Lerner & Loewe Gigi Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, August 2008 Director Timothy Sheader Choreographer Stephen Mear Lighting Simon Mills

Reviews 

The strongest asset of Sheader's production is Yannis Thavoris' costume design. Leading down from the high art-nouveau walkway above the fan-shaped stage, the cast twirl parasols and parade their gloves and millinery, preening their way through the show in pastel-shaded, belle-epoque grandeur. (Variety)

Yannis Thavoris's simple but effective design turns the leafy stage into a convincing corner of Paris ... Neat and inventive. The costume design is equally impressive. (London Theatre Guide Online)

The striking set makes the most of the limited space with poster-covered park pillars that fold out to become Parisian cafes and mirrored boudoirs. The forte of the production is arguably the elaborate costume design, with beautiful jewel-coloured satin dresses, spectacular hats and dapper, colourful suits for the male cast. (Official London Theatre Guide)

... Timothy Sheader's stylish, affectionate production works a treat in Regent's Park, with loads of pretty frocks, colourful parasols, period advertisements on colonnes Morris, and a curvy, verdigris-encrusted catwalk down which the characters parade like models. (Daily Telegraph)

There's humour in the design, too (by Yannis Thavoris), as pillar-box hoardings open up and unfurl to reveal classy mirrored interiors. (Independent)

... the production is so well dressed in the Belle Epoque style, that it is a pleasure just watching them perform. Full marks to director Timothy Sheader, choreographer Stephen Mear and designer Yannis Thavoris. (ClassicalSource.com)

... impeccably stylish and infallibly frivolous.

Yannis Thavoris's ingenious set throngs with girls in glamorous ball gowns and gents in DJs or silly little swimsuits. (Daily Mail)

The clever set is composed of a sweeping curved runway and two Parisian advertising columns of street furniture which advertise Trouville or Lachaille sugar on the outside but which open up to reveal extra scenes, Gigi's home portraits, a library for the signing of a legal contract for Gigi's future orchestrated by Aunt Alicia, Honore's closet, or the towers are lit up to recreate the famous restaurant Maxim's for "The Night They Invented Champagne". The fin de siècle frocks are beautiful as is the corsetry in this recreation of the 1890s with those picture hats and feminine bustles. Men too have canes top hats and sartorial elegance. The beach scene at Trouville has everyone in period, striped all in one and slightly comic bathing suits. (CurtainUp.com)

This is a glorious production with the most stunning set and costumes. The Park is a dead ringer for the Bois de Boulogne in Paris with designer Yannis Thavoris’ curvy green wrought metal walkway and sweeping stairs curving around lovely replicas of those round advertisement billboards you get in France. And his costumes made me swoon with envy. There are shiny satins and silks with colours that match the billboards, complete with sculpted bustles and over the top millinery and saucy Edwardian bathing costumes when the action moves to the French seaside at Trouville. (All About Jewish Theatre)

I must also extend compliments of the highest order to the designer, Yannis Thavoris, for making this production of Gigi a visual feast with elegant and authentic costumes, complemented by user-friendly but inspirational sets. (Rogues & Vagabonds)

But it is appearance that steals the show. From the exquisite costume to the rich set, you cannot help being attracted to the visuals in Gigi; fitting for a production that’s emphasis is on the importance of the aesthetic. (Evening Standard)

Paris of 1901 is embraced with panache in this tuneful revival, through the impressive set and costumes designed by Yannis Thavoris, where two kiosks compensate for the absence of a revolving stage by unfolding into impressive interior scenes. (TheatreGuideLondon.co.uk)

Designer Yannis Thavoris has created an impressively versatile set, which, at the outset, seemingly consists merely of a couple of atypical Parisian advertising kiosks. However, when opened out they become the portrait strewn walls of Mamita and Gigi’s cosy sitting room, and Aunt Alicia’s multi-mirrored dressing room. Turned, they become the book lined walls of a solicitor’s office, a fitting backdrop for the comical routine accompanying ‘The Contract’... A well thought out, verdigris wrought iron looking walkway spiralling upwards at the back of the stage creates the romantic allusion of a bridge over the Seine and allows the actors to come and go in plain sight of the audience, enabling reactions and afterthoughts to be appreciated. The show’s costumes, which are gorgeously garish for the courtesans, dapper for their ‘gentlemen’ and richly distinguished for Honore and his nephew Gaston have also been designed by Yannis Thavoris, a name said twice to ensure remembrance. Yannis’ terrifically effective costumes are in especially effervescent evidence during the show stopping ensemble number, ‘The Night They Invented Champagne’... (extraextra.org)