BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: November 30, 2006

GREY GARDENS

What becomes a legend most? Well, there's mink. And, then, there's madness. Factor in a couple of famous names like Kennedy and Bouvier and you'll grab a few headlines. You might even have a documentary film produced about the huge mess you've made of your life. That's one way to make a legend. Or, is it really grand infamy?

As we learn in the new musical GREY GARDENS, the names Bouvier and Kennedy nearly walked down the aisle a few years before the more celebrated pair did so. It was Kennedy and Bouvier by way of Beale, way back in 1941. "Little" Edie Beale, the "It" girl of the Hampton's social set, was first cousin to the future first lady and touted to be the beauty of the Bouvier family. And, for a moment, Little Edie was the fiancee to Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., eldest brother to John F. That is, until, her mother, Edith Bouvier Beale, messed things up.

Fortune played a nasty trick on the Beale women and their fall from the social strata was one of Dickensian proportion. After her engagement fell apart, "Little" Edie did try to separate herself from her "artistic" mother, but as her parents' marriage crumbled and the money ran out, she was forced to return to the family homestead. Over the next few decades, shielded by the dense privet of their "Grey Gardens" manse, mother and daughter slipped into a bleak, impoverished obscurity.

In 1975, the Maysles brother released the documentary film, "Grey Gardens," which turned the spotlight back onto the Beale women and exposed the wretched squalor in which they lived. This "Tale of Two Edies " paints a grim picture of an aging, balding former debutante and her needy mother. What better characters for a dark and delirious Broadway musical?

Author Doug Wright's brilliant stage adaptation of the film neatly packages the story in the traditional two-act format, giving the Broadway rendering of GREY GARDENS an entirely new perspective. After a brief prologue, the remainder of Act One offers a glimpse into the Beale's glamorous past. Then, in Act Two, Wright shocks us with the shambles of their lives some thirty years later.

Composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie skillfully harness the raw musical elements of GREY GARDENS, providing a dazzling score full of hauntingly buoyant melodies. From the opening number, "The Girl Who Has Everything," to the sensational eleven o'clock number, "Another Winter in a Summer Town," they bathe us in a melodious mist.

The acting talent in GREY GARDENS is simply not to be missed. Playing Big Edie during the 1941 sequence and Little Edie thirty-two years older in the Prologue and Act Two, Christine Ebersole gives a performance the size of Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard." Mastering a Long Island twang and sporting an upside-down skirt, Ebersole delivers a character who is captivating and pathetic. And, with her brilliant voice, she delivers Frankel and Korie's songs with a steady balance of emotion and technique.

Matching Ebersole's every effort is Mary Louise Wilson playing Big Edie in her later years. Rarely, if ever, has the symbiosis between two actresses been so critical to achieve a theatrical end and Wilson and Ebersole pull this off with grace and skill. They are sure to be the frontrunners in both musical actress categories at next year's Tony Awards.

Other players include the handsome Matt Cavanaugh as both Joseph Kennedy and Jerry, the casual sometimes caretaker of the latter day Grey Gardens. Erin Davie effectively presents a frustrated Young "Little" Edie in the first act and Bob Stillman winningly plays George Gould Strong, the sauced-up piano player who accompanies "Big" Edie's vocal endeavors. And, the stalwart John McMartin as family patriarch, Major Bouvier, rumbles with command.

Director Michael Greif brilliantly communicates the grand delusion of the Beale's privileged years and the cloistered chaos of their later ones. Jeff Calhoun does a sound job with choreography and scenic designer Allen Moyer efficiently captures the two opposing worlds. Costumes by William Ivey Long are skillfully schizophrenic while Peter Kaczorowski's lighting remains comfy and sane. GREY GARDENS, an opulent musical with a leading lady that is sure to become a theater legend.