Opinions on the Beales, the musical, and the movie from Pamela Beale, Christine Ebersole, and others

This series of posts prompted me to do a bit of digging about Pamela Beale, ex-wife of Christopher Beale, Little Edie's nephew. Edie lived with Pamela and Chris Beale in Oakland in the late 1990s.

From The San Francisco Chronicle, by Leah Garchik, on 15 November 2006

Oakland's Pamela Beale, whose aunt and cousin, Big and Little Edie Beale, are the subject of "Grey Gardens, the Musical," went to New York for its Broadway opening. Lead Christine Ebersole "sings beautifully and the show is well done," she e-mails, "but I can't help but feel that the 'cleaning up' and trivializing of the desperate circumstances of Big and Little Edie's lives was a travesty." Many people involved with the Beales "are now making a fortune after they are dead," she says, but the two "fabulous, artistic, misunderstood women living in a misogynist world were left to make do on a pittance."

(The New York Times Ben Brantley's review focused on Ebersole's performance, "an experience no passionate theatergoer should miss... The best argument I can think of for the survival of the American musical.")

From New York Magazine's Letters to the Editor, by Pamela Beale, on 27 November 2006

From Truth to Broadway

I enjoyed the review of Grey Gardens by Jeremy McCarter ["Theater: The East Hampton Star," November 13]. He accurately describes Edie Beale as "lucidly nutty," "elegant and monstrous." I knew Edie for 22 years while I was married to her nephew Chris Beale. So I was excited to make the trip to New York to see Grey Gardens. Christine Ebersole is indeed transcendent. However, the show made me sad and angry all over again that these two beautiful, artistic women were so abused by the misogynistic culture of the time and place in which they lived. The story is more worthy of a tragic opera than a trivial Broadway "hit."

-Pamela Beale, Oakland, Calif.

This is very different from how I think of the musical and the story of the Edith Bouvier Beales.

Here's a brief exchange between actress Christine Ebersole (who plays both Edies in the musical) and TCM's Robert Osborne, from when Ebersole appeared on the channel when they aired the original documentary.

From The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging, by Kevin, on 22 November 2006

Robert Osbourne: I think it's a fascinating story for all of us because I think it's, like, the definitive tale of not taking charge of your life. That's what fascinated about Little Edie.

Christine Ebersole: I think it's more complex than that for me because I see it as sort of not conforming. Not being a conformist. And sort of listening to your own drumbeat.

Robert Osbourne: (visually uncomfortable) Right, right...

I've been impressed at how Ebersole holds her ground and gently corrects people with what I've always thought of as misinterpretations of the film and musical. However, continuing with the review from The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging:

Ms. Ebersole is not just wrong, she is very wrong, and very wrong twice. The first time is when she congratulated herself for possessing such a "complex" understanding of Little Edie, when in actuality, deriving empowerment from this character is about as superficial a reading of it as you can get. The second time takes place when the actress extolls Little Edie's iconoclastic non-conformist virtues. This is undoubtedly a popular view among those who have made "Grey Gardens" a cult classic, largely for Little Edie's campy persona and unique ideas about fashion. Like Ms. Ebersole, they are wrong, very wrong, and do the film a great disservice.

Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter (Little) Edie are the black sheep of the New England Bouvier family (best known for its most famous alumni, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis), leading life in relative obscurity until their general uncleanliness and rejection of traditional lawn/home maintenance attracts the attention of local health inspectors (or, as the Beales like to call them, "Republicans"). Blind to their own relative squalor, Little Edie remarks in one memorable line "they can get you in East Hampton for wearing red shoes on a Thursday." One wonders what these fascists would do if your crumbling mansion were home to a growing family of raccoons; that is until we find out who's living in the Beales' attic.

Much of the film documents the unrelenting back and forth between mother and daughter, circling the reasons behind their exile like an Escher illustration - moving closer yet farther away at the same time. Edith, like her famous niece, managed to marry even richer than she was, only to see her husband leave her for another woman (Little Edie doesn't even consider her mother divorced - "My father got a fake Mexican divorce. But we didn't recognize it). She lives in the past, spending her days singing along to records she herself recorded in her youth and staring at a painted portrait made forty years earlier that stray cats now shit behind. Edith doesn't leave her bed much, cooking her meals from a nearby hot plate.

Given her age and health, Edith's presence here is understandable (though surely still bizarre). Little Edie, the undeniable star of this piece, is entirely more complicated. Quite attractive as a debutante of American aristocracy, she never marries despite a number of proposals...or so she claims. She isn't reliable in her perceptions of past or current realities, particularly in regards to men and their affections. They all want sex (perhaps), and further, sex with her (not any more). Little Edie claims she returns to Grey Gardens to take care of her ailing mother (a fact that Edith refutes, and we believe her). She is often making asides to the camera, expressing a desire to leave this place for the neon lights of New York City. Yet no one is keeping her prisoner - the locks on her door are her own.

Verily, Little Edie (and to a lesser extent, her mother) are obsessed with men. It's a truly pre-feminist mentality (if we take anything away from the film, it is that "Grey Gardens" is a deconstruction of this mentality) taken to its grotesque extreme. Indeed, they appear to be waiting for a man to save them from these rotting walls and servant-less existence (picking up a broom is beneath them). The Beales truly are the idle rich, except they're not rich anymore and haven't realized it yet. They are convinced, as those with money always are, that the help is stealing from them (in this case, benevolent handyman Jerry) even when there's nothing to steal.

"Not conforming?" "Not being a conformist?" Little Edie is the ultimate conformist, always seeking approval and always performing - for the camera, for her mother, and in the absence of either, one imagines, herself.

Still stuffed with Thanksgiving turkey, this is quite a bit to digest! It's clear that the story of the Edith Bouvier Beales is quite complex and can be viewed from many different angles. I thank Pamela Beale, Christine Ebersole, Robert Osborne, and Kevin for their takes on this story. I'll certainly be playing over all this in my mind for the next few days.

Source: here, here, here, and here

What do ''normal human beings'' think of Grey Gardens the Musical?

We non-reviewers often have different and more varied opinions about things. I always enjoy these types of surveys where people are questioned about something immediately after they've seen it, even if they're not "scientific".

And Grey Gardens the Musical fares well!

Overheard: What the Audience Really Thought About 'Grey Gardens'

From Marie-Hélène Weill, lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

"I loved it. The first musical I ever saw was Weill's Lady in the Dark, in 1941—the first act of Grey Gardens was like that. It’s a typical American form of art. It's tremendous."

From Richard Mills, retired, 70

What do you make of the Beales' relationship?

