Question: "Audrey, Oui?" Answer: "Non, Katharine."

“One doesn’t get married to escape boredom, one gets divorced.”

“The wages of sin don’t compare to what you can make in the dress business.”

“A woman needs independence from men, not equality. In most cases equality is a step down.”

Coco, The Musical, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Is there life after death? Does anyone really know? Well, in the case of Coco Chanel, the answer seems to be in the affirmative. So strong was the legend she created that physical demise was but a blip on the radar. In her reincarnated form, however, she is more god than mortal—the avatar of a multi-billion dollar fashion empire.

In 1969—when the couturier was still among the living—a curious co-mingling of legends occurred. Producer Frederick Brisson finally brought his long-gestating show Coco, The Musical to Broadway. He intended it as a vehicle for his wife Rosalind Russell, but she dropped out due to poor health. Instead, Brisson cast Katharine Hepburn to play Chanel at the suggestion of their mutual friend Irene Mayer Selznick.

It was an odd choice. Not only did Hepburn lack experience with song or dance, her own myth rivaled Chanel’s and not in a complementary manner. Coco was the embodiment of chic feminine elegance. Hepburn, in her men’s trousers, exuded Yankee idiosyncrasy and fortitude. A Chanel twin set suited her about as well as it would have Spencer Tracy. The story goes that the selection took Chanel by surprise as well. She assumed that the Hepburn cast to portray her was the more gamine Audrey. 

Added into this mix was one more strong personality, Cecil Beaton, who designed the sets and costumes. He had the difficult task of not only making Chanel fashions theatrical but fusing them into a style acceptable to Hepburn. As his posthumously published diaries reveal, she was his bête noir by the end of the production. He seethed that Hepburn was “a schoolmarm, a Victorian sportswoman or suffragette … a woman without a vestige of humour with very little grace.”

One should not put too much stock in Beaton’s harsh words, however. A. Scott Berg, a great friend of Hepburn’s in the last decades of her life, offers a contrasting and warm portrait of her in his marvelous memoir, Kate Remembered. He depicts a complicated and strong-willed woman who used her public image to further her career but who refused to be a slave that to that legend.

Katharine Hepburn as Coco Chanel

One must admire Hepburn for gamely taking on the challenge. She not only had to contend with the reservations of Chanel and Beaton but with her own. She refused to accept the part until ten days of training with an MGM vocal coach convinced her she could do it. Critics eventually thought otherwise, but Hepburn turned out to be the show’s financial anchor. The Broadway version played to full houses and closed soon after Hepburn left the cast, confirming that she, not the legend of Chanel, was the appeal. Hepburn then joined the road company, which not only sold out but also survived the fashion designer herself who died in Paris during the show’s run.

There is no need to rely on critical reviews of Hepburn’s performance. A grainy version the show-stopping number she performed at the Tony Awards is available via YouTube.