The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Dec. 3, 1951

Gigi (adapted by Anita Loos from Colette's novel; produced by Gilbert Miller) is the adolescent daughter—in turn-of-the-century Paris—of an established line of cocottes. Though her mother and grandmother never succeeded in being elegantly maintained, they firmly insist that the traditions of their calling must be, and that the still hoydenish Gigi (Audrey Hepburn) be launched as correctly as a debutante.

Gigi goes each week to her great-aunt Alicia (Cathleen Nesbitt)—the immensely successful grande cocotte of the family who might be its dowager duchess—for lessons in how to eat ortolans or determine the comparative value of jewels. Aunt Alicia also decides which rich...

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