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The buzz was strong as this off-Broadway hit
made the transfer to the nearly 1,000-seat Walter Kerr. Most of that buzz
was about the astonishingly strong performance of Christine Ebersole in the
dual role of both of the ladies whose descent from high society to abject
poverty is the fascinating subject of this constantly engrossing musical. In
the first act she's the older one, the mother of socialite "Little Edie
Beale." In the second, she's "Little Edie" herself some thirty years later.
It isn't just that she creates two engaging characters. It is that she makes
each sufficiently sympathetic a character to engage the audience's affection
and not just the fascination of watching a freak show. She doesn't gloss
over the crasser aspects of either character. Instead, she provides clues to
just how they got the way they did. Almost lost in all the talk about
Ebersole's accomplishment was the wonderful work of Mary Louise Wilson, who,
in the second act, plays the elderly mother when Ebersole switches to play
the daughter. Wilson's work is deserving of at least half as much attention.
Half because she does just one and not two characters. Oh, but both women
turn in performances that are to be treasured. |
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Storyline: How two wealthy socialites, toasts of Long Island society and the
aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, become reclusive,
near-penniless shut ins in their crumbling "beach cottage" in The Hamptons.
The contrast between the first and last acts of this
two-act musical couldn't be stronger. Essentially, the second act is a
musicalization of the bizarre documentary that exposed to public view the
reclusive life these women were leading in the midst of the social set at
the end of Long Island in the 1970s. Just making a musical of the strange
spectacle would be the equivalent of turning the "cinéma vérité" documentary
into something akin to Mommie Dearest set to music. Watching what
happened is only fully satisfying if there is an answer to why it happened.
The first act is the attempt by book writer Doug Wright, lyricist Michael
Korie and composer Scott Frankel to present at least an intellectually
satisfying theory that explains the inexplicable. Taking three different
apparent disasters that affected this mother-daughter pair at different
times in their lives, and compressing them into a single day in the mansion
known as Grey Gardens, they posit the view that these women couldn't
effectively cope with the abandonment of the mother by both her philandering
husband and her domineering father as well as the jilting of the daughter by
none other than Joe Kennedy, Jr. The first act is reminiscent of Cole
Porter's High Society, while the second isn't reminiscent of any other
musical.
As
fine as Ebersole and Wilson are, theirs aren't the only performances of
note. Erin Davie is very good as the young daughter in the first act, the
socialite whose engagement party is the disaster at the core of the story.
John McMartin is his usual marvelous self holding forth as the mother's
father, the proud Major Bouvier. