Grey Gardens (musical)

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Grey Gardens
Cover of original Off-Broadway cast recording of Grey Gardens
Music Scott Frankel
Lyrics Michael Korie
Book Doug Wright
Based upon 1975 Documentary Grey Gardens
Productions 2006 Off-Broadway
2006 Broadway

Grey Gardens is a musical with book by Doug Wright, music by Scott Frankel, and lyrics by Michael Korie, based on the 1975 documentary of the same title about the lives of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") by Albert and David Maysles. The Beales were Jacqueline Kennedy's aunt and cousin, respectively. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of their lives from their original status as rich and socially polished aristocrats to their eventual largely isolated existence in a home overridden by cats and cited for repeated health code violations. However, its more central purpose is to untangle the complicated dynamics of their dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.

The show takes place in two acts, the first of which is a speculative take on what their lives might have been like in their glory days and the second of which hews closely to the 1975 documentary in its portrayal of their lives in later years. In the first act, which takes place in 1941, Little Edie is 24 and Big Edie is 47; in the second act, taking place in 1973, Little Edie is 56 and Big Edie is 79. The same actress who plays Big Edie in the first act plays Little Edie in the second act.

Contents

A production at Playwrights Horizons in New York City opened to mixed reviews, but attracted particularly good reviews for its stars, Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. It earned five Lucille Lortel Award nominations and twelve Drama Desk Award nominations. The production played from February 10, 2006 until April 30, 2006, and the Off-Broadway cast album was released on August 22, 2006. Christine Ebersole received the Obie Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, a Special Citation from the New York Drama Critics, and the Drama League Award for Performance of the Year for her dual roles of Edith and Edie Beale in the Off-Broadway production of Grey Gardens.

The show opened, with some revisions, on Broadway on November 2, 2006 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The show closed July 29, 2007, after 307 performances and 33 previews.

The Broadway production was enthusiastically received by the critics. Time Magazine hailed Grey Gardens as the #1 show of 2006.[1] The production was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2007, winning three, including awards for both Ebersole and Wilson in leading and featured actresses categories respectively.

The Original Broadway Cast album was released on March 27, 2007 through PS Classics.

A documentary, "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway", about the making of the musical, was screened on October 18, 2007, at the Hamptons International Film Festival Long Island. [2]

Prologue (1973)

Edith Bouvier Beale — Mary Louise Wilson
"Little" Edie Beale — Christine Ebersole
Act I (1941)
Edith Bouvier Beale — Christine Ebersole
George Gould Strong — Bob Stillman
Brooks, Sr. — Michael Potts
Jacqueline Bouvier — Sarah Hyland
Lee Bouvier — Audrey Twitchell (Kelsey Fowler on Broadway)
"Little" Edie Beale — Sara Gettelfinger (Erin Davie on Broadway)
Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. — Matt Cavenaugh
J.V. "Major" Bouvier — John McMartin
Act II (1973)
Edith Bouvier Beale — Mary Louise Wilson
"Little" Edie Beale — Christine Ebersole
Brooks, Jr — Michael Potts
Jerry — Matt Cavenaugh
Norman Vincent Peale — John McMartin

Off-Broadway Broadway
Prologue (1973)
"Toyland" — Edith & Edie "The Girl Who Has Everything" — Edith & Edie
Act One (1941)
"The Five-Fifteen" — Edith, Gould, Brooks, Jackie, Lee "The Five-Fifteen" — Edith, Gould, Brooks, Jackie, Lee
"Body Beautiful Beale" — Gould, Edith, Brooks, Edie, Jackie, Lee, Joe
"Mother, Darling" — Edie, Edith, Gould "Mother, Darling" — Edie, Edith, Gould
"Better Fall Out of Love" — Joe & Edie "Going Places" — Joe & Edie
"Being Bouvier" — Major Bouvier, Brooks, Jackie, Lee, Edie "Marry Well" — Major Bouvier, Brooks, Jackie, Lee, Edie
"Hominy Grits" — Edith, Gould, Jackie, Lee "Hominy Grits" — Edith, Gould, Jackie, Lee
"Peas in a Pod" — Edie & Edith "Peas in a Pod" — Edie & Edith
"Drift Away" — Gould & Edith "Drift Away" — Gould & Edith
"The Five-Fifteen" (reprise) — Edith "The Five-Fifteen" (reprise) — Edith
"Tomorrow's Woman" — Edie, Jackie, Lee
"Daddy's Girl" — Edie & Joe "Daddy's Girl" — Edie & Joe
"Being Bouvier" (reprise) — Major Bouvier, Jackie, Lee
"The Telegram" — Edie & Edith "The Telegram" — Edie & Edith
"Will You?" — Edith "Will You?" — Edith
Act Two (1973)
"The Revolutionary Costume for Today" — Edie "The Revolutionary Costume for Today" — Edie
"The Cake I Had" — Edith & Edie "The Cake I Had" — Edith & Edie
"Entering Grey Gardens" — Company "Entering Grey Gardens" — Company
"The House We Live In" — Edie & Company "The House We Live In" — Edie & Company
"Jerry Likes My Corn" — Edith & Edie "Jerry Likes My Corn" — Edith & Edie
"Around the World" — Edie "Around the World" — Edie
"Choose to Be Happy" — Norman Vincent Peale & Company "Choose to Be Happy" — Norman Vincent Peale & Company
"Around the World" (reprise) — Edie "Around the World" (reprise) — Edie
"Another Winter in a Summer Town" — Edie & Edith "Another Winter in a Summer Town" — Edie & Edith
"Peas in a Pod" (reprise) — Edith & Edie "The Girl Who Has Everything" (reprise) — Edith & Edie

According to an article in Playbill.com (November 21, 2007), composer Scott Frankel said there are no plans for a national tour based on the 2006-07 Broadway production, but "Dramatists Play Service, Inc. is handling the show's licensing to stock, amateur, university and resident theatres. Independent productions will start playing in those markets in 2008." Frankel and Christine Ebersole were recently in London, investigating commercial and institutional possibilities.[3]

Tony Awards
  • Nomination/Best Musical
  • Nomination/Best Book of a Musical
  • Nomination/Best Original Score
  • Win/Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical (Christine Ebersole)
  • Win/Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical (Mary Louise Wilson)
  • Nomination/Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Allen Moyer)
  • Win/Best Costume Design of a Musical (William Ivey Long)
  • Nomination/Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Peter Kaczorowski)
  • Nomination/Best Direction of a Musical (Michael Greif)
  • Nomination/Best Orchestration (Bruce Coughlin)
Drama Desk Awards
  • Nomination/Outstanding Musical
  • Win/Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Christine Ebersole)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (John McMartin)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Mary Louise Wilson)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Director of a Musical (Michael Greif)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Music (Scott Frankel)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Lyrics (Michael Korie)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Book of a Musical (Doug Wright)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Orchestrations (Bruce Coughlin)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Set Design of a Musical (Allen Moyer)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Costume Design (William Ivey Long)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Sound Design (Brian Ronan)
Outer Critics Circle Awards
  • Win/Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical
  • Nomination/Outstanding New Score
  • Win/Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Christine Ebersole)
  • Win/Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Mary Louise Wilson)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Direction of a Musical (Michael Greif)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Set Design (Allen Moyer)
  • Nomination/Outstanding Costume Design (William Ivey Long)
Drama League Awards
New York Drama Critics Circle Awards

Win/Special Citation to Christine Ebersole

Theatre World Award

Win/Erin Davie

Grammy Award
  • Nomination 2008 Best Musical Show Album

  • The line "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" in the song "Around the World" references the poem 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost. In the 1975 Maysles documentary, Little Edie paraphrased/misquoted some lines from the Frost poem.

  1. ^ Time magazine review
  2. ^ playbill article, 10/18/07
  3. ^ [http://www.playbill.com/news/article/112998.html playbill article, "Will Grey Gardens Grow in London? Creative Team Has Hope", November 21, 2007]

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