Actress Vanessa Hudgens will be seen in a Broadway version of "Gigi", the musical that started as a movie and won the 1959 Academy Award for best picture.

A romantic comedy, "Gigi" is about a teenage girl, who is being groomed to serve as a companion to a playboy until the two realise they have fallen in love.

Hudgens will play the titular character in the musical, reports Washington Post.

"I was, like, screaming in the car. I called my mom; I called my dad. I could not believe it," Hudgens said of the moment she was offered the role.

A four-week "pre-Broadway" tryout of the play, to be directed by Eric Schaeffer and choreographed by Joshua Bergasse, will be held in January.

The 25-year-old star, who had auditioned for the role, said she she was initially doubtful about getting the role.

"(I was worried about whether) I could really look like I could be a Parisian in the 1900s. I don't think they had many Filipinos there then," she said.