Lisa O'Hare & Thomas Borchert in Gigi
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Review Round-up: Thank Heaven for Open Air Gigi

Chaim Topol (also known as just Topol) returned to the London stage last week (14 August 2008, previews from 6 August) to take on the role of bemused narrator Honore in the first major London revival of Lerner and Loewe musical Gigi, which runs at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre until 13 September 2008 (See 1st Night Photos, 15 Aug 2008).

Topol is joined on the stage by fellow West End legend Millicent Martin, as Mamita, the grandmother of Lisa O'Hare’s titular Gigi a teenage girl being groomed by her grandmother and aunt to become a courtesan. The cast also features German stage star Thomas Borchert as Honore’s nephew Gaston Lachaille, the bachelor and bon vivant who becomes captivated by Gigi as she matures from wild adolescent to poised young lady, and Linda Thorson as Gigi’s aunt.

Gigi is based on the 1945 French novel by Colette, which was made into a French film in 1948, then adapted as a stage play in 1951, with a Broadway production starring Audrey Hepburn, which was then adapted as an Oscar-winning 1958 movie musical, starring Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier. Fifteen years later, the musical crossed back over to the stage, opening on Broadway in 1978. The original West End production opened at the Lyric Theatre in 1985.

In Regent’s Park, Gigi is directed by artistic director Timothy Sheader as part of his inaugural season in the job, designed by Yannis Thavoris and choreographed by Stephen Mear, with lighting by Simon Mills, sound by Mike Walker, orchestrations by Steven Edis and musical direction by Philip Bateman. It’s the final production in this summer’s season (See News, 11 Jan 2008). The score includes “Thank Heaven for Little Girls”, “It’s a Bore”, “The Night They Invented Champagne” and “I Remember It Well”.

Thank heaven for Gigi. Generally, critics were far from bored during Sheader’s “elegant, colourful and beautifully acted” revival of a “witty, camp, and extremely entertaining” musical. The actors also fared well, although critics could not agree on which one stole the limelight, with some praising Lisa O'Hare’s “delightfully truculent Gigi”, while others felt that Linda Thorson’s “stylish” performance led the way. There was also praise for Topol, who was credited with a warm affection and charm. Some critics suggested that Gigi “will never be one of the great musicals”, but there was an overall feeling that this production “moved beyond the stylised glamour of the famous MGM movie to something rather more interesting”.

Benedict Nightingale in The Times (two stars) – “Topol’s attempts to match Maurice Chevalier, who took the role in the film, aren’t so successful. He trundles about the Regent’s Park stage in his awful mauve jacket, leering at the ladies, rumbling out lines like, ‘My dear child, you are safe in my hands, but I can’t vouch for the rest of me’, half-visibly winking at the audience, and exuding what he presumably thinks is Gallic charm but is actually a grisly winsomeness … Lerner and Loewe saw Gigi as a thematically similar follow-up to their My Fair Lady, and it has some good hums to offer, among them ‘The Night They Invented Champagne’ and that undeniably witty exchange of clashing romantic memories, ‘I Remember It Well’. But it’s not quite as sophisticated as its creators thought. Myself, I tired both of their knowing tributes to the gay Paree, whose epicentre is Maxim’s, and of the ladies and gents who endlessly patrol the stage in their belle epoque costumes, adding period prettiness to Timothy Sheader’s slick revival. Still, Thorson makes a fine monster in her magenta dress, snapping out lines such as (of Gigi): ‘She’s gone from puberty to senility without a stop on the way.’ And O’Hare is sweetly demure after her Gigi has hit adulthood.”

- by Kate Jackson

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