Theater City of Lights Musical Smackdown With Gigi Vs An American in Paris

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12/16/2015Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An American in Paris' | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=11d64f39-f981-48ce-8c1a-35c0d0618a56&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&1/6Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi'vs. 'An American in Paris'Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An Americanin Paris'GIGI * ½ out of **** NEIL SIMON THEAREAN AMERICAN IN PARIS ** ½ out of **** PALACE THEATRETwo musicals set in Paris opened on Broadway within four days of each other. Both are shows that began asmusicals created for the movies, something almost unheard of today unless you're an animated princess. Bothwon the Best Picture Oscar. An American In Paris won in 1951, when the far superior drama A Place In The Sunshould have triumphed. Gigi beat a very weak field in 1958. Vertigo or Touch Of Evil or A Night To Remembershould have won, but they weren't even nominated. I suppose I'd pick the problematic adaptation of Cat On AHot Tin Roof that was nominated as a worthier winner.Curiously, both films - huge triumphs in their day - have fallen hard in critical standing over the years. AnAmerican In Paris is politely remembered for its dance, while the paper-thin storyline is passed over in silence.Both director Vincente Minnelli and star Gene Kelly did much better work.Gigi has fared even worse. The follow-up to the smash Lerner & Lowe hit My Fair Lady (often dubbed the"perfect" musical, fairly enough), Gigi was a blockbuster. But time hasn't been kind to it. My Fair Lady led to asteep decline artistically, with Gigi and Camelot (which has a great score but a terrible book) and On A ClearDay You Can See Forever and the movie Paint Your Wagon all proving increasingly problematic, especially intheir books. (Alan Jay Lerner also wrote the book for An American In Paris, whose music is by the Gershwins, ofcourse.)An American In Paris didn't have enough substance while Gigi in a way had too much. It's a romanticized taleabout selling off the favors of a young virginal woman and its highlight is the now creepy sight of the agingMaurice Chevalier crooning "Thank Heaven For Little Girls."American In Paris gets a dramatically beefed up story courtesy of Craig Lucas, changing its setting to just afterWorld War II, adding in details of collaboration and post-war tension, not to mention turning the lone suitor ofGene Kelly into three different men vying for the affections of our heroine. More importantly, it has embraced thestrength of the film: the dancing. Director Christopher Wheeldon - a huge talent in the ballet world - is making hisBroadway debut and he's cast major ballet stars in the lead roles.Gigi has gone in the opposite direction, downplaying as much as possible what the story is actually about,casting her lover as a man essentially the same age as our little girl and taking away "Thank Heaven For LittleGirls" from the old rogue Honoré and giving it to Gigi's grandmother and aunt.From afar, An American In Paris has succeeded better. Neither show got raves; neither show is a smash hit. ButAn American In Paris has done substantially better at the box office, while Gigi has struggled. Yet in a way, AnAmerican In Paris is more disappointing because it actually had the chance to be very good.12/16/2015Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An American in Paris' | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=11d64f39-f981-48ce-8c1a-35c0d0618a56&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&2/6First, Gigi. Gaston (Corey Cott) is a handsome, charming heir to a fortune in sugar. A Kardashian sort ofcelebrity, Gaston feels obliged to feed the gossip pages for some reason; he is always wooing some new beautyand showering her with jewels until he or she or both of them become bored and move on, preferably with somespectacular blowup that can be the talk of the town.But what Gaston truly enjoys are the quiet, simple moments he spends with Mamita, the one-time love of hisuncle Honoré and the grandmother to the spunky little Gigi (Vanessa Hudgens). Gigi doesn't like him for hismoney or wealth, not her. She teases him mercilessly, much prefers chocolates to furs and when they'retogether they laugh and laugh.But what's this? Gaston goes away for a few days and returns to realize Gigi has become...a young woman. Avery pretty young woman. He loves her; she loves him, but first they must do a tiresome little dance whereGaston offers all sorts of inducements to her protectors in order to ensure that Gigi will be financially set onceGaston has moved on. True love never comes into it, except for the two young folk and not until the lastmoment.Among the many missed opportunities in what should have been a rethought Gigi, our heroine might have beensurprised by the negotiations taking place. She should be angry with her grandmother and aunt for putting aprice on her love; she should be angry with Gaston for thinking she could be bought and need to be wooed allover