THE PLAY PRODUCED

AS MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2008

GIGILucy Ellen looks at staging Gigi in the round.

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AS MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 2008

THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

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PLOT

‘Gigi’, written by Lerner and Loewe, can be compared to ‘My Fair Lady’ or ‘Pygmalion’. It follows a young girl, Gigi, who lives in Paris with her grandmother Inez Alvarez, as she is trained in the art of being a respectable young lady by her formidable Aunt Alicia.Gigi enjoys visits from Gaston Lachaille, local celebrity and playboy, who is a friend of the family. They play cards and chat about his many girlfriends. Gigi is curious as to how love works; “It doesn’t work” is Gaston’s reply.Inevitably, Gigi grows up into a beautiful and spirited young woman and Gaston falls in love with her. Alicia predicts this and negotiates with her lawyer for a suitable marriage contract to ensure that Gigi is well provided for.Set in 1901 the musical is an endearing representation of life in Paris in 1901 with familiar numbers such as ‘The Night They Invented Champagne’ and ‘Thank Heaven For Little Girls’ which was made famous by Maurice Chevalier in 1958.

CASTING

The initial problems that were encountered when casting ‘Gigi’ were that most people are very influenced by the film with Louis Jordan as Gaston Lachaille and Leslie Caron. Martin Copland-Gray, the show’s director, was very keen to cast the show in such a way as to suggest that the

characters were much more universal. It wasn’t necessary for Aunt Alicia or Inez (Mamita) Alvarez to look much older than the rest of the cast. Copland-Gray wanted a much more ‘modern family’ feel to the production.What he did insist on was that principals looked and sounded right together. At first glance, ‘Gigi’ does not seem to have a huge cast list. There are a couple of chorus numbers, notably ‘I Never Want to Go Home Again’ (sung at Trouville) and ‘Paris is Paris Again’ (sung by the ladies and gentlemen of Paris) and yet for a 50th anniversary production ‘Gigi’ seemed a little short of things for the non leads to do.This was where Copland-Gray’s concept came in. In order to make this a special production and to give the society something to be proud of he decided to dispense with the usual Memorial Hall stage plus extension and to stage it in-the-round in the hall itself. This would allow for the space to become Paris and Trouville, with the cast setting up café scenes and beach settings as necessary.Casting became much easier when he knew that he would be needing waiters, waitresses, hotel porters, receptionists and the like to people the acting area. Suddenly, there was a lot of acting for the company to do and because it was in the round they weren’t going to be able to switch off.

REHEARSALS

‘Gigi’ rehearsed for sixth months and performed for 6 nights in April 2008. The beauty of working in the Ombersley memorial hall was that the company could work within the marked out space from day one. Entrances and exits (5 of these) where indicated and ‘Gigi’ in the round began to take shape.When working in these unusual conditions it is even more important than normal to have a great attention for detail. The Ombersley audience were going to be very close to the action and therefore focus and concentration was essential.Social and period movement was crucial to get a sense of the piece being set in 1901. We were lucky enough to draft in a contact from Birmingham School of Acting to work with the cast on their deportment. This worked wonders and gave ‘Gigi’ some grace and fluidity. Choreography was organically developed by Copland-Gray as rehearsals progressed with one workshop on musical theatre being inserted in February to lift energy and spirits. The danger with ‘Gigi’ is that companies forget that they are doing a musical and start rehearsing it as if it is a play.

SCORE AND MUSICIANS

‘Gigi’ the musical and ‘Gigi’ the film are quite musically different. Ombersley Amateur Dramatic Society ending up performing a combination of the two. The most challenging number for us was ‘The

Ombersley Amateur Dramatic Society have been producing and performing plays and musicals since 1958 but had never, until this year, performed one in the round.To celebrate their 50th year they decided to treat their audience to a week long run of ‘Gigi’ and to invite a guest professional director to give them something different.

