Author Publication date 1944 Originally published 1944 Genre Novella Adaptations Gigi (1958) | Language French Published in English 1953 Playwright Colette Published in english 1953 Country France | |
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Similar High Button Shoes, My Fair Lady, Camelot, Paint Your Wagon, Brigadoon | ||
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Gigi ([ʒi.ʒi]) is a 1944 novella by French writer Colette. The plot focuses on a young Parisian girl being groomed for a career as a courtesan and her relationship with the wealthy cultured man named Gaston who falls in love with her and eventually marries her.
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The novella was the basis for a 1949 French film starring Danièle Delorme and Gaby Morlay.
In 1951, it was adapted for the stage by Anita Loos. Colette had personally picked the yet unknown Audrey Hepburn on first sight to play the title role. Her Aunt Alicia was played by stage legend Cathleen Nesbitt, who was to become Hepburn's acting mentor from that time on. Opening on 24 November 1951 on Broadway at the Fulton Theatre, the play ran for 219 performances (finishing on 31 May 1952) and Hepburn's debut on Broadway earned her a Theatre World Award.
The novella was translated into English by Roger Senhouse and published (with "The Cat" translated by Antonia White) in 1953.
A 1958 musical film version with a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and a score by Lerner and Frederick Loewe won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Lerner and Loewe adapted the film for an expurgated 1973 stage musical that proved to be unsuccessful, and was revived on Broadway in 2015.