"I'm not a controlling dad—I have seven kids; it's too hard to control so many. Luckily I have an empty nest, so it's no longer a problem."

From Susan Schwartz, lawyer, 50

"I'm really not thinking of this as a musical, so there's nothing in my head as the tune I’m going to be humming. It's the story line that's fascinating."

From Tom Molnar, financial services, 24

"This is the first Broadway play I've seen in ten years, and I got dragged here. I brought a magazine to read, expecting the worst. But it was way better than I anticipated."

From Ann Marshall, retired schoolteacher, "very old"

"I didn't enjoy the first act. I wasn't comfortable at all in my seat—my knees are longer than three inches. But I loved the second act after I figured out a way to sit."

Source

Video: Hamptons TV interview with Al Maysles at Grey Gardens

A very nice little interview!

I believe this was filmed back in July 2006 at Frances Hayward's party with Michael Sucsy, Bouvier Beale Jr., Lois Wright, and others.

From WVVH-TV Hamptons TV, by Debbie Tuma

Grey Gardens 30th Anniversary

There are photos from the July event here and here.

Source

More Grey Gardens art

This isn't fan art per se, but it's a fantastic illustration inspired by Grey Gardens the Musical. It uses publicity photos by Joan Marcus to create a striking composite image that captures the essence of the musical quite well!

From New York Magazine, by Wes Duvall, on 13 November 2006

Thanks to the anonymous contributor who pointed me at this!

Source

Meet Al Maysles and Grey Gardens the Musical's creative team

This sounds like a very interesting event!

Grey Gardens: The Musical event at Borders Columbus Circle on 12/5

When

Tuesday, 5 December 2006, at 6 p.m.

Where

Borders in the Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle, 2nd Floor
New York, NY
(212) 823-9775

Who

Albert Maysles & members of the Creative Team behind Grey Gardens: The Musical

What

Join us for a celebration of the Broadway musical, Grey Gardens. Albert Maysles, director of the original documentary and some of the creative team behind the musical discuss the film, the musical, and the influence of Grey Gardens. Also available on Dec. 5 will be Albert & David Maysles' documentary, The Beales of Grey Gardens.

Maysles will sign copies of the DVDs, and the Creative Team will sign posters and the soundtrack.

Free ringtone from Grey Gardens the Musical

Want to be reminded that you're wearing a revolutionary costume every time someone calls you? Go to the website for Grey Gardens the Musical, wait for the page to load, then click on "Free Things" and follow the instructions to get a ringtone of "Revolutionary Costume for Today" on your phone.

Enjoy!

Source

Fantastic Grey Gardens fan art

It's no secret that some Grey Gardens fans are talented artists. I was going through webpages I'd bookmarked and came across the following image.

By Cindy Woods on 13 December 2005

Grey Gardens

It's really great! Woods has much more great work at her blog.

Have you created Grey Gardens-inspired art? Let me know!

Source

Old article about Sally Quinn's renovation of Grey Gardens

The article's author doesn't seem thrilled with how the house came out after the rebuilding and renovation, but this article is one of the few that puts to rest the notion that it's a 28-room mansion. It's not a mansion. It doesn't have 28 rooms. This is one of the few places in print where that's cleared up.

From Newsday, by James A. Revson, on 11 September 1986

Grey Gardens Back in the Pink

Debris and decay littered the rooms of the weather-beaten shingled cottage. Holes riddled the walls and floors. The stench from an army of diseased cats permeated the air.

And there in the middle of it all stood Edith Bouvier Beale, known as "Little Edie," the proud mistress of Grey Gardens and cousin to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It was 1979, and she was graciously showing off her home to Sally Quinn, who was house hunting in the Hamptons and who wanted to see the place out of curiosity.

"All it needs is a coat of paint," Beale told Quinn, who was then a reporter for The Washington Post. Quinn laughed but continued the tour of the once-graceful, five-bedroom home. It had never seen worse times.

Surprisingly, Quinn allowed herself to look past the ruins. She thought Grey Gardens was the most beautiful home she'd ever seen. She loved the proportions and scale of the house--open and imposing, grand but gracious.

Quinn told her husband, Ben Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post, about her $225,000 find.

"You're out of your mind," Bradlee snapped at his wife.

Anybody would have said the same thing. Grey Gardens couldn't be renovated. It would have to be completely torn apart and rebuilt from the foundation up. Nobody wanted to buy the house. Speculators eyed the land, which sat smack in the middle of East Hampton's estate section. But the house loomed like a handyman's horror, and did not inspire anyone's imagination – except Quinn's.

Edie Beale wasn't going to sell to just anybody. "Mother said I should sell to you because you would restore it," Beale told Quinn. (Mother, also named Edith Bouvier Beale and known as "Big Edie," had shared Grey Gardens with her daughter since 1952 and had died in her upstairs bedroom two years earlier. Little Edie claimed to have conversations with her after her death.)

Finally, Bradlee agreed to buy Grey Gardens, and the couple took over the house from the eccentric Edie Beale.

The myth is that Grey Gardens was restored. It wasn't. Under the guidance of architect Eugene Futterman, Quinn and Bradlee rebuilt and redesigned the house, turning it into a classic seaside cottage. (There were some unusual problems, in the beginning. Gas-masked workmen didn't last longer than a day or two at a time because of the overwhelming cat smell. Floor sanders fainted on top of their machines.)

But the work proceeded. "It's a brand new house," Futterman, who is well-known for the East End homes he has designed in the 1880s Shingle Style, said recently.

Another myth: Grey Gardens is a 26-room mansion. Fact: Grey Gardens is a large, 10-room home that could be a carriage house for one of the towering estates down the road. Futterman retained the exterior facade and completely altered the interior room configuration to create large, airy spaces that flow easily into one another.

But in 1979, it was nothing more than a crumbling mess of structurally unsound walls and floors. Not any mess, mind you, but one of the most famous messes in the nation.

Grey Gardens received unofficial landmark status some 10 years ago with the release of a revealing documentary film - made by two brothers, Albert and David Maysles - about the Beales' rather unorthodox lifestyle and symbiotic relationship. Of course, it didn't help their anonymity that Big Edie was Jackie's aunt and that Onassis money ($32,000 for repairs) had to bail out the foundering relations.

The sale of Grey Gardens did nothing to decrease its starring role as an East Hampton tourist attraction. Now a famous Washington couple owned the famous crumbling home. And as the cars wound their way along Apaquogue Road, they would slow down now to gape at the emerging, new Grey Gardens. To everyone's surprise, from the outside the new place looked exactly the same as the old one.

"It's just a family house," says Quinn, author of the newly released "Regrets Only" ($18.95, Simon & Shuster), a novel about love and power in Washington. She's sitting in her uncluttered East Hampton living room, which relies on a much-used, often-seen cabbage rose print for its country casual look.

Country casual means old wicker, baskets of wild flowers, an odd piece of majolica and a clutch of lace pillows, all against a backdrop of seafoam green, ivory and greige (gray and tan). If it looks rather random, don't be fooled. It's all according to plan -planned informality.

The 14-month restoration process that began in November, 1979 created the current showhouse and came off on schedule and without complication - probably a first in the Hamptons.

Quinn tells this story as part explanation:

Before work began, Quinn was standing in the then glass-enclosed porch. The front door was locked. And there appeared, almost like an apparition, an older woman who introduced herself as a friend of Big Edie's.

"I'm bringing you a message from Big Edie," the woman told Quinn. "She's so happy that you bought the house, and she's going to watch over you." And then she disappeared.

Quinn obviously enjoys the mystery of the tale. "And the fact is nothing went wrong," she says. "It went like a breeze."

For more than a year, a team of carpenters, electricians, woodworkers and masons took Grey Gardens apart and put it back together again, piece by piece.

Futterman's improvements and touches of Hamptons luxury set the new Grey Gardens apart from its namesake.

A series of French doors replaced blank walls in the kitchen to add light and give a clear view of the new patio and pool. The backyard, itself, was an impenetrable mass of 10-foot-high briars hiding a never-before-seen tennis court and walled-in garden.

Inside, a warren of rooms in the kitchen became a large family room / kitchen area with a comfy sectional sofa. What had been an adjoining laundry room became a sunny breakfast room brightened up with mismatched straight- backed chairs painted white in the Scandinavian style.

More French doors opened up the living room onto the restored walled-in garden. Verandas on the garden and street sides were extended in the Shingle-Style tradition. A bulldozer had to be hoisted by crane over the walls to clear the overgrown gardens.

Today, there's a circular English-styled flower bed sitting in the middle of a neatly clipped lawn, surrounded by the original stucco walls, now covered in white roses and creeping vines. Even a miniature thatched playhouse was restored to its original state.

And so, as Big and Little Edie hoped, Grey Gardens has survived. The irony, though, is that the Beales probably would have hated the new Grey Gardens and its manicured look. They loved their overgrown, untended home.

Today, it's just like all the other designer-perfect homes in the estate section of the Hamptons. Not better, not worse. Just the same.

Sally loves telling that story about Lois appearing in the home and relaying the message from Big Edie. I'd love to know how Lois got into the house!

More Christine Ebersole on the radio

Christine Ebersole and Scott Frankel, both from Grey Gardens the Musical, were on The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio on 8 November 2006. The audio of that interview is now available online, streaming and for download.

Source: here and here

Grey Gardens Buyers' Guide

No, this post isn't about purchasing a specific estate in East Hampton; it's about figuring out which The Beales of Grey Gardens DVD to get.

I already have Grey Gardens on DVD, as I'm sure many of you do. I also want to get The Beales, but I'm not sure if the DVD set that includes both films has exclusive features that aren't available by getting the films separately.

Here's a chart of all the features available on each DVD:

	Grey Gardens & The Beales of Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD	The Beales of Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD	Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD
GG: Audio commentary by filmmakers Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer, and Susan Froemke	x		x
Excerpts from a recorded interview with Little Edie Beale by Kathryn G. Graham for Interview magazine (1976)	x		x
Video interviews with fashion designers Todd Oldham and John Bartlett on the influence of Grey Gardens	x		x
Behind-the-scenes photographs	x		x
Trailers	x		x
Filmographies	x		x
English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired	x		x
New video introduction by Maysles	x	x
TB: Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing	x	x
A new essay by cultural critic Michael Musto	x	x
	$34.99	$14.99	$29.99
	Grey Gardens & The Beales of Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD	The Beales of Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD	Grey Gardens Criterion Collection DVD

From the checkboxes, it's clear that the DVD set that includes both Grey Gardens and The Beales has nothing that isn't available in the DVDs of Grey Gardens and The Beales.

If you don't have Grey Gardens on DVD, you'll save $10 by buying it and The Beales together in that single set. (Prices shown above are the current prices listed on Amazon.com at the time of this posting.)

As for me, I'm buying The Beales separately, as I already have the Grey Gardens DVD.

Update on Michael Sucsy's Grey Gardens film

From the Grey Gardens Yahoo Group, by Kent Bartram, on 8 November 2006

I just asked Mike Sucsy what the latest update was and he said to tell you that the filming will be this Summer and it may come out as early as Holiday 2007.

Jessica and Drew are still firmly attached and enthusiastic.

This is great news!

Source

What does Grey Gardens mean to you?

To some, Grey Gardens means animal rights. Big Edie and Little Edie kept many cats (that was one of Big Edie's interests), and the house's current resident, Frances Hayward, works closely with the Humane Society of the United States and started The Friends of Amigo Foundation, named after a dog she rescued and keeps as a pet.

It's appropriate that these interests converge with Grey Gardens the Musical, and today, from noon to 4, animals can be adopted outside the theater.

From Grey Gardens the Musical's Myspace page, on 8 November 2006

Thursday --Adopt a Pet in front of the Walter Kerr Theatre! APSCA/Grey Gardens Event

On November 9th from 12 noon to 4pm Grey Gardens The Musical and the ASPCA will be hosting an animal adoption event outside the Walter Kerr Theatre, located on West 48th Street between 8th and Broadway. Stop by and adopt a wonderful animal to take home that very same day! Grey Gardens is the incredible story of Jackie O.'s most outrageous relatives, and cast members will be stopping by.

www.aspca.org

Source

ZooZoom fashion shoot inspired by Grey Gardens

Not sure if you've seen this, but it's a great Grey Gardens-inspired fashion editorial from ZooZoom Fashion Magazine. ZooZoom is an online fashion magazine and the work in it is fantastic. This may just be my favorite Grey Gardens editorial.

I got turned onto this from the main website for Grey Gardens the Musical.

From ZooZoom, photographed by Toshi Tasaki, from April 2006

Left: Long gold metallic dress by Afshin Feiz. Necklace by Subversive Jewelry. Vintage reading glasses by Fabulous Funny NYC. Right: Cream satin scarf and broach at Family Jewels NYC. White t-shirt dress by Bruno Grizzo. Tights by Wolford.

1950s cream check bathing suit at Family Jewels NYC. Gold flower blouse by Y&KEI. Shoes by Giuseppe Zanotti.

Lavendar '60s vintage lingerie, vintage cream satin scarf and pearl broach at Family Jewels NYC. Purple grey fur jacket by Costello Tagliapietra. Cream hat by Patricia Underwood. Crystal ring by Subversive Jewelry. Heels by Masion Martin Margiela.

Kimono at Family Jewels NYC. Necklace by Subversive Jewelry. Silver bustier dress by Afshin Feiz.

Yellow and beige chiffon dress by Zaldy.

Art directed by Gino Gianneschi. Produced by Annette Schowers and Stan Brooks at CA Management. Fashion Editor: Tomoko Yano. Hair by Noel. Makeup by Angela DiCarlo. Set Design: Michael Hermiston. Models: Ingrid Schram and Viktoriya Petryhan. Fashion Assistant: Kim Johnson. Hair Assistant: Stephanie Stachera. Special Thanks to Bide-a-Wee for allowing us to shoot with the following cats: Jason, Hannah, Tina, Fifi, and Pequitas. Adoption contact information at www.bideawee.org.

It might just be in my eyes, but model Ingrid Schram seems to bear a strong resemblance to Frances Hayward, who currently lives in the house Grey Gardens.

Source

More news about Al Maysles's upcoming documentary about Grey Gardens the Musical

Another article supporting this story.

From BroadwayWorld.com, by BWW News Desk, on 6 November 2006

Maysles at Work on New Grey Gardens Documentary

Producers Kelly Gonda, Tracey Trench and Maysles Films announced today that legendary film-maker Albert Maysles (Grey Gardens, Salesman, Gimme Shelter) is now at work on a new documentary that returns him to the world of Grey Gardens.

The one-hour film (as yet untitled) will chronicle the journey from cult documentary to Broadway musical, exploring the original film, the just-opened musical adaptation and the continuing interest in their subjects, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter "Little" Edie. It will also bring the journey full circle as a documentary following the making of a musical that is based on a documentary. Grey Gardens is the first Broadway musical ever based on a documentary.

Directed by Maysles in his signature style, the new documentary will explore the making of the original film, the wildly diverse initial reactions to it, the cult audience that built around it, the actual house then and now and the creation of the musical from rehearsals to Opening Night. Maysles will be aided by a treasure trove of materials, including never-before-seen footage from the original film. He's also currently immersed in documenting the creation of the musical by being present each step of the way, and conducting all-new interviews with the musical's cast and creative team. Lora Nelson and Maureen Ryan will produce for Maysles Films,

as press materials state.

The original film Grey Gardens

is the voyeuristic, cult documentary by brothers Albert and David Maysles, who are long acknowledged as the godfathers of verite documentary filmmaking. The film tells the story of two endearing, eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and their everyday life as recluses in their decaying East Hampton mansion. The film premiered at the 1975 New York Film Festival and is now celebrating the 30th Anniversary of its initial theatrical release in 1976.

The musical Grey Gardens, starring Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole and Tony Award nominee Mary Louise Wilson as The Beales, was a sold out hit when it premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in February 2006. The musical won the 2006 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, a 2006 Richard Rodgers Production Award and was selected as one of the "Ten Best" of the year by The Best Plays Theater Annual. In addition, Ebersole swept the 2006 Spring Theater award season, winning every award possible: a Drama Desk Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Obie Award, a special citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle and the Drama League's 2006 Distinguished Performance of the Year Award.

The critical and popular success of the musical catapulted it to Broadway, where it just opened November 2, 2006 at The Walter Kerr Theatre (219 West 48th Street). Kelly Gonda, one of the producers of the new documentary, is president of East of Doheny, which is the lead producer of the musical Grey Gardens.

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film, the musical has been followed by the Maysles Brothers recently-released companion movie The Beales of Grey Gardens (featuring previously-unseen outtakes from the original documentary, now playing at art houses across the country and to be released on DVD on December 6), several upcoming books (including a collection of Edie's original writings), and a future Hollywood feature based on the documentary.

The original film is by David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke-–a Maysles Brothers Films Inc. Production.

The musical Grey Gardens features a book by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), music by Scott Frankel (whose passion for the documentary inspired him to option the rights from Maysles and assemble the team to adapt it) and lyrics by Michael Korie. The musical is directed by Tony Award nominee Michael Greif (Rent) and has musical staging by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun.

In addition to Ebersole and Wilson, the musical's cast includes five-time Tony Award nominee John McMartin as both 'Major' Bouvier and Norman Vincent Peale; Matt Cavenaugh as both Joe Kennedy, Jr. and Jerry; Erin Davie as Young 'Little' Edie Beale; Kelsey Fowler as Lee Bouvier; Sarah Hyland as Jacqueline Bouvier; Obie Award winner Michael Potts as Brooks Sr. and Brooks Jr.; and two-time Tony Award nominee Bob Stillman as George Gould Strong.

The Broadway production features scenic design by Allen Moyer, costume design by five-time Tony Award-winner William Ivey Long, lighting design by Tony Award-winner Peter Kaczorowski, sound design by Brian Ronan, projections by Wendall K. Harrington and hair and wig design by Paul Huntley. Orchestrations are by Tony Award-winner Bruce Coughlin and music director is Lawrence Yurman.

Visit www.greygardensthemusical.com for more on Grey Gardens.

Source

Admiring Edie, looking at the Grey Gardens phenomenon

It's always interesting to take a step back an observe the greater context surrounding what we Grey Gardens fans are so focused on. This article was a nice little read.

And it mentions "Internet blogs". Hurrah!

From Reuters, by Christine Kearney, on 6 November 2006

Jackie O's quirky kin subject of musical, movie

At a Manhattan piano bar, several cross-dressing men sport the same look: ripped nylon stockings, brown wrap skirt and cashmere sweater tied in a makeshift head scarf.

The look, inspired by the deceased aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is "at the forefront right now," said bar patron Jym Benzing.

Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie, have emerged from cult status and moved into the mainstream, inspiring imitators and show business productions.

The reclusive, eccentric relatives of the former first lady were the subject of a 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens," which chronicled their lives in a dilapidated 28-room mansion of the same name.

Now the women are the subject of a major Hollywood movie, two smaller films, and a Broadway musical, "Grey Gardens," which opened last week. Their unique sense of style has inspired fashion designers and admirers.

The musical's writer, Doug Wright, said the younger Beale's penchant for breaking into song--shown in the original documentary--was the impetus for the show, first performed off-Broadway this year.

"The (documentary) has always been popular in artistic circles," Wright said.

Interest has since branched out from film enthusiasts and designers to a much larger audience, he said.

Wright noted that contestants on the popular TV fashion design competition "Project Runway" were given Beale-like tasks including "going to the city dump and turning that into couture."

