Skokie, IL production of Grey Gardens musical succeeds

It's nice to see a happy review of one of the productions of the Grey Gardens musical, following its acclaimed Broadway run.

From Chicago Tribune, by Chris Jones, on 21 November 2008

Eccentric lives pull you into 'Grey Gardens' at Northlight

If you’re still living at home with Mom, a trip to “Grey Gardens” might just get you packing.

This deliciously quirky Broadway musical, now in its regional premiere at Northlight Theatre, is about the famously eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy, who, racked by divorce, scandal and personal eccentricities, traded the aristocratic life for one of deep squalor in their Long Island home.

The mother-and-daughter pair of Edie and “Little Edie” Beale were discovered by documentary filmmakers David and Albert Maysles in 1975 and were happy to perform their sad personal show for the camera. The resultant movie turned the ebullient and weirdly attired Little Edie, exquisitely played here by Hollis Resnik in BJ Jones’ production, into a kind of cult, camp heroine.

She became the forgotten black sheep of Camelot.

American eccentrics are often interesting—in part because they make us feel better about ourselves—but never more so then when they are only a couple of well-manicured steps away from the seat of political and social power. One wonders whom the Obama administration might throw out.

You can appreciate this odd-duck of a musical (book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie) without prior interest in the Beales, because its authors teased out universal meaning in their biographical story. That’s what John Weidman and Stephen Sondheim tried, but failed, to do with their similarly biographical musical “Road Show” (formerly “Bounce”) which I saw in New York last week. But back to Skokie.

In the first act of “Grey Gardens,” when we see the Beales still with a chance of making something of their lives, we are shown both the fleeting nature of happiness and how one single screw-up—in this case an implosion of a desperately unhealthy mother-daughter rivalry—can send a life careering toward destruction. We often don’t get a second chance. And in the second act of this show, you’re forced into confronting your own relationships with your parents (living or dead) and into an examination of the joys and pitfalls of interdependence.

Clearly, Resnik has been waiting for the role of Little Edie.

You can tell by the pitch-perfect rasp in the Chicago diva’s voice and the way her eyes dart hungrily inside her character’s trademark head scarf. But you see it most in Resnik’s devastating rendition of this musical’s climatic ballad, “Another Winter in a Summer Town.”

At Northlight’s Thursday opening, Resnik’s gripping articulation of middle-age regret and desperate fatigue at the constant, uncaring churn of the seasons seemed to shock an entire theater into silence.

This is, after all, Chicago in a suddenly frigid November. We might not live with dozens of cats and a crazy mother, and we might not have a failed engagement to Joseph Patrick Kennedy to regret, but we know what it’s like when a recessionary winter approaches, the president-elect has failed to invite us to Washington and we don’t know if we have the energy to stand being left behind in the cold.

“Another Winter,” and the effect of that number, is emblematic of what I liked so much about “Grey Gardens” when I first saw this musical on Broadway in 2006.

With top-drawer musical direction from Doug Peck, the Northlight production is a notable achievement and offers a Broadway-style experience without the Broadway prices. And although I think this production, which features a revolving, perhaps over-revolving, slightly miniaturized set from designer John Culbert, would have looked better in the larger theater at the North Shore Center for the Arts, some themes are enhanced by more intimate surroundings.

In particular, the link between Tempe Thomas, who plays Little Edie in the first act, and Resnik, who moves from mother to daughter in the second, is far more explicit than was the case in New York, starring Christine Ebersole. Thomas, a spunky performer with a fabulous voice, foreshadows her character’s later-in-life eccentricities but still makes you care about her one chance for love and escape.

In the second act, the redoubtably honest Ann Whitney takes over the role of elder Edith—and she is, for sure, a profoundly sad figure, sitting there and singing, among her cats.

Jones’ production should descend further into darkness. George Keating, who plays the pianist and hanger-on known as George Gould Strong, has glimpses of the self-loathing that’s part of the character but could go much deeper. And in the second act, the magnetic, soul-destroying power that the elder Edie exerts over the other needs articulation with much greater force.

There is an intermittent niceness to these Chicago Beales that you’ll struggle to see in the Long Island documentary, where they’re both well off down a road to a scary place from which it’s almost impossible ever to return.

Source

D.C. production of Grey Gardens has a slow 1st act

An interesting review; apparently this production has its problems, but is enchanting overall!

