This surely makes no sense at all. The plot arc of Gigi is all about how the title character is a child at the beginning of the story and a woman at the end, and the "discovery" is such a shock to everyone involved: Alicia, Mamita, and especially Gaston.
The richness of the joke is that Gigi, a child, is being groomed for a career as a courtesan. She knows, sort of, that this is her future, but Alicia's lessons make about as much practical sense to her as studying algebra does to the average 13 year old girl today: it's something you do because you get in trouble if you don't. Gigi regards being a courtesan the way a 12 year old today would regard being, say, an investment banker: "well, you wear a suit, and you go to an office downtown, and you talk on the phone a lot..."
If Gigi is 15 (as in Colette) then it is perfectly reasonable that older adults (the two elderly aunts and the 30-something Gaston) would regard her as a little girl, and then, when you get the big reveal of her with her hair up and the long dress, the audience gets to share their shock at seeing Gigi as an adult. If, on the other hand, Gigi is explicitly 18 (an age at which many Parisian wives would have been working on their second pregnancy), then everyone involved is an idiot. Coming from an 18 year old, Gigi's line To 'take care of me beautifully' means I shall go away with you, and that I shall sleep in your bed" sounds either petulant or obtuse; from a 15 year old, on the other hand, it is sweetly sad, her first inkling of what "the life" is going to involve.
The "Little Girls" song is absolutely keyed to that theme, i.e., that it seems like a girl is a child one day and a woman the next. Gaston was falling in love with Gigi without knowing he was falling in love, because, so far as he knew, she was a child, and one does not fall in love with a child. So alien were these feelings to him that he didn't even feel guilt about them: all he knew was that he was disturbed and uneasy around Gigi, and he couldn't figure out why.
Gigi is a variation on the classic Cinderella story, and in that myth the primary focus is not on the ball or the eventual marriage to the Prince, but rather on how these things are the rewards of virtue. Gigi gets Gaston as a husband because she essentially kind and modest. When she puts on the courtesan act, Gaston is ashamed at how she has chosen to "degrade" herself and his own basic sense of gallantry requires him to treat her with respect.
All of this is lost if Gigi is too old, or if a revised book robs her of her innocence.
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