Principal casting now complete for Broadway-bound Gigi

Principal casting for the Broadway-bound revival of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's Oscar and Tony Award-winning musical Gigi is now complete.

Tony Award winner Victoria Clark will take on the role of Mamita Alvarez and three-time Tony nominee Dee Hoty will play Aunt Alicia in the upcoming production. They join previously announced Vanessa Hudgens in the title role, two-time Tony nominee Howard McGillin as Honore Lachaille, Corey Cott as Gaston Lachaille and Steffanie Leigh as Liane d'Exelmans.

Victoria Clark won the Tony Award in 2005 for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Margaret Johnson in 'The Light in the Piazza'. She was also nominated for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical in 2013 for 'Cinderella' and 2011 for 'Sister Act'. Other Broadway credits include 'The Snow Geese', 'Urinetown', 'Cabaret', 'Titanic', 'How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying', and 'Guys and Dolls'.

Dee Hoty earned Tony nominations for Best Actress in a Musical for 'Footloose' in 1999, 'The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public' in 1994, and 'The Will Rogers Follies' in 1991. Her other Broadway credits include 'Bye Bye Birdie', 'Mamma Mia!', 'City of Angels', and 'Me and My Girl'.

Ensemble cast members include Cameron Adams, Max Clayton, Madeleine Doherty, Ashley Blair Fitzgerald, Hannah Florence, Allison Jantzie, Brian Ogilvie, Ian Paget, James Patterson, Justin Prescott, Manuel Stark, Tanairi Sade Vazquez, Amos Wolff and Ashley Yeater.

Gigi tells the story of "a free-spirited teenage girl living in Paris at the turn of the century. She is groomed by her family to act as a companion to a bored, but extremely wealthy playboy and the pair eventually fall in love."

Gigi is set to play a pre-Broadway engagement in the Eisenhower Theater at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The show will officially open on 29 January 2015, following previews from 16 January, and will play a limited engagement through to 12 February 2015, before moving on to the Great White Way later in 2015.

This production is a re-envisioned adaptation by BAFTA Award-winning playwright and Emmy nominee Heidi Thomas and will be directed by Eric D. Schaeffer, with choreography by Joshua Bergasse, and produced by Jenna Segal.

The creative team behind Gigi features scenic design by Tony winner Derek McLane, costumes by Tony winner Catherine Zuber, lighting by Tony winner Natasha Katz, and sound design by Tony nominee Kai Harada. Hair design is by David Brian Brown. The show also features musical direction by James Moore, orchestrations by August Eriksmoen, vocal and incidental music arrangement by Matt Aument, and dance music arrangements by Sam Davis.

Gigi is based on the 1944 novel by Colette and was first adapted for the Broadway stage as a comedy play in 1951 by Anita Loos, with a then unknown Audrey Hepburn as its leading lady. Afterwards, it was picked up by the team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, following their success with 'My Fair Lady', and adapted for the 1958 movie musical, which went on to win nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The score features tunes such as "Thank Heaven For Little Girls", "I Remember It Well", "The Night They Invented Champagne", and "It's a Bore". Its first outing as a Broadway musical came in November 1973 and won the Tony Award for Best Score in 1974, which included new songs such as "Paris is Paris Again", "I Never Want to Go Home Again", "The Contract", and "In This Wide, Wide World."

- by Tom Millward