman so he can have her, lol....they did a lot of great changes, first of all by giving the little girls song to someone else. But also by casting Corey as much younger than the role calls for.
I'm not sure it should have ever come in the first place, but the fact that the set, costumes and choreography where ignored is sheer politics. The producer was from DC and didn't know any of the Tony Voters who basically just voted for themselves...it's a very political thing. Removing the critics from the ballot box was a really bad idea.
The show was really classy, does it dazzle in a Hamilton world, I'm not sure.
#26Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 11:11am
For someone who is not in New York and didn't get a chance to see it, all I have to go by are the few scenes on the internet, the Tony's and the original cast CD. I have to say that being a huge fan of the movie, I was so impressed by what was done with the music.The orchestrations are just fantastic for someone like me who loves the old-fashioned showtune. So I had listened to the CD so many times I know it all by heart now (including the orchestrations) and that is why I was really chocked to see that it closed so quickly. But consider Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel, everyone says the score is fantastic but the show was not that great to see. The only complaint I have about the CD: I think Vanessa was miscast just by listening to the CD, her voice is sometimes very hard to listen to with this score. Otherwise, this is my favorite Broadway cast CD to come out in a long time.
#27Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 11:46am
I remember reading that the show's backer, a first time producer with family money, had long loved the film and had a life long dream of putting it on Broadway. As such, I was rather impressed with the class in which she approached the producing, marketing, advertising etc.
The issue was that the show itself didn't have a persuasive vision behind it. Eric Shaeffer is no Vincent Minnelli, and the attempts to make the show's subject matter seem PC to today's audiences actually had the reverse effect. I guess the simple way of saying it was the production just wasn't good enough, and was clearly very expensive to run each week.
It is the kind of show I could see some large summer music theatre attempting though. It was innocuous enough...
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#28Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:03pm
"I mean the premise has to do with an older man waiting for a little girl to become a woman so he can have her..."
Constantly amazed how people get this wrong. Gigi, in every version (novella, play film, musical) is about a young cosmopolitan man who is a lifelong friend to a younger less-worldly girl, with whom he falls in love after she reaches young adulthood. (Many Americans define "adulthood" differently, generally altering the definition to suit their needs - i.e., if it behooves their argument to call a 17-year-old a "child," they'll choose that; if it works better for them to call that same 17-year-old an "adult" or "young adult," they will.)
#29Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:13pm
I think Gigi in the novella is actually 15, but your comment is still on point Newintown. The problem with the script re-write was that it felt apologetic about presenting the story; as if they were so based in a fear that contemporary audiences wouldn't be able to understand the social mores of Paris over a hundred years ago, which is totally pandering. I think if they had been brave, and stuck to the story details as Collette outlined them, the revival could have been provocative (in a good way) and audiences would have gone with it much more fully than they did with the "PC corrections."
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#30Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:17pm
What is really a shame is that these shows are not taped for broadcast and blu-ray disc release. Here is a show that didn't run long that is a classic musical, and I find it very sad that these productions are not made available to people all over the world in a taped format. Only a few have been taped correctly and presented beautifully on blu-ray disc with lossless audio (Memphis, Love Never Dies, Les Miserables, Rent, Into the Woods, Billy Elliot among them) and I watch them very often as I am sure other fans do at least with those made available. If they are going to spend that much money running an expensive broadway show, tape it for release after it has played out on Broadway and the tours have finished. That's a dream of mine for a long time but it never happens. Very sad. I would think PBS and others would go for that but they don't.
Updated On: 6/10/16 at 12:17 PM#31Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:19pm
I think you're exactly right, QueenAlice; but this production had in interest in playing to thinking adults. It was completely aimed to tourist teenage girls (very few, I imagine, who have much notion of, or interest in, other times, other cultures, or other mores) and their families.
#32Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:20pm
Mntwister -- I think we all would love for more Broadway productions to be taped, but the simple reason more aren't is that the American unions make it cost prohibitive to do so.
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”
#33Why was the Gigi musical so short lived?
Posted: 6/10/16 at 12:29pm
I find that so sad. There could be so much joy in owning these shows on home video. I've bought every one that has been made available, but they are so few and far between. I would have loved to be able to buy Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein the Broadway musical on home video too. Now it will just be a small part of history like Gigi.
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