I don't understand the creative impetus to revive this material, what is its relevance or more appropriately, what is the nostalgia factor here. I'm an early-mid boomer, and GIGI was already on TV when I was a kid old enough to grasp its pleasures. But it's safe to say most of my generation isn't invested in the film; our parents went to see it, and they are in their 80s and 90s, not a target audience on B'way. What's the mysterious component here that will theoretically drive box office sales? A show about a Parisian courtesan and her coming of age? It's a strange artifact, an evocation of another era -- and by that I mean the time of the film, the Eisenhower years, when Hollywood and Minnelli and company could pull something special from a once in a lifetime cast. Yet the story was precious in the 50's. Is the material that universal? Did anyone (else) who saw the flat and by the numbers revival with some great stars curious why this show is being pulled up before us again, so painstakingly? What does it say about life today vs. life then? What is the appeal?
I write this the night after I sat, moved and entertained, through THE LAST SHIP now holding the same stage. It's intriguing to me that we'll lose one of the best scores of the last twenty years in the next 10 days, only to have the space occupied by a new take on film score that is mostly beloved by an audience ten to fifteen years older than I. Comfortable at home with their GIGI dvds. We have ON THE TOWN, AN AMERICAN IN PARTIS, and GIGI in the same season. I feel like I'm trapped in a bizarre time warp, and yes very sad to think of losing Sting's heartfelt show so that we can get a new retread of Lerner and Lowe, and not first tier theater piece.
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