From Washington Post, by Peter Marks, on 19 November 2008

Studio's 'Grey Gardens': An Enchanting Late Bloomer

It isn't until Little Edie Beale has gone completely around the bend that an audience begins to fall in love. That pleasurable sensation arises sometime in the second act of "Grey Gardens," the offbeat musical at Studio Theatre about a pair of aristocratic recluses -- elderly Edith Bouvier Beale and her middle-aged daughter, Edie -- living in squalor on a fetid, raccoon-infested estate in the Hamptons.

Maybe hearts first melt during Little Edie's lushly melodic "Around the World," a tender retreat into the safe corners of her cockeyed psyche. Or perhaps the bond is sealed in "Jerry Likes My Corn," the elder Edith's paean to the simple pleasures involved in boiling corn on the cob on a hot plate next to her filthy bed.

It could also be that the tears start with "Another Winter in a Summer Town," the ravishing ballad that Little Edie sings at evening's end, as the knowledge washes over her that she's missed her chance at happiness out there beyond her mother's shabby front door.

In any event, this weird yet deeply moving show doesn't really kick into gear -- for me, anyway -- until it leaves the patrician, conventional musical world of Act 1 behind and begins to sing about the poignant decrepitude into which these hilariously independent women sink.

No doubt, some people will prefer the decorous pastiche of Act 1, which is intended, it seems, to familiarize us with the world of privilege into which the Beales were born. Still, with the commanding Broadway veteran Barbara Walsh embodying Little Edie, and the adorable Barbara Broughton playing her mother, the second half of "Grey Gardens" is when the show achieves a musical-theater upgrade from ordinary to remarkable.

The musical, of course, is inspired by the popular 1975 documentary of the same title, in which filmmaker Albert Maysles and his collaborators trained their cameras on the detritus of the women's existence, on the Beales' utter lack of inhibition. The film turned iconoclastic Edie -- who wore skirts upside down and fastened them with drapery cords -- into a fashion trendsetter, and both of them into Warhol-style celebrities; that they were cousins of Jackie Kennedy Onassis didn't hurt. And although some commentators thought the film exploited the Beales, the women themselves professed to adore it.

Having some familiarity with the documentary is a significant advantage in an encounter with this musical, which features Scott Frankel's entrancing melodies and Michael Korie's inventive lyrics -- some of them taken verbatim from the film. A grounding helps in understanding that the first act, set in 1941 at the beautiful manse known as Grey Gardens, is merely an overlong prologue to the second, in which book writer Doug Wright propels the story forward 31 years, to the radically altered home and circumstances of its inhabitants.

Not without cause has "Grey Gardens" been described as a love story. Although the musical offers no explanation for the Beales' mental decline, it does ably outline the lifelong mutual dependence that binds this mother and child. In the first act, the pleasing Jenna Sokolowski plays blond Little Edie, in full debutante flower, and Walsh plays Edith, a crooning socialite with a gay live-in accompanist (a divinely sour Bobby Smith) and an unfaithful husband off somewhere.

The cute little Bouvier cousins, tweener Jackie (Simone Grossman) and moppet Lee (Alison Cenname), flit in and out of the house, brought imaginatively to life on a turntable behind a see-through facade by set designer Russell Metheny.

The grown-ups sing carefree airs and ditties about their orderly social class. "Marry Well" is the title of a number with which Little Edie's grandfather (Ryan Hilliard) instructs the girls on the only thing a rich family expects of its female progeny.

Under the astute direction of Serge Seiden, we do sense something awry in this family, especially after Edith sabotages Little Edie's engagement to Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. (Matthew Stucky) -- an aborted romance based in fact, and an event from which the musical suggests Little Edie never recovers.

And yet, the shift in style and psychological tone is so immense that it feels as if a new musical commences after intermission. It starts, shockingly and uproariously, with Walsh, in one of the 50-something Little Edie's outrageous get-ups and singing the brilliant "Revolutionary Costume for Today": ("You fight city hall/With a Persian shawl/That used to hang on the bedroom wall/Pinned under the chin/Adorned with a pin/And pulled into a twist.")

