On Stratford Festival's 2003 theatrical menu, Gigi is the oh-so-French dessert. The production, on display at the Avon Theatre, is a rich, fluffy, sinfully sweet treat that dares you to resist it.

Director Richard Monette and his cast revel in this frivolously funny musical by Lerner & Loewe, the team whose other successes include Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady and Camelot.

Reversing the usual sequence, Gigi began life as a 1958 movie, which garnered nine Academy Awards, among them the Oscars for top picture and best music score. Set in Paris in 1901, its plot is derived from French author Colette's romantic 1944 novella about a young girl being trained by her offbeat family to become a courtesan -- polite society's term for a woman kept by a wealthy gentleman.

Jennifer Gould brings a winning combination of vulnerability and spirit to the title role of Gigi, who's reluctant to pursue the career of a mistress and stubbornly clings to her idealistic notions of love.

The venerable James Blendick, so engaging as Doolittle in last season's presentation of My Fair Lady, again employs his crowd-pleasing charm as Honore, the story's narrator. He's an aging bon vivant who makes no apology for his pleasure-seeking lifestyle: "I'm old enough to know my faults -- and still young enough to enjoy them."

Blendick even meets the formidable challenge of singing Thank Heaven for Little Girls, which Maurice Chevalier made his signature song in Gigi's screen version.

Gaston, Honore's nephew and the object of our heroine's affections, is a rich, handsome, bored young man well played by Dan Chameroy, who boasts an excellent Broadway-calibre singing voice.

Similarly, the ever-effective Domini Blythe is a delight as Gigi's loving grandmother, Mamita, while Patricia Collins makes the most of her assignment as Aunt Alicia, the haughty, hilarious ex-courtesan who knows the exact money value of romance. "Remember, Gigi," she tells her protegee. "The rich die laughing."

Perhaps the show's key element is the memorable music score, featuring The Night They Invented Champagne, I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore and I Remember It Well.

Those sentimental tunes help the audience recall the "splendid past" and divert any thoughts of the "ugly present."

And for that alone, we say "Merci, Gigi!"

IF YOU GO

What: Gigi, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe

Where: Avon Festival Theatre, Stratford Festival

When: Till Nov. 1

Tickets: $23.65 to $98.50 (some special rates may apply); call 1-800-567-1600 or visit www.stratfordfestival.ca

Rating: * * * 1/2 (out of five)