Word: parisian
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...should because of the delightful shenanigans of the minor players), take my advice and go home after the second act. Act Three is terrible. The "action" takes place in Maxim's ritzy restaurant and attempts to give the weary audience (the show lasts until 11:30) a picture of Parisian night-life. The plot stands still while Monsieur Lebon, in his own inimitable fashion, emasculates four songs. Then there are a couple of dance sequences, a comedy skit, and at long last the thing is over. If Lehar were alive and saw this act, he would wish he were dead...
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 young Parisian shall launch her grandniece. But the play itself decides on a prettier ending: the chosen rake (Michael Evans) offers lovestruck Gigi no proposition but a proposal...
...play seem more immoral, but without it Gigi is merely raffish, and less entertaining than it should be. Only such a tittle jewel of a scene as the scene of the jewels comes off completely. Otherwise, Gigi shimmers most while its scenes are being shifted, when against evocatively Parisian curtains it plays gay, rakish period tunes...
Lissome Anny Gould, a Parisian nightclub singer, thought some U.N. publicity might be exciting. While press photographers stood by, she waited last Friday on the steps of the Palais de Chaillot, ready to present her pet dove to the first U.N. delegate to appear. Johnny on the spot was Andrei Vishinsky. As shutters snapped, Anny stage-smiled and offered the dove to Vishinsky. "A symbol," said she, "of the peace we all want...
Vishinsky thanked her, handed the bird to an aide, and marched inside the building. "Are you going to keep my bird?" Anny asked. "Of course I'm keeping it," replied Vishinsky. Anny was taken aback. She was even more chagrined to find herself erroneously identified in Parisian papers next day as a representative of a Communist women's organization. Terribly upset, Anny bought 59 more doves, sent one to each U.N. delegation (except, of course, the Russians). It wasn't the first time a Russian had grabbed a peace dove from the unsuspecting West...