again. Instead, they spend a miserable couple of scenes together going through the motions of man andmistress. When you think they'd both rather just quit, suddenly they're getting married.By and large, the older folk have it better in this Gigi. Howard McGillin has the right glib air for Honoré and iseasily matched by Victoria Clark as Mamita. They have fun with "I Remember It Well" and the show's purestmusical highlight is Clark's lovely delivery of "Say A Prayer" as the eleven o'clock number. Dee Hoty is also funas Aunt Alicia.Hudgens makes a respectable debut as Gigi. She has a lovely clear voice and sings with pleasurable attentionto the lyrics, as opposed to vocal flourishes. At first, her plucky nature (typified by Gigi stretching her arms outbehind her in exuberant delight) works fine. Unfortunately, it's the only note director Eric Schaeffer elicits fromher and the longer the show goes on, the more repetitive it becomes. Nonetheless, she is comfortable onstageand handles the choreography of Joshua Bergasse with skill. With work, Hudgens might have a bright future onthe stage.Steffanie Leigh is good as a rival of sorts (she plays Gaston's lover at the start of the show) and scores with hercomic number "A Toujours." The show might have had fun with the disparity between this tall blonde beauty andthe pint-sized Hudgens but no such luck, just one more example of a lost opportunity.The songs are far from top drawer, for I've already mentioned the two best. Would be show-stoppers like "TheNight They Invented Champagne" fall flat. The comic relief of battling lawyers in "The Contract" is painful towatch. And every tune seems to drag itself out, playing out at a slower and slower pace till you're left waiting forthem to end.The scenic design by Derek McLane begins handsomely, with a sweeping metal staircase and arches filling upthe set at the start. But it never seems to go away and is just a smidge too busy. Like everything else, it wearsout its welcome. The costumes by Catherine Zuber seem to get less attractive as well, especially the poorlythought out black and white number for Gigi's coming out scene. She's not a willowy creature and this mighthave been entirely rethought rather than echoing Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn (earlier Gigis in both themusical and play versions).With forced humor and scenes of gloomy unhappiness rather than blooming romance, the second act proves astruggle. Happily, the show has one saving grace: Corey Cott as the young Gaston. He replaced Jeremy Jordan12/16/2015Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An American in Paris' | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=11d64f39-f981-48ce-8c1a-35c0d0618a56&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&3/6in Newsies and it's immediately clear why when you see him. Mind you, casting Cott throws off yet one moreelement of the story. (In age, Gaston should be like a much, much older brother or uncle, not a fellow playmate.)The fact that he's not an older gentleman but rather a contemporary makes it all the more confusing that theirromance can't just blossom.But Cott has a winning charm and a lovely voice and stage presence to spare. The story becomes nonsenseand the song isn't good enough, but the title tune where Gaston begins in anger only to realize he's deeply inlove almost works here thanks to him. It's hardly enough to rescue a show that has a weak score and a weakerbook and was a poor choice for reviving in the first place. But like any sophisticated Parisian, one seeks outpleasure wherever one can.Looking for the good moments in Gigi is like panning for gold: they appear far too infrequently. It's quite adifferent story in the musical An American In Paris. This show starts off strongly and moves briskly through itsconfident first act. Then just as you're getting excited, it falls completely apart on every level in the second act.Not even a big dance number - which should be the show's crowning achievement - can rescue it. Still, it's goodenough to hope choreographer and director Christopher Wheeldon will return to Broadway soon. Flawed as it is,An American In Paris easily has the best dancers, the best use of choreography to move the story along andeven the most fluid and graceful set changers on Broadway.The story is now set in 1945, right at the end of the war. Our hero Jerry (Robert Fairchild) is a brash youngAmerican soldier who wants to be an artist. He is painting and sketching everything in sight. Jerry spots abeautiful young woman (Leanne Cope) but loses her in a crowd. The city is a little grey and cloudy (even thoughit's Paris) because the war still haunts everyone, naturally. A collaborator is denounced and pounced upon by anangry crowd.Nonetheless, our hero loves the place and when he finally gets a ticket to head home, he tears it up and stays.Before you can blink, he's in a small café answering the rat-a-tat questions of a fellow American and fellowartist, a would-be composer and war veteran named Adam (Brandon Uranowitz). Adam's working on a classicalpiece and also decided to try his luck in Paris. He's creating a night club