York Light Opera Company (YLOC) in Gigi; Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York until June 26 (From York Press)

York Light Opera Company (YLOC) in Gigi; Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York until June 26

4:02pm Wednesday 23rd June 2010 in

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Their footballers may have crashed out of the World Cup, but there is another - much better - French show in town this week. Not only is Gigi based in France - it was the first Hollywood musical to be filmed entirely in Paris (1958) - it is also based on a novel by Colette. You can’t get more French than that. So we owe them, after all.

So powerful are the resonances from the original film, which only became a stage musical in 1973, that any company taking it on now has all that baggage to handle. York Light avoids the obvious trap of fake accents and makes it in many ways an English affair: the manners, the voices, the dress are all very Ascot-enclosure. But one of the cleverest touches in Robert Readman’s adaptable, all-purpose set is the back-screen of slides featuring French impressionists and fin de siècle scenes, highly redolent of la vie parisienne.

Angela Edwards deserves huge credit for her production. Onto one of York’s smallest stages she crams a cast who are incredibly disciplined. They have to be. She pounces on anything suggestive in the music to dab in some enlightening movement, a swirl here, a quick-step there, a smiling face thrust to the audience, or sometimes just a creative tableau.. Her choreography is a constant delight and very ably executed, even down to the five cute children in Act 1.

The other absolute sensation of the evening is the costumes, co-ordinated by Jean Wilkinson. The changes come thick and fast, each scene more sumptuous than the last . They are not just imaginative, they are high fashion, all with fetching wigs and hats. The gentlemen have some racy outfits too. But the most ravishing is worn by Aunt Alicia in the lawyer’s office, a cream and claret number with accessory parasol.

Spearheading the show is Ian Small’s Honoré - the Maurice Chevalier role - charming and debonair, revelling in Thank Heaven for Little Girls and I Remember It Well (with Mamita), and casting an avuncular eye over his nephew’s misdemeanours. Gigi herself is a bouncy, Anne-of-Green-Gables style ingénue in the hands of Sarah Milton, graduating smoothly to pouting beauty in adulthood. Her light soprano is well suited to In This Wide, Wide World.

J Raphael Richards makes a starchy, world-weary aristocrat of Gaston, eventually loosening up and capitulating to Gigi’s charms. Laura Meek’s haughtily sardonic Aunt Alicia and Ann Kelly’s motherly Mamita add to the enchantment. Generally, not as much is made of the spoken word as could be. But the choruses flow well and individual members cover a host of colourful cameos, not forgetting the three luscious can-can girls. With Phil Redding’s 11-piece combo lending rhythmic elan, this rousing show truly allows us to say Vive La France once again.

York Light Opera Company (YLOC) in Gigi; Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, until Saturday, including Saturday matinee. B/O York Theatre Royal, (01904) 623568