"Little Edie (the younger Beale) was doing that back in the 70s and so she does seem to be enjoying her moment," he said.

"We only wish that she were still here with us to see that she finally achieved the fame that always eluded her in life."

Edie Beale, who was an aspiring actress, died in 2002. Her mother died in 1977.

Unlikely Icons

Albert Maysles, the 79-year-old director of the 1975 Beales documentary, said the women regularly inspired dress-up parties based on their fashion sense, but the latest fascination was unprecedented.

"I never could have anticipated it would stretch its wings as far as a Hollywood film and a Broadway musical," said Maysles, who will release a film showing the making of the musical.

Maysles just released "The Beales of Grey Gardens," a film showing new footage of the former socialites, who lived in the Hamptons in Long Island, New York. A Hollywood film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore is slated for 2007.

Fashion designers have cited the Beales, particularly "Little Edie," as muses for their designs. Internet blogs and sites like You Tube draw audiences charmed by their quirky individualism.

"No one has ever looked, sounded or lived like the Beales," said New York designer Todd Oldham, a host on the MTV show "House Of Style."

From "Little Edie's remarkable personal style, to the withered glamour of their living circumstances," the Beales were "completely fascinating," Oldham said.

"It's the Beales' spirit of total freedom that remains influential to me even today."

Source

Documentary about a musical about a documentary

I remember reading something about this ages ago, but I wasn't sure if I understood it correctly. But, yes, apparently it's true: Al Maysles will be making a documentary film about the making of Grey Gardens the Musical, which is based on the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.

From Variety, by Gordon Cox, on 5 November 2006

'Gardens' to bloom again

Turner locks up doc

"Grey Gardens" has come full circle.

Albert Maysles has begun work on a documentary chronicling, in part, the development of the Broadway tuner "Grey Gardens"--itself based on the cult 1976 doc by Maysles and his late brother and filmmaking partner, David.

New hourlong pic aims to examine the cultural phenom of "Gardens," from the making of the original movie to the cult following it inspired to the process of staging the musical on Broadway. The show opened Nov. 2 at the Walter Kerr Theater.

Maysles has followed the tuner since it began preparations for the move to the Rialto after a hit run at Off Broadway's Playwrights Horizons last spring. Film will feature interviews with the Rialto production's creatives and casts, including book writer Doug Wright, composer Scott Frankel, lyricist Michael Korie and thesp Christine Ebersole, whose performance won universal raves from the Off Broadway incarnation.

Producers of the new doc--Kelly Gonda (also prexy of East of Doheny, the lead producing org behind the tuner), Tracey Trench and Maysles Films--haven't yet decided how the picture will be released. They are talking to several cable channels and considering a theatrical release.

The still-untitled film is just the latest example of the resurgence of interest the tuner has helped ignite in Big Edie and Little Edie Beale. Eccentric fringe figures from the Kennedys' Camelot world (they were respectively aunt and cousin to Jackie O), the mother-daughter duo's life in the run-down East Hampton, N.Y., mansion of the title is the subject of "Grey Gardens."

Maysles Films recently released a companion pic to "Grey Gardens," "The Beales of Grey Gardens," compiled of outtakes from the original. That feature-length pic will be included in the Criterion Collection DVD reissue, due in December.

Gail Sheehy, the scribe who wrote a 1972 article in New York magazine that helped call attention to the Beales, has revisited the subject with a new piece in last week's edition of the mag.

And Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore will play the mother and daughter, respectively, in a feature film based on their lives. Filmmaker Michael Sucsy will incorporate information gleaned from correspondence and journals.

As for the Broadway version, skeptics wondered whether the subject matter was too Gotham-culty to draw crowds, and whether the tuner's unorthodox structure might render it less accessible to general auds. (The show is divided into two wildly different acts, with the first offering a look at the Beales in their glory days in the 1940s and the second turning its attention to the 1970s-era squalor chronicled in the documentary.)

But so far, legiters, including the show's Rialto landlords, seem impressed by how well "Grey Gardens" is selling. For the week ending Oct. 29, the tuner sold just over $400,000 in tickets, a decent showing for a new musical in a small theater still waiting on its Broadway reviews.

Insiders expect a further spike in sales after reviews hit stands Nov. 3.

I believe that "turner" in the subheader should read "tuner", which is Variety-speak for "musical".

Source

Opening night photos for Grey Gardens the Musical

Don't miss these shots of the famous, the beautiful, the talented, and the tragic from Grey Gardens the Musical's opening night from Playbill, Patrick McMullan, Hughe2030, Broadway.com, Broadway World, and TheaterMania.

Reviews are in for Grey Gardens the Musical

There are too many reviews to include the full text here. The following are excerpted highlights from each one.

From Bloomberg, by John Simon, on 3 November 2006

Ebersole's Lovely 'Gardens'

Christine Ebersole gives a performance for the ages in "Grey Gardens," the musical about an eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who shared a decaying East Hampton mansion.

and

Doug Wright's book is adequate, but the music and lyrics by Scott Frankel and Michael Corie are better than that, as are Marie Louise Wilson as the elder Edith and John McMartin as Major Bouvier.

From Variety, by David Rooney, on 2 November 2006

As "Little" Edie Beale observes in Grey Gardens, "It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present." When this emotionally trenchant musical premiered to wide praise Off Broadway last season, one criticism was that past and present were too separate. While the show's creative team has made extensive changes in the move to Broadway, its most illuminating work has been to provide deepened context for this spellbinding account of fallen American royalty, connecting the dots in the subjects' slippage from high society to its forlorn fringes.

and

Ebersole and Wilson are marvelous at nailing the originality, authenticity and independence of these pre-feminist women. "Staunch women, we just don't weaken," sings Edie in the uproarious "The Revolutionary Costume for Today," establishing her both as unconventional style maven and political free-thinker ("The full-length velvet glove hides the fist").

Of the new songs added for Broadway, best is McMartin's "Marry Well," which conveys the pressures of social conditioning far better than the now-ditched "Being Bouvier" and "Tomorrow's Women." New opener "The Girl Who Has Everything" also functions well, poignantly drawing the pinnacle from which Edie will tumble.

However, the high points remain unchallenged: Ebersole's "Revolutionary Costume" and beautiful act-one closer "Will You?"; Wilson's "Jerry Likes My Corn," a seemingly whimsical song that spins the most unlikely snatch of dialogue into a complex piece of character- and conflict-building; Ebersole's schizoid "Around the World," which lurches grippingly between bitter accusation and the sad imprisonment of memory; and her heartbreaking closing number, "Another Winter in a Summer Town." Performed on the first press night by Ebersole with tears streaming down her face, that song now segues into a superbly reworked final scene of piercing melancholy.