act for the wealthy but dissatisfied Henri(Max von Essen) whose very respectable parents demand propriety at all times. Henri perhaps is not so terriblyinterested in the fairer sex, though the idea occurs to his mother (a very amusing Veanne Cox) and friends morethan it occurs to him. Nonetheless, he should get married and soon...preferably to the adorable young JewessHenri's family sheltered during the war.That Jewess is Lise (Leanne Cope), the very same beauty Jerry fell hard for his first day in town. And what doyou know? Adam plays the piano at ballet auditions and falls for Lise as well. All three friends keep theirromance a secret from one another: Adam is composing a ballet for her, Jerry sketches her during the afternoonand Henri tries to gin up some enthusiasm for marrying her, all while preparing his scandalously commonnightclub act of song and dance.So there you have it. The drama-free plot of the movie has become a love quadrangle with three men vying forthe heart of Lise. Book writer Craig Lucas also throws in some murky issues about the Resistance that arepoorly explained, not to mention a wealthy American patroness of the arts named Milo (Jill Paice). She eyesappreciably the backside of Jerry during their first encounter, keeps him around as arm candy for her manyevenings out and then -- darn it -- falls hard for the guy herself.All this works well in the first act, where the dance is more integrated into the story. Jerry's first day in Paris,meeting Lise, the angry mob tearing into a collaborator, his burgeoning friendship with Adam and Henri all aretold essentially through fluid, lovely dance pieces. The scenes flow together nicely, aided by a smart visualconception for the show. The set and costume design is by Bob Crowley with projection design by 59Productions. In combination with the lighting of Natasha Katz, they've created a visual sketch of Paris. Sets are12/16/2015Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An American in Paris' | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=11d64f39-f981-48ce-8c1a-35c0d0618a56&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&4/6often suggested by drawings that fill in on the back wall or a series of movable antique mirrors that are arrangedhere and there on the stage. It all works very well, creating a large open space where the excellent danceensemble Wheeldon has created can move unimpeded by bulky sets.The peak of this conception is the meeting place where Jerry and Lise meet in the afternoons. It's sketched inwith just a low wall and a bench as props, including two small boats that hang down from the ceiling but seem tobe floating in the canal behind them. It's simple, lovely and quite graceful. When they return to the scene again alittle later, it's now developed a little further through the eye of Jerry who paints what he saw in a more modern,suggestive style.Fairchild has a direct, vaguely arrogant American manner about his character, much like Gene Kelly in themovie. It works well at first, though it becomes a little boorish as the show goes on (which isn't always Fairchild'sfault). However, all is forgiven when he dances.Jerry makes his friends to the tune of "I've Got Rhythm." He sings "I've Got Beginner's Luck" and then danceswith humor while wooing Lise in a department store (one of the show's best numbers, all of which take place inthis first act). Cope solos capably on "The Man I Love," her one big number. And "'S Wonderful" and "Shall WeDance?" and more all move with grace and charm.So what happens? The story they've begun in Act One is bungled and then just gets in the way during Act Two.The three way competition for Lise's heart proves a bust. Henri is never that interested to begin with, it seems.Worse, the intellectual Adam who might plausibly compete by creating great music for Lise turns into a schlubwhenever he's around her. With Jerry arrogant and apparently shacking up with a wealthy woman, Adam couldhave had a shot. But Lise sees him as nothing more than a friend, instead of the musical genius who mightcelebrate Lise as his muse and make them both world famous. In fact, they barely speak so one can't evenenjoy their artistic collaboration.And a subplot about Henri's family is unnecessarily confusing. All Lucas wants to suggest is that while theybravely served in the Resistance, it's too soon for the family to reveal what they did or claim credit for savingLise's life. Quite simply, too many people still in power were collaborators and might enact revenge. Also, it'sunclear what might happen post-war and whether the right sort will regain power, which is why the Resistancecontinued even after the war ended. But the show is unnecessarily tight-lipped about this, making one wonderexactly what Henri's parents did that might seem shameful. (When Milo toasts their bravery, it makes matterseven more confusing.)All of this pales in comparison to the real problem: the musical numbers collapse in sense. Act Two begins withJerry getting bored during a hokey ballet piece that gives him "Fidgety Feet." This makes him look a littleobnoxious and feels unmotivated by anything to