Tour de France: Nevada Opera Theater brings ‘Gigi’ to Paris Las Vegas

Marilyn LaRocque

Friday, June 7, 2002 | 10:25 a.m.

What: "Gigi."

When: 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Where: Le Theatre Des Arts, Paris Las Vegas.

Tickets: $28, $38, $55; Also, $150 including pre-performance dinner at Mon Ami Gabi at Paris, prime location tickets and post-performance backstage reception.

Information: Paris box office, 946-4567; Nevada Opera Theater, 699-9775.

A fittingly French setting, Paris Las Vegas' Le Theatre Des Arts, will be the scene of the Nevada Opera Theatre production of "Gigi," the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical bonbon that followed their hits "Brigadoon" (1947) and the blockbuster "My Fair Lady" (1956).

"Gigi" runs at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The "night they invented champagne," Lerner and Loewe broke musical theater tradition by launching their bubbly 1958 success not as a Broadway play but as a movie starring Leslie Caron as Gigi, Louis Jordan as Gaston and Maurice Chevalier as Honore. (The stage version of "Gigi" wasn't performed until 1973 in San Francisco; the stage version then moved to Broadway in 1974. Lerner and Loewe won a Tony for the score.)

The film won nine Oscars, among them Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Costumes, Best Score of a Musical and Best Original Song.

Isn't "Gigi's" impressive heritage a formidable act for a local production to follow? Eileen Hayes, founder and general director of Nevada Opera Theatre (NOT) responded emphatically.

"This is a theatrical production, not a movie piece from 44 years ago," she said. "We have a talented, fresh cast of local actors, well-balanced with seasoned veterans and young stars."

Another challenge is the period plot with social customs that would send the National Organization for Women to the picket lines today.

Set in early 1900s Paris, "Gigi" revolves around a poor, inexperienced young girl with few social graces and dismal prospects for the future. To ensure Gigi's prosperity, her grandmother Mamita and Great Aunt Alicia, both courtesans in their younger days, train Gigi to follow in their footsteps.

They target Gaston, a rich playboy and longtime family friend whose uncle, Honore, was Mamita's "friend." When Gaston realizes "overnight there's been a breathless change" in Gigi, he wants her for his mistress.

Gigi turns him down cold. Gaston reconsiders and asks Mamita for "the honor of Gigi's hand in marriage."

The stage show includes music not featured in the movie. "The Contract" depicts negotiations among Mamita, Alicia and each side's attorneys to determine Gaston's responsibilities to Gigi as his mistress. "Paris is Paris Again" extols the virtues and vices of Paris at night.

Well-known hits from "Gigi" are "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," immortalized by Chevalier, "The Night They Invented Champagne," "I Remember it Well" and, of course, "Gigi."

Gary Marshal (Honore) came from London to Las Vegas in 1964 to sing at the Dunes. Then he was leading man in "Jubilee" at Bally's, "Hallelujah, Hollywood" at MGM Grand and "Winds of the Gods" at Luxor.

Marshal spent three years in the Los Angeles production of "Phantom of the Opera," and also performed in movies and major TV daytime dramas. He speaks French fluently and auditioned for the role in "Gigi" by using French-accented English.

Marshal describes Honore as the "gatekeeper into 1901 Paris," saying his main job is to get the audience to accept the social history being portrayed.

"If you had money, you lived well," he said. "Otherwise, it was a struggle. Becoming a courtesan was a desirable opportunity for a secure future for a girl like Gigi. When she turns Gaston down flat, it's an earthquake in the social scheme of that time."

Marshal has adopted Chevalier's "sing-speak" to emphasize his songs.

"You cannot sacrifice their lyrics to show off your voice," Marshal stressed. "You could lose the joke. There are wonderful jokes and commentary in the songs."

Lance Taubold (Gaston) balances acting and co-owning an entertainment marketing company, Eclectic Marketing.

"One can never have too many irons in the fire in the entertainment field," he remarked. "You never know what people will be looking for next, especially in Las Vegas."

Taubold decided to be an actor when he was 10, producing and directing his first show while in fifth grade. He studied voice and acting and earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York in Geneseo. His varied career also includes soaps operas, which he enjoyed.

"It's fast-paced," he said. "Every day there's a new script."

Taubold also commented on the impact the period setting of "Gigi" has on his role.

"You have to put yourself into a totally different culture and mind-set," he said. "Gaston goes through the most personality and lifestyle changes because he falls in love. The romantic in me really loves that. I love a happy ending."

A tenor, Taubold plans to vocalize his songs with minimal "sing-speak," especially in the title song.

"It's a musical," he said. "I think people want some real singing. So you'll hear a lot of high tenor notes from me."

Gigi is played by Jennifer Barton, a lyric coloratura soprano. She received her master's degree in voice performance from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, last year. She recently moved from Las Vegas back to Chicago, her hometown. She was Annina in NOT's "La Traviata" and will play Frasquita in "Carmen" at the Bear Valley Music Festival in California.

Barton said it was helpful to study Leslie Caron's original Gigi.

"You can take little things from someone who creates a role," she said, "but it's also important to separate yourself, do things people haven't seen, to make the role your own. Gigi is 16 years old. She relies on Mamita and Alicia, but they confuse her, too. She breaks family tradition when she refuses to become Gaston's mistress."

Longtime Las Vegas resident and actress Betty Bunch plays Mamita. After graduating from the University of Texas, she became a dancer in the line at the Sahara in 1956 and performed with Ray Bolger and Donald O'Connor.

Bunch has appeared in movies, on the stage and on TV series, including "Chicago Hope," "Who's the Boss" and "Spy TV."

Bunch said her interpretation of Mamita is "softer" than Hermione Gingold's. She described her character as multifaceted.

"She loses her temper," gets sentimental, then angry, and becomes exceedingly polite when she adopts an upper-class accent," Bunch said. "She's guarding her chick, Gigi."

As Aunt Alicia, Heidi Bauer negotiates most terms of the pivotal contract.

"Alicia is smart and greedy," she said. "She was a more successful courtesan than Mamita. She has no idea Gaston might be in love with Gigi because he's been taking after his uncle, Honore, having one gorgeous woman after another."

Casting Bauer as Alicia is interesting because she's half the age of Alicia and is a lyric soprano in an alto role.

"In the past I've played a lot of ingenues," she said "It's lots of fun and more over the edge and upbeat than in the movie. Although I approach her as 'old,' I'm younger, so she has youthfulness, too."