Gigi: How a west London theatre is putting the darkness back into a play best known as a sunny musical

A £7.7m Broadway show of the 1944 French novella flopped, with critics complaining the production was too 'squeaky clean'

Vanessa Hudgens, left, and Corey Cott appear in "Gigi" on Broadway this year (AP)

A big-budget production of the musical Gigi flopped on Broadway this year because its producers tried to sanitise controversial aspects of the story, the director bringing the original stage version to London has argued.

Gigi, a 1944 novella by the French writer Colette, was turned into a Broadway comedy in 1951 by Anita Loos, the writer of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It starred Audrey Hepburn and inspired first the 1958 film and then the stage musicals.

The $12m (£7.7m) Broadway show tells the story of a teenage girl being groomed as a courtesan for a wealthy older man. It closed in June after less than three months, with some critics complaining that the production was too “squeaky clean”.

Leslie Caron as the eponymous heroine, in 1958 (Rex)

Mark Giesser, who is directing and producing a revival of the original play at the Tabard Theatre in Chiswick, west London, said for the story to work, it needs to confront difficult issues. “There are disturbing implications to this story. The play is edgier, racier and more varied in tone. The musical’s producers were worried about the modern implications of a story of the older man in a relationship with a teenager.”

The Broadway version raised Gigi’s age from 16 to 18 and made the wealthy playboy who falls for her 25 rather than twice her age. The review in The New York Times said it had been “scrubbed of anything even remotely naughty or distasteful”. Another review called it “disconcertingly wholesome”.

Mr Giesser said: “In attempting to soften it for modern taste, it has basically lost the plot. I don’t think it’s any more what Colette intended.”

Gigi is to open at the Tabard later this month, the first time the play has been staged in London for 60 years. When it first opened in the West End in 1955, Leslie Caron played Gigi in a production directed by her future husband, Sir Peter Hall.

Loos’s play is rarely seen because it has been overshadowed by the musical film version which won nine Oscars in 1958. Songs include “Thank Heaven For Little Girls” and “I Remember It Well”. “It’s a beloved story but people tend to go to the musical, which takes the story in a softer direction,” said Mr Giesser. “The play would have been more edgy to audiences of the time, and still will be.”

The story, about naive schoolgirl Gigi, is set in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. When a wealthy older playboy takes an interest, her family of courtesans groom her to be his mistress, though Gigi has other ideas.

“The play was a Broadway comedy and it’s a charming story,” Mr Giesser said. “But there are lots of shades of light and dark and that’s what makes the story so interesting to me.

“People haven’t seen this version in six decades and it ought to be seen particularly in light of what just happened to the musical version. We wanted to see if we could show it to the public.

“I don’t have any qualms. It deals with issues relevant to modern society and I don’t see any reason to dodge them.”

The Tabard’s version of Gigi stars Daisy May in the title role, Prue Clarke and Pamela Miles.