Four things I’ve been meaning to tell you

1. I caught Off the Wall’s Gigi Thursday (Dec. 13) , at a private preview in honor of the 80th birthday of old friend John Angelos. (John, by the way, hasn’t changed a bit since I met him 20 years ago, when he was an exceptionally vigorous 60 y.o.). The formal opening was Friday, but Gigi, directed by Dale Gutzman, looked ready for prime time.

This stage production derives from the 1958 movie musical starring Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier and Louis Jordan. The title song, “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” and “The Night They Invented Champagne” have had modest lives beyond the show. Gigi, the musical, began life on the screen, not the stage. (Audrey Hepburn starred in a straight play based on the piece on Broadway in the early 1950s, but L&L were not involved). That explains in part why I had never seen this show on stage until last week at Off the Wall, while the sun never sets on Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, from 1954.

Gigi, after a Colette story, in some ways rather is a Parisian version of My Fair Lady (MGM marketed Leslie Caron as “the new Fair Lady”).  In both, a spirited young girl comes of age, transforms herself and wins the heart of an older, sophisticated, well-to-do gentlemen. But watered-down Colette remains edgier than the watered-down Shaw of My Fair Lady. Gigi’s grandmother and great-aunt do not prepare her to be the spouse of family friend and playboy Gaston — they groom her to become his kept woman, and they negotiate a price for her.

Gigi was a big film, with lavish ballroom and party scenes and outdoor Parisian settings. Director Dale Gutzman and his co-designer David Roper ingeniously transformed the show into an intimate piece that perfectly fits the tiny Off the Wall. I assume the costumes to be rented, but they are fabulous nonetheless and give the show an unexpected sumptuousness, not to mention authenticity — even the relatively poorer characters would be fashion-conscious.

Karl Miller does a great Chevalier as Honore LaChaille, the philosophizing aging roue, and Jeremy C. Welter somehow makes us care for Gaston, surely one of the most annoying leading male roles in all of musical comedy. Liz Mistele posits a mischievous, exuberant and uncomfortably youthful Gigi, which sharpens the Colette edge. Marilyn White and Sharon Niemen-Koebert are convincing as her doting grandmother and aunt, the former with a conscience and the latter with none. Alicia Rice is a bombshell in the brief role of Liane, a party girl, originally played by Eva Gabor.

They all sing very well, even through charming (if inconsistent) French accents. But they must suffer prerecorded electronic accompaniment that, given the financial circumstances and physical dimensions of Off the Wall, probably couldn’t be helped.

Gigi runs through Dec. 31. Details here.

2. Overheard during intermission at the Milwaukee Ballet’s Nutcracker, as hordes of little girls in red velvet dresses and their moms crowded around tables piled with ballet/holiday tchotchkes: “No, honey — you have plenty of tiaras at home already.”

3. The Milwaukee Symphony and its musicians have not only agreed to extend and modify their contract, they did so many months before the old agreement, signed in May of 2009, was to set to expire on Aug. 31, 2013. The rewritten version of the contract has been in effect since Nov. 19 and runs through fiscal 2015. Contract updates and related strategies should save the MSO about $1 million over the next three years. That’s good.

The bad news is that the original contract called for a raise this season, with the minimum jumping to $58,500, up from $55,185 in 2011-12. Now, that won’t happen; the base rate will stay where it was last season.  Presumably, the $63,500 promised for 2013-14 back in 2009 also will not happen, though the MSO and the players have so far said nothing about that publicly.

The relations between players and management seem to be good despite the continuing hard times and the fact that the raises specified for this year would not even bring the players to the pre-2009 minimum of $6o,000. The players’ heavy involvement in the governance of the orchestra has something to do with the willingness to sacrifice, along with the thrill of playing in an orchestra that has become world-class under Edo de Waart. The appointment of one of their own, former principal trumpeter Mark Niehaus, as executive director and president, also helps. But the fear factor probably drives the willingness to accept concessions, which most players have come to accept as grim necessity. Lots of American orchestras are in financial trouble and/or amid labor disputes. 2012 is not the ideal time for players to hope for much, much less demand anything.

4. People Movers: Jim Farrell, formerly development director of the Skylight Music Theatre, has become executive director of the Sunset Playhouse. Farrell replaces Jonathan West, who has become director of communications for the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, based at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz. Congratulations to both. West, by the way, is splitting time between Scottsdale and Milwaukee…. The Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University is pleased to announce the appointment of Emilia P. Layden as the new associate curator. Layden has been serving in an interim capacity since July and organized the current permanent collection exhibition Freedom Of/For/To and the forthcoming Read Between the Lines: Enrique Chagoya’s Codex Prints. Prior to joining the Haggerty, Layden served as programming and exhibitions manager at Art Chicago and Next…. The Bradley Family Foundation, at its annual meeting on 5 December 2012, elected a new slate of board officers. Sarah Zimmerman is the new president of the board of directors and David V. Uihlein is now vice president. Francis Croak and Margaret Lund retained their positions as treasurer/secretary and assistant treasurer/secretary, respectively. Liza Sadoff remains a member of the board. The main purpose of the Bradley Family Foundation is to operate the Lynden Sculpture Garden. The Lynden, by the way, remains open and busy through the winter months.

5. And since it’s Christmas, one bonus thing I’ve been meaning to tell you: If you want the tiara pictured above, you can buy it here. Suggestion: If you have more than one daughter, buy one for each of them.

Going to a holiday-themed show? TCD’s been there first. Links to ThirdCoast reviews of all eight Milwaukee Christmasy shows are right here.