Grey Gardens

This entry is meant to bea double review since I haven't yet touched on this topic.

First up - Grey Gardens the movie. For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it is a documentary cult-classic that was shot in 1974 by Al & David Maysles. The film follows the day-to-day of Jackie Kennedy's aunt Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Little Edie Beale, socialites who ended up living in squalor in their later years. The women lived in East Hampton in a mansion called Grey Gardens that over the years became overrun with fleas and racoons and cats and was raided by the government multiple times due to it being a health hazard. I have fallen in LOVE with this movie and especially Little Edie. Both are disturbing yet ultimately endearing. And Little Edie is one STAUNCH woman! It's a very public look into the private life of two eccentrics. If you haven't seen this one, GET ON IT IMMEDIATLY! The Maysles' recently released a second documentary, The Beales Of Grey Gardens (it isn't a follow up - more sort of a continuation/second volume type thing since they had recorded so much footage when they were there) which is just as great (if not better - I'm torn).

This new obsession of mine lead me on New Year's Eve to the Great White Way to see the recently transferred to Broadway Grey Gardens the musical starring Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. The prologue to the show begins in 1974 with the Edie's living in the Grey Gardens we know from the movie and then quickly flashes back for the rest of the first act to 1943 to show us the Edie's we never got to know. I have to admit, I wasn't so impressed with the first act. The music didn't do much for me and I didn't think any of the performaces were THAT notable. The only thing the first Act did for me was to answer some of the various questions that I had from the movie which was kind of interesting. Plus Matt Cavenaugh was pretty easy on the eyes as a young Joe Kennedy.

The SECOND that Act II started though, I knew what a treat I was in for and would subsquently come to see why everyone is RAVING about this show. The whole second act is basically the Maysles' film set to music (many times word for word). The sets and costumes were DEAD ON, as was Christine Ebersole's near-perfection portrayal of Little Edie. Ah, the VMI dance routine! It was SO realistic that it gave me chills! Sadly, I wasn't so in love with the music in Act II either, but who cares - there was the ghost of Little Edie twirling her flag before me! If Miss Ebersole doesn't win the Tony Award for this part, there is no justice on Broadway. In the end, I'm not so sure I would recommend this show to everybody. I think you really need to see the movie first and decide from there. I think the content of the musical might seem a bit odd if you hadn't seen the movie and wasn't familiar with the Beale's story. For fans of Broadway, though, this one is a must for Ebersole's and Wilson's performances alone.