From that point on, there's practically no plot. (As much as anything can, Alex Jaeger's evocative costumes must tell the story now.) Walsh and Broughton plop themselves on messy beds, their characters competing for the attention of an aimless local kid named Jerry (Stucky again) who helps around the house. Sounding eerily like the real Edie, Walsh allows us to envision the failed promise that the musical seeks to express, and Broughton, her hair a disheveled nest, manages to turn Edith's bruising self-absorption to complete comic advantage. Together, the actresses create a symbiotically endearing musical partnership.

Some of the fanciful flights embroidering this half of the evening come across as artificial afterthoughts, such as the superfluous "Choose to be Happy," a number sung by the positive-thinking evangelist Norman Vincent Peale, played by Hilliard. Always, though, the expert musicianship of the nine-member orchestra conducted by George Fulginiti-Shakar remains an asset. (With few exceptions, you can crisply hear the lyrics in Studio's Metheny Theatre.)

Fortunately, too, Frankel, Korie and Wright have the irresistible Beales to fall back on. After a night at "Grey Gardens," they're no more likely to be dislodged from your consciousness than they are from that wonderful mess of a house.

Grey Gardens, book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie. Directed by Serge Seiden. Set, Russell Metheny; choreography, Matthew Gardiner; lighting, Michael Lincoln; sound, Gil Thompson; music director, George Fulginiti-Shakar; projections, Erik Trester. With James Foster Jr. About 2 1/2 hours. Through Jan. 4 at Studio Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. Call 202-332-3300 or visit http://www.studiotheatre.org.

Source

Jessica Lange talks about Grey Gardens on The View

She's so cute and candid!

She talks about Grey Gardens at 6 minutes and 20 seconds into the video.

From YouTube, on 18 November 2008

The View 11/18/08 Jessica Lange

Jessica Lange promotes her photography book and Grey Gardens! The ladies of the view sit down with the Oscar Winner.

Source

New Grey Gardens discussion board

I just received notice of a new Grey Gardens discussion board! It looks like this will compliment the Yahoo! Group quite nicely.

Grey Gardens inspires Irish photographer

Photographer and film student Eoghan McQuinn created these absolutely terrific images of his aunt and grandmother in a shoot inspired by our favorite documentary film. Thanks for sharing, Eoghan!

By Eoghan McQuinn

Photos of Beale family treasures from Grey Gardens

Interesting! I am told by Edie's biographer that Little Edie Beale gave the piano bench to Pammy Beale when she lived with her in 1997.

From GG Discussion, by GG Online

Here are photos of Little Edie's Bible and Big Edie's piano bench.

For obvious reasons, the upholstery of the bench is long since gone. This is one of the few pieces of furniture that Little Edie kept when she sold Grey Gardens.

The Bible has a touching inscription from Big Edie "To my beloved daughter Edith Bouvier Beale, Sept. eight-1954; Easthampton, Long Island-N.Y. Trusting that she will study thoroughly the inspiring truths here in. From her devoted Mother". Little Edie also made thoughtful notes in the margins of the Bible. Out of respect to the memory of Little Edie and due to the personal nature of this piece, I will not be posting photos of the inside of the Bible...nor will I reveal what Little Edie wrote inside the Bible.

The Bible was re-covered at one time with a kind of thin black canvas, upon which Edie embellished with cut-out wrapping paper! Little Edie loved to decoupage and would also apply cut-outs from various magazines and newspapers to correspondence that she sent to friends, family, and admirers.

Source

Images of the TheatreWorks production of Grey Gardens

The review itself coincides with other reviews of this production of the Grey Gardens musical, but I hadn't seen all these photos before!

Thanks to David Crotty for sending this in!

From Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs, by Chad Jones

Source

Stories from the set of HBO's Grey Gardens

On this, Edith Bouvier Beale's 91st birthday, here's a fun story from a fan who visited the filming of the HBO Grey Gardens movie. Apparently last year in Toronto, they had threw a birthday party for Edie!

By Libra Man, on 7 November 2008

Little Edie's 90th Birthday

I try to find some little way to commemorate Little Edie's birthday each year. This year, on what would have been her 91st birthday, I plan to have a glass of rose vin. I haven’t told anyone what I did last year for her 90th birthday: I VISITED HER!