From TheaterMania, by David Finkle, on 3 November 2006

Grey Gardens' move to Broadway has had a curious effect on the tuner. In its earlier incarnation, the first act was a tepid spin on Philip Barry's Philadelphia Story with bright, impassioned Cole Porter-esque ditties tacked on. Although it's still not anything like a knockout curtain-raiser, the act has been sharpened and the foreshadowing of the older Edie's hold on the younger one seems heightened.

In addition, a few songs have been dropped and two of them have been replaced, including one for John McMartin, who plays critical father and granddad, J. V. "Major" Bouvier, with his usual upper-class bluster. Unfortunately, all the songs--except the Act I closer "Will You?" -- still come across as mild pastiches. (Only "Will You?" would become a standard if shows still had the power to make standards.)

Conversely, the second act -- which actually could stand alone and probably ought to--currently seems less compelling than it did before, because director Michael Greif has Ebersole and Wilson underline what was already fully realized before. But this is only a minor quibble. Moreover, the Korie-Frankel songs for Act II seem to have been written by a different team altogether--a quirky duo who especially make hay with Ebersole's "Revolutionary Costume for Today" and "Around the World" and Wilson's "Jerry Likes My Corn."

Decades ago, Variety editor Abel Green warned against fiddling with a hit. Since Grey Gardens was only an almost hit when it bowed, the creative team did need to apply additional elbow grease. Their alterations, however, aren't sufficient to make the property noticeably more or less than it was: a musical to be seen for the brilliant, unflinching second-act performances given by Ebersole and Wilson.

From The New York Times, by Ben Brantley, on 3 November 2006, with a 4 November correction

The faults of "Grey Gardens" remain the same on Broadway, including an entire first act that never really takes flight, but they seem smaller. In cutting some songs and introducing new ones, and in rewriting and rearranging some of the script, the creative team has expanded the warmer empathy that could always be detected beneath all the fancy dropped names and nudging references to the fates of famous characters. The focus is now more cleanly on an unending, paralyzingly ambivalent struggle between a mother and a daughter.

The scaling up of Allen Moyer’s set, which portrays the Beale homestead in its days of both glory and decrepitude, dilutes the claustrophobic prurience of the Off Broadway production. (Peter Kaczorowski's lighting and Wendall K. Harrington's projection design also assume greater impact in conjuring interior landscapes.) Let loose on the wide-open spaces of a Broadway stage, Little Edie and her mother have a chance to grow to near heroic proportions. Paradoxically, they also feel more accessibly human.

The first act is still too long for its function as an explanatory preface to the second. The self-defined aesthete and society matron Edith Bouvier Beale (Ms. Ebersole) is giving a party to announce the engagement of her daughter, Little Edie (Erin Davie), to Joseph Kennedy Jr. (Matt Cavenaugh).

and

The double-edged interdependency of the two Edies is established in psychological broad strokes that, while hardly subtle, neatly set up the conflicts of the act to come. Ms. Davie brings a welcome beleaguered feistiness to her role. But though more credible than Sara Gettelfinger, who created the part Off Broadway, she mostly registers as a pretty cipher in search of a defining shape. It is inconceivable that she could grow up to be the Little Edie of the second act.

and

The wit, exact detail and, above all, compassion with which Ms. Ebersole infuses each of her numbers as Little Edie are ravishing. Even dancing like a drunken U.S.O. entertainer from World War II, flapping flags as if they were flyswatters, this Edie is never merely ridiculous. And when her voice goes pure and girlish for the show’s most conventionally pretty numbers, she becomes the frightened, resentful and perversely hopeful child that persists in everyone, longing for parental approval and the sanctuary of a real home.

From USA Today, by Elysa Gardner, on 3 November 2006

These portraits never devolve into caricatures, thanks to Michael Greif's sprightly, sensitive direction and a pair of superb performances — or a trio, actually. Christine Ebersole plays Edith in Act 1 and Edie in Act 2, and infuses both roles with a profound poignancy that complements her comic prowess.

Ebersole also sings gorgeously, and composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie have provided her with some of the most tuneful and moving songs to grace an original musical in years. Mary Louise Wilson, who adds more hilarity and heartbreak as the geriatric Edith, delivers winningly wry, catchy numbers.

The supporting cast adds to a production that, for all its drollness, transcends the kitschiness that's prominent on Broadway's musical-comedy menu. Dig in and enjoy.

From AP News, by Michael Kuchwara, on 2 November 2006

Now the act is tighter, more focused, with several numbers deleted and a couple new, marginally better ones added. In Act 1, Ebersole is the mother, a society lady with vocal aspirations and a penchant for dominating her daughter, played by the lovely Erin Davie, a new addition to the cast.

and

Wilson gives a masterful performance, too. She's a cranky, comic delight, able to hold her own with the formidable Ebersole, who pretty much wraps up the evening with her show-stopping number that opens Act 2.

Called "The Revolutionary Costume for Today," the song - in which she describes her unusual apparel - encapsulates "Little" Edie's delightfully off-kilter personality. And Ebersole, dressed in a tight chocolate-brown outfit and black snood, delivers it with enormous conviction.

From The New York Post, by Clive Barnes, on 3 November 2006

Yet for all its narrative interest, it's still a musical that sets out with one grave, even deadly, disadvantage. Its music.

This derivative score, by Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics), sounds like a secondhand, second-rate pastiche.

There's a touch of Cole Porter here, more than a whiff of Noel Coward there, a tad of Irving Berlin, even Rudolf Friml or George M. Cohan, and, of course, Stephen Sondheim. If there's anyone I've left out, rest assured Frankel and Korie haven't.

The show has been considerably revised since the off-Broadway version at Playwrights Horizons and its subsequent cast recording, to little avail.

On the plus side, there's still the suave staging by Michael Greif, the stylishly correct costumes by William Ivey Long and a few elegant and eloquent performances from the veteran John McMartin, Michael Potts and Bob Stillman.

And then there's Ebersole, who brings off a dazzling histrionic double. Not only does she inhabit, with eerie possessiveness, Jackie O's cousin, the middle-age "Little" Edie Beale, but in the 1941 throwback she plays her own mother, Edith Bouvier Beale, with the unerring flamboyance of a musical-comedy flapper.

Flash-forward to 1973, and that same mother, the now truculent but undimmed Edith, is in the sure hands of Mary Louise Wilson, who endows cranky geriatrics with a perky dignity.

Both Ebersole and Wilson share the same diva flair, but have to work like graceful demons to illuminate the long shadows and deep shallows of those aptly named "Grey Gardens."