do with the actual story at hand. Thus, this Act Two openerplays more like filler than an exciting resumption of the romance we're supposed to care about.That's followed by two duets that clash horribly. In the first, Milo and Henri sing "Who Cares?" upon discoveringJerry and Lise are deeply in love. Unfortunately, because of the arrangement or the orchestration or the stagingor the incompatibility of their voices or whatever, they don't even begin to get in sync. It sounds like two peoplesinging two different songs in two different scenes accidentally overlapping. The exact same problem bedevils"But Not For Me," a duet that features Adam and Milo.Then Henri has his big nightclub debut and in another misjudgment, most of it takes place inside Henri's mind.In real life, he starts off stumbling around and barely getting the lyrics out to "I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise."Yet in his head it becomes a lavish, Vegas sort of number, the sort Peter Allen would perfect in decades tocome. Then the fantasy ends and Henri recovers despite the shock of seeing his parents in the audience and hereaches the end of the song acquitting himself decently.12/16/2015Theater: City of Lights Musical Smackdown: 'Gigi' vs. 'An American in Paris' | Evernote Web https://www.evernote.com/Home.action#n=11d64f39-f981-48ce-8c1a-35c0d0618a56&ses=4&sh=2&sds=5&5/6However, we want to know if Henri really has talent, so letting his big moment take place in his mind confusesour burning question: is he any good? Also, "I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise" just isn't a very good song so it'snot terribly interesting as a song or as a minimal dance piece. So it ends and we're still not sure if he's actuallyany good. Then his dad embraces Henri as if the man were the next Maurice Chevalier and no one could everdoubt it.The last big number is the big ballet, the piece we've been waiting for. It too is a disappointment. The film's bignumber for Leslie Caron is the one unqualified success of the film. Here we have a period-influenced piece (myguest hated the Mondrian-inspired costumes and the retro air). It takes flight briefly when Jerry and Lise donblack and dance together during her fantasy scene interjected in the midst of Lise's big moment. It can'tcompete with the film's highlight, which is a pity since the film could be outpaced easily in so many other ways.Fairchild is an appealing lead, even if this first stab at holding center stage in a Broadway musical isn't acomplete triumph as actor and singer. Both he and Cope of course dance beautifully; Fairchild in particular lookslike he could explore more such roles and grow into a complete actor. The supporting actors are good, withVeanne Cox especially funny in the droll turn of Henri's mother (she looks a dead ringer for a sister of TildaSwinton throughout).Uranowitz is the narrator and would-be competitor, though the show doesn't let him out of the starting gate interms of romance. Essen has a harder part, since the show's biggest bungle is the suggestion that Henri is gay.We don't expect him to form a local chapter of the Mattachine Society (which of course didn't exist until 1950).But Henri's mother bluntly asks him if he doesn't really care for gays. And when Henri mentions a secret, his twobest friends immediately say "Which one?" So why the timidity over what he really wants?The show can't even give Henri the dignity of realizing he's gay or god forbid singling out one of the manyhandsome dancers on hand for a future dalliance. Instead, he remains opaque and not in an interesting way.The closest the show gets to suggesting the truth is the rather embarrassing moment when Henri complimentsthe woman Milo on her shoes and she asks him to join her on a shopping expedition. If you're not going to dealwith it in an emotionally satisfying or even sexy way, why bring it up in the first place?So with Gigi, we have a bad movie that isn't improved by fleeing from the story it's telling. In An American InParis, we have a new talent on Broadway in the form of Wheeldon who delivers a solid first act and shows a realflair (naturally) for telling story through dance. It's somewhat an improvement on the film, if far from a musicalworth reviving in years to come without a lot more work on the book and that second act.It's always charming to visit the city of lights in real life. That charm is mostly lacking in Gigi (despite a gamecast) and only somewhat present in An American In Paris. A truly great musical creates its own magic but thesetwo at best can only borrow a little.THEATER OF 2015Honeymoon In Vegas ** The Woodsman *** Constellations ** 1/2 Taylor Mac's A 24 Decade History Of Popular Music 1930s-1950s ** 1/2 Let The Right One In ** Da no rating A Month In The Country ** 1/2 Parade in Concert at Lincoln Center ** 1/2 Hamilton at the Public *** The World Of Extreme Happiness ** 1/2 Broadway By The Year 1915-1940 **

Theater City of Lights Musical Smackdown With Gigi Vs An American in Paris

📄 Theater City of Lights Musical Smackdown With Gigi Vs An American in Paris

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