Edie may have died in 2002, but her spirit was alive and well at the filming of HBO’s Grey Gardens movie in Toronto last November. I went there with Kent Bartram, and we hosted a little birthday party for Edie and the crew in front of the exterior set of the decaying 1970s house. We had a table set up reminiscent of Big Edie’s birthday in the documentary, complete with a “Happy Birthday Edith” cake and the rose vin. We also had plenty of liver pate to go around! Drew Barrymore had just completed filming some 1970s scenes and served as a gracious surrogate Edie for our singing “Happy Birthday” before she had to dash off to prepare for her afternoon scenes as Edie in her 30s. “See you in 1952!” she exclaimed before heading out.

I never saw Drew out of costume, but I saw her as 1970s Edie and 1950s Edie, and both were very impressive. My first thought when seeing her was that she was absolutely gorgeous (you’ve seen all those photos of her on the web), and my second thought was that she’s tiny! From seeing her in other films, I never would have guessed that she’s 5'4".

Lois Wright had seen photos of Drew dressed as Edie, and she wanted me to tell Drew that she looked beautiful and that Edie would have been so proud. I relayed this to Drew, and she very graciously told me that although she hadn’t seen the photos (I heard that Drew deliberately went without internet access during the filming), Lois Wright's delight in her appearance meant so much to her, and that it was the highest compliment she could have received.

Drew took a page from Edie and referred to cinematographer Mike Eley as “The Major”, and, as Edie, she flirted with him the way that the original Little Edie did with the Maysles. The dedication to the role really paid off for her. She was great in all the scenes I saw her play. And it wasn’t just the clothes. They seemed to have redone her skin to make her seem more like Edie! I couldn’t have been more impressed.

You’ve seen some of the costumes Drew wears as younger Edie on the web. The 1970s Edie I saw was wearing a fur coat like the one the real Edie is wearing on the poster for the documentary. I had hoped to meet Cat Thomas, the costume designer, and although I never did, I was given a quick walkthrough of the costume trailer. Edie’s amazing red feathered Reno Sweeney costume was on a mannequin, and there were reference photos of Drew and Jessica in costume all over the place. I never met or saw Jessica in person, but I was very impressed by the photos.

I was absolutely blown away when I saw the sets. Kalina Ivanov is the production designer, and she was a ball of positive energy and creativity. She showed us some of her sets personally, and she really cared what we thought about them. My favorite interior set was for Big Edie’s original bedroom. One thing that you only get a glimpse of in the documentary is Big Edie’s taste in interiors, but she loved flowers. (After all, she bought a house with a famous garden and decorated the house with floral chintz.) Kalina’s vision of Big Edie’s bedroom had floral wallpaper and French furniture. I saw it in its decrepit 1970s state with cans and filth and mildew everywhere, and a tree branch pushing in through the ceiling! The attention to detail just blew me away. She was so proud that she’d found the right doorknobs and light switches. (I verified both of those against the DVD on my plane ride back home.) She didn’t miss anything!

I also got to spend a good amount of time with Stephen Levitt, the property master for the movie. He gave us a tour of the prop trailer and gave the stories behind many of the props. What he doesn’t already have, he either finds or makes. My favorite story was how he found the glasses that Jessica Lange wears to play Big Edie: he contacted all the major eyeglass retailers in LA and New York with a photo of how they should look, and one place had the exact glasses. They put Big Edie’s mismatched prescription in the glasses so that Jessica had to wear contact lenses to compensate so that she could see and not get dizzy! Also, some of the liver pate eaten in the movie is vegetarian, out of deference to Jessica. Stephen was very generous with his time and stories, and I learned a ton about what a property master does. It was fascinating.

The producers were all around, and I met with Rachael Horovitz for a bit. Apparently she had been interested in adapting the Grey Gardens story for a while, and she got connected with Michael Sucsy, who had been working independently with Lucy Barzun Donnelly on just that. Two projects became one. Albert Maysles is an old family friend of Rachael.

Many of the people working on the movie were available at various times during the day. I first met Michael Sucsy probably around noon, but didn’t actually get to talk to him until filming was completed for the day. He was very open about what he is trying to accomplish with his film. This isn’t a remake of the documentary at all (or of the musical). The films share some scenes in common, but Michael is telling the whole story, and he’s telling it as accurately as possible. He’s done the research (with assistance from Kent, myself, and others) and assembled a terrific cast and crew with the same goal in mind. I was completely saturated after my trip and my excitement for this movie has only grown since then. The movie aims to be both respectful and honest. I know the Edies would feel honored. I've heard rumors that HBO is going to release the Grey Gardens movie next spring. I can’t wait!

Happy Birthday, Edie!