It's a goodish musical, but not quite goodish enough - it first overdoses on cute nostalgia, but finally it's the score that does it in. You can't have a musical without the music.

From New York Daily News, by Joe Dziemianowicz, on 3 November 2006

Since the show's run at Playwrights Horizons this year, director Michael Greif has added a prologue set in 1973, seemingly to bridge the gap between the look, mood and music of Acts I (a drawing-room melodrama) and II (a nutty freak show). It doesn't really succeed. The pretty, high-strung Little Edie in the first half bears little resemblance to the bizarre woman she becomes.

That doesn't diminish the accomplishments of Korie and Frankel, who have written a glorious score. The show's final number, "Another Winter in a Summer Town," is also one of the finest. Raw and ravishing, it vividly expresses where Little Edie has been and where she's going.

The number provides one of many high points for Ebersole, who sings and acts with crystal clarity and draws from a deep well of emotion. She is always 100% in control. Ebersole already has a Tony, but this performance catapults her high into the Broadway heavens. She won't be coming down to earth for a long while. And after you see her in "Grey Gardens," neither will you.

From Newsday, by Linda Winer, on 3 November 2006

Wright's attitude toward the women has always been both affectionate and creepy. But the script lacked emotional coherence and seemed more like two meticulously produced one-acts with amusing new takes on old-style songs. Could we really believe that Edith and Edie, however fierce their desire to be bohemians in a white-glove world, turned into recluses who thrived in a 28-room garbage dump with 52 cats, marauding raccoons and eviction threats from the Suffolk County Board of Health?

The improvements start with an expanded prologue that asks, in tabloid voice-over, "How could American royalty fall so far, so fast?" Young "Little" Edie has been recast with Erin Davie, who not only looks like a younger Ebersole but also brings a febrile quality that suggests she could unravel without much encouragement.

I have a separate post for photos of opening night festivities.

And, just to straighten out a fact that isn't entirely accurate in the musical: Edie was never engaged to Joseph Kennedy Jr. It's fair that the writers take artistic license for their story. They don't purport to be telling the truth.

Overall, though, the reviews for the musical are mixed, but reviews for Ebersole and Wilson are raving!

Thanks to Jason Powell for sending in some of these reviews!

Source: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here

Quick & Dirty Q&A with Christine Ebersole

Does it ever seem to you like there's just too much Grey Gardens news?

Nope, it doesn't seem that way to me, either. Keep it coming!

From New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer, edited by Jesse Oxfeld with Michael Idov, on 1 November 2006

Christine Ebersole Lives in the Suburbs (But Presumably not in a Decrepit Mansion)

Name

Christine Ebersole

Age

53

Job

Entertainer; Little Edie Beale in Grey Gardens, opening on Broadway tomorrow

Neighborhood

I live at the Walter Kerr Theatre!

Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?

Jerry Gutierrez.

What's the best meal you've eaten in New York?

La Masseria.

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?

I'm in my pajamas all day so I can entertain at night.

Where do you get your coffee?

I gave it up.

What's the last thing you saw on Broadway?

Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me.

Do you give money to panhandlers?

Yes.

What's your drink?

Club soda with cranberry and lime.

How often do you prepare your own meals?

Any chance I get!

What's your favorite medication?

Chamomile tea.

What's hanging above your sofa?

A poster for the original Grey Gardens documentary.

How much is too much to spend on a haircut?

The amount I spend.

When's bedtime?

Hopefully before 1:30 a.m.

Brunch: pro or con?

Pro.

What's your thread count?

600

What do you hate most about living in New York?

The fact that I don't actually live there.

What's your brand of jeans?

I don't wear jeans.

When's the last time you drove a car?

Today.

Who should be the next president?

Me!

Times, Post, or Daily News?

The Nation

Yankees or Mets?

White Sox.

What makes someone a New Yorker?

Recognition that it is the greatest city in the world.

Source

Los Angeles Times article on Grey Gardens: both films and the musical

In my opinion, this is the most interesting type of Grey Gardens article: it looks at the lives of the Beales from multiple angles. Here, it explores their lives from the POV of the documentary, the musical, and Michael Sucsy's upcoming dramatic film.

From the Los Angeles Times, by Patrick Pacheco, on 29 October 2006

Shabby chic, the musical

Reclusive aristocrats, lost fortunes, dashed dreams, Kennedys and Bouviers. Who wouldn't stage this story?

For much of the summer, behind the manicured lawns and privets of the privileged, gossip insatiably centered on the distinguished Astor family as the grandson of Brooke Astor, the 104-year-old doyenne of American society, sued his father over his grandmother's alleged mistreatment. With front-page headlines blaring the claims of forged codicils and illegal transfers of property, jewels and art, the lawsuit drew the unsettling picture of a now-helpless old lady sleeping on a urine-soaked couch in her Park Avenue aerie because of her son's gross negligence. Many were left to wonder: How could American royalty fall so low, so fast?

That's precisely the question posed in a new Broadway musical, "Grey Gardens," which purports to tell of a social scandal that had tongues wagging in the early 1970s: the saga of the eccentric Beales — 77-year-old Edith Bouvier Beale and her 56-year-old daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale, or "Little Edie," who were discovered to be living in squalor in a crumbling 28-room East Hampton, N.Y., mansion overrun by dozens of cats, raccoons and vermin. When the board of health threatened them with eviction, their famous niece and cousin, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, came to the rescue, paying for hundreds of bags of detritus to be removed and issuing a press release describing the situation as a "private family matter."

But while the Astor scandal is likely to recede into a footnote of social history, the tale of the Beales has proven resilient. A veritable cottage industry has sprung up, beginning with the 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens" by Albert and David Maysles, which established Edie as, yes, nutty, but also a fashion totem and philosopher. In its wake have come lavish Vogue fashion spreads, pop songs, cult screenings, numerous fan websites and camp parties à la "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in which cross-dressing participants speak only lines from the documentary.

A renewed burst of interest has now brought forth the Broadway musical; a new documentary, "The Beales of Grey Gardens," comprising outtakes of the original film; and next year will bring a feature film and a coffee-table book of photographs.

Ode to opportunity lost

In the original documentary, released on DVD in 2001, clouds of regret and recrimination hang over the manse as the women bicker in finishing-school accents amid the clatter of cat food cans and a constant parade of Little Edie's eccentric fashion choices. They break into old songs or listen, lying on stained mattresses surrounded by clutter, to scratchy recordings of Edith, a decaying memory of the show business aspirations that once afflicted both. "It's so difficult to draw the line between the past and the present," Edie says, memorably. The terrain is Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee crossed with Samuel Beckett as Edie threatens to move on but can't. Little wonder then that dramatists have been so attracted to the material. But why have the Beales continued to exert such a "staunch" — to use their favorite word — hold on the public, a fascination that made the musical one of last season's hottest tickets during its off-Broadway run earlier this year?

"It's a personal Rorschach test," says Michael Sucsy, who has written and will direct a feature film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore that is slated to begin shooting next summer. "Your response to the story really depends on your insecurities … dreams deferred, mother-daughter issues, the fear of losing everything. There are so many complexities and contradictions to it. When I saw the [Maysles'] documentary, I just started writing down questions. I ended up with 30 or 40."

The musical, which opens this week on Broadway, purports to answer some of those questions with a first act that predates by about three decades the events of the documentary, which are covered in the second act. It establishes the Beales' competitive and at times monstrous relationship by imagining the circumstances surrounding the brief, real-life engagement in the summer of 1941 between Edie and Joseph Kennedy Jr., the scion of the famous political clan who was being groomed for the presidency but would be killed in combat three years later. Set on the day of a glamorous engagement party, the romantic elegance of this Grey Gardens, despite all the presentiments of rot setting into the timbers, makes its coming decline all the more vertiginous.

"We have such a conflicted relationship with class in this country. On one hand, it doesn't exist, but on the other we elevate families like the Bouviers and the Kennedys into royal family status," says "Grey Gardens" book writer Douglas Wright, the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "I Am My Own Wife," who is making his musical theater debut. "There is a natural fascination and perverse schadenfreude that people take in looking at those to whom everything is handed and they come to a tragic pass. But in almost every neighborhood, there is that overgrown house with too many cats and a crazy witch inside. Grey Gardens was the nation's spook house."

As such, Edie was a doppelgänger of sorts to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. Had she married Joseph Kennedy Jr. and had he lived, Edie might well have had the life of her younger cousin — a twist of fate apparently not lost on Edie. Wright recalls she reportedly told Joseph Kennedy Sr. at the inauguration of his son, John F. Kennedy, that she had almost made it to that podium. "Jacqueline Kennedy acquired the life that Little Edie presumed she'd have herself," Wright says. "We wanted to build those near-miss qualities into the play."

In fact, the first act of the musical includes young girls playing the Bouvier sisters, Jackie and Lee, who were frequent visitors to Grey Gardens. The show's producers have not been shy about trumpeting the Kennedy connection in their marketing, including the tag "The incredible story of Jackie O's most outrageous relatives" in their ads. But if people's curiosity is piqued by such labeling, the creators hope that audiences will recognize something else in the funhouse mirror: themselves. "People always accuse me of writing about eccentrics, but eccentrics are human foibles distilled, and none of us are exempt from them," says Wright, adding that the parent-child dynamic in the musical is a universal touchstone. "Every parent both makes the wound and applies the balm. Children routinely break their parent's heart and stitch it back together. It's how we love and destroy each other."

Albert Maysles, whose brother, David, died in 1987, ending a collaboration that had resulted in such documentary classics as "Gimme Shelter," says he was never worried that a musical would soften the edges of the documentary. "I was more concerned that they get the relationship right because it is so complex and contradictory," he says, adding that he is pleased with the musical. "It's so easy to simplify and depict Mrs. Beale as the cause of all of Edie's problems. But they both contributed to what was good about the relationship and what was bad. It's a love story."

Michael Korie, who wrote the songs with composer Scott Frankel, says people can relate to the Beales for other reasons. "What woman can't relate to Edith saying, 'I'll take a dog over a man any day'?'," he notes. "What we discover is that when aristocrats fall, they're people just like us."

Indeed, the creators of "Grey Gardens" say they initially were intimidated most by the proprietary nature of the documentary's many fans. Edith died at age 81 in 1977 after a fall; Little Edie died in 2002 at 84. Like Maysles, Korie and Wright say the women had an openness and aching vulnerability that elicited feelings of respect. "There was an enormous responsibility to depict them truthfully," says Korie, noting that when the musical was first announced, outrage coursed through the Grey Gardens chat rooms. "They are now largely supportive," he says. "I think they thought we were going to turn their underground icons into some crass Broadway image. And inasmuch as they were eccentric, they didn't want that normalized or turned into a commodity."

Whether that bodes ill or well for the commercial prospects of the Broadway run remains to be seen. "Grey Gardens" was a sellout at off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons even before it opened to largely favorable notices — with the exception of the New York Times review, which dismissed the show while raving about its star, Christine Ebersole, who plays Edith in the first act and Little Edie in the second. The uptown transfer offers greater challenges, not the least of which is a distinctly inhospitable clime for "serious" musicals. With only nine in the cast, the weekly running costs are low; and while advance sales are modest by usual standards, they are stronger than many insiders had predicted.

Celebrating their spirit

Kelly Gonda of East of Doheny, the lead producer, says her businessman husband, Lou Gonda, at first warned her off such dark subject matter but changed his mind after seeing the show. Gonda says she wanted to transfer the production because she was mesmerized by the mother-daughter relationship. But she feels that the musical can introduce a new generation to the Beales because of another quality: their maverick ability to live their lives as they saw fit without apology. "My 24-year-old daughter, Eva, responded to Edie's fierce spirit and intelligence," she says. "They were staunch women to the end."

Maysles contacted Edie shortly before she died to get permission for a musical to be made. Though both women had been supportive of the documentary — despite some vicious reviews that accused the filmmaker of voyeurism and exploitation — Maysles wasn't sure what Edie might say about a musical. "She was thrilled and happy with the idea," he recalls. "She told me, 'Of course, our lives should be a musical. They were joyous.'"

After her mother died, Edie sold Grey Gardens to Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, and his wife, writer Sally Quinn. Edie abandoned her stage dreams for good after her cabaret act in New York City was panned. She chose to satiate her sun-loving self in Florida. While Edie talked fondly of her mother during the more than two decades she survived her, one of her last wishes was that she not be buried next to her. "They couldn't be Bouviers and be themselves," Maysles says. "But they could be recluses and be themselves. And they could be themselves in front of our cameras. I think that's why it's such an extraordinary experience for some people."

I'd saved this as a draft post and hadn't posted it for some reason. Thanks for reminding me to put it out there!

Source

Gail Sheehy's article on Grey Gardens from the 1970s

The following is Gail Sheehy's original article on the Beales and Grey Gardens from New York Magazine from the early 1970s.

Many thanks to Kent Bartram for passing this along!

From New York Magazine, by Gail Sheehy

The Secret of Grey Gardens