Coco
Music	André Previn
Lyrics	Alan Jay Lerner
Book	Alan Jay Lerner
Basis	The life ofCoco Chanel
Productions	1969Broadway 1971 First National Tour 1971 Summer Stock

Coco is a 1969Broadwaymusical with abook and lyrics byAlan Jay Lerner and music byAndré Previn, inspired by the life ofCoco Chanel.Katharine Hepburn starred in the title role, her first and only in a stage musical.

Theatre producer Frederick Brisson originally had optionedChanel's life for his wifeRosalind Russell, but Russell had developed acutearthritis, making it difficult for her to function. That meant another leading lady with star quality needed to be found.Irene Selznick suggestedKatharine Hepburn, who initially scoffed at the idea of appearing in a musical but agreed to work with formerMGM vocal coachRoger Edens for ten days. Following an audition in Selznick's suite atThe Pierre Hotel, Hepburn felt comfortable enough to mull seriously the proposition, and was further convinced to accept the offer after meeting Chanel.

Lerner had assured the designer his book would cover only the early years of her life and career, and she was distressed when the plan was jettisoned to accommodate the older star. The highly fictionalized book and score underwent massive revisions and were far from complete when Hepburn concluded filming onThe Madwoman of Chaillot, at which time she was scheduled to begin work on the show, andCoco was postponed a season while its creators worked on it.

The six-week rehearsal period finally began in September 1969.Cecil Beaton's set proved to be a complicated piece of machinery that frequently malfunctioned and was difficult for the cast to maneuver, and the final scene required a troublesome coordination of mirrors, platforms, runways, and flashing lights. Hepburn insisted the theater's thermostat be set at 60 degrees and the exterior doors left open, and most of the cast became ill due to the unusually cold fall weather.

Set between early autumn of 1953 and late spring of 1954, fashion designerCoco Chanel, after fifteen years of retirement, decides to return to the world ofhaute couture and reopen herParis salon. With her new collection derided by the critics, she facesbankruptcy until buyers from four majorAmericandepartment stores -Saks Fifth Avenue,Bloomingdale's,Best & Company, andOhrbach's - place orders with her. She becomes involved with the love life of one of her models, and flashbacks utilizing filmed sequences recall her own past romantic flings. Adding humor to the proceedings is a highlystereotypical rudegay designer who tries to impede Chanel's success.^[1] The finale is a fashion show featuring actual Chanel designs from 1918 to 1959.

Acast recording was released byParamount Records in 1970. It was reissued on CD byMCA Records in 1997.

After 40 previews, the Broadway production opened on December 18, 1969, at theMark Hellinger Theatre, where it ran for 329 performances. The show was directed byMichael Benthall andchoreographed byMichael Bennett.Ann Reinking was in the chorus in one of her first Broadway shows.Joan Copeland was Hepburn's standby, andDanielle Darrieux replaced Hepburn eight months into the run, but without the drawing power of a major star the poorly reviewed show closed two months later.

Hepburn was scheduled to star in aWest End production, but when theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane proved to be unavailable she refused to consider other venues and the project was abandoned. She headed the cast of the US national tour, which opened inCleveland on January 11, 1971, the day after Chanel's death, which the star acknowledged at the final curtain call. She continued with the tour through June, when it ended at theDorothy Chandler Pavilion inLos Angeles. Although reviews in most cities were mediocre, it played to sold-out houses everywhere. Despite its financial success, executives atParamount Pictures, which had financed the original Broadway production - at $900,000, the most expensive show in Broadway history at the time - in exchange for thecast album andfilm rights, opted not to transferCoco to the big screen.

During the autumn of 1971,Ginger Rogers starred in a stock tour ofCoco that played the Westbury Music Festival, the South Shore Music Circus and the Valley Forge Music Fair. The tour was directed by Fred Hebert and choreographed by Larry Fuller.^[4]

Coco was produced as a staged concert by42nd Street Moon in San Francisco in April and May 2008, starringAndrea Marcovicci in the title role. The production played for a total of 16 performances. It was directed by Mark D. Kaufmann and choreographed by Jayne Zaban.^[5] Marcovicci revisited the role in September 2010 for the show's first New York revival as part of the York Theatre Company's Musicals in Mufti.

Coco was presented in London's Sadler's Wells, in 2011, as part of theLost Musicals project. Ian Marshall Fisher directed, Chris Walker, music director. Coco was played by Sara Kestelman and cast included Edward Petherbridge.^[6]

• A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katharine Hepburn byAnne Edwards, published byWilliam Morrow and Company (1985), pages 357-372 (ISBN 0-688-04528-6)

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• Internet Broadway Database listing
• Katharine Hepburn papers -- Letter from Katharine Hepburn about use of bad language inCoco!

• 1969 musicals
• Broadway musicals
• Musicals by Alan Jay Lerner
• Compositions by André Previn
• Biographical musicals
• Musicals set in the 1950s
• Cultural depictions of Coco Chanel
• Tony Award–winning musicals
• Musicals set in Paris

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