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THE MUSICAL PRODUCED

AS MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 200820

Contract’. This is the scene where Aunt Alicia bargains with Lachaille’s lawyer for decent marriage terms. It is a combination of several different songs and tempos making it particularly stretching. We solved this eventually with very strong characterisation of the two lawyers and the humorous battle of status between them and Aunt Alicia.The show was performed with one pianist and drummer as accompaniment. What worked in the round was the audiences’ chance to get close to the singing as it was inevitable that one of the company would be singing close by their seat.Musical highlights were Gigi’s beautiful number in the first half ‘In this Wide World’ and Honore Lachaille’s (Gaston’s uncle) ‘I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore’.

SCENERY

With the show being in the round the production team were not dealing with conventional scenery. The production used the stage to pinpoint several entrances and the number ‘Paris is Paris Again’ where the demimondaines of Paris were ‘revealed’ by the tabs with parasols surrounding Honore. Therefore on the stage our production manager (Brain Hooper) constructed the feet of the Eiffel Tower from hardboard and painted them silver. The effect of this was that the band were continually framed by “the world’s largest, useless object” (to quote Honore Lachaille) and the audience were reminded of our French setting. We added to this with café style chairs and

tables plus French paintings (Toulouse-Lautrec) adorning the walls of the hall. To change the scene to Trouville the company brought on 4 half pillars painted in a pale blue to represent the sea and the Grand Hotel.

LIGHTING

Lighting ‘Gigi’ was a challenge due to the fact that there was a shortage of lighting bars in the Memorial Hall. Working in the round means that you really do need to be able to light from all sides. For this particular production a scaffolding tower had to be erected at the back of the hall in order to light the acting area fully. Copland-Gray wanted to be able to use spotlights for certain moments such as the two separate acting areas in the split scene where we see Honore and his man servant Manuel on one side of the stage and Aunt Alicia and her butler Charles on the other. Lighting designer, Richard G James, worked hard to define the different acting areas used in the production and also to give us the different times of day too. Very little colour was used as he relied mainly on straw or open white. With a larger budget a follow spot would have been used for numbers such as ‘Gigi’ (Gaston’s realisation that he is in love) and ‘I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore’. James used a mirror ball here instead which really helped to create the effect of a dance floor in Maxim’s. Copland-Gray attempted to move away from the traditional scenes followed by

blackouts and began to use these cues sparingly as punctuation rather than as a signal for a scene change,

COSTUMES

Costume was such an integral part of this production of ‘Gigi’. With the audience being so close there really was little room for mistake; everybody needed to look like they had stepped out of 1901. The company hired from Stage World, the theatrical costumiers of Wolverhampton. The social and period movement workshop really helped here as company members gradually became aware of how to move in their costumes.One of the tricky parts of costuming ‘Gigi’ is the transformation of Gigi from little girl to young lady. Elsa O’Neil (Wardrobe) stuck with the blue sailor suit image used in the film to represent Gigi as a youngster. It gives her a sense of fun and innocence and links nicely to her visit to Trouville when we next see her in a royal blue bathing suit. For her transformation she used a beautiful cream silk gown with train. Gigi has to show that she feels comfortable in this outfit as she strolls through Maxims with the eyes of Paris upon her in Act 2. O’Neil and Copland-Gray agreed to use a simple palette of colours. Most company members were in shades of blue when at Trouville and then brighter, primary colours when in Paris. Gaston and Honore were both in soft grey for Act 1 and then black evening dress for Act 2.

MUSIC

Aside from our two musicians two extra pieces of music were used within the show. To set up the Parisian Café at the start of the show we played ‘Clair de Lune’ as the company entered to take up their positions around the chairs and tables.To close the show Copland-Gray made the brave choice of using a contemporary song by Goldfrapp called ‘A and E’. This played as the cast members slowly drifted off stage after the curtain call leaving just Honore, Gaston and Gigi. Honore and Gaston remove top hats, jackets and gloves and leave them on stage symbolising that the story has come to an end as the music plays them off. Gigi is the last to leave; it is her story.

SPECIAL EFFECTS / PROPSWe tried to be as minimalistic as possible with our props. Anything that was used obviously needed to look authentic because we were so close to our audience. The biggest problem for Stage Management was finding someone who would lend the company a chaise. This important piece of furniture was to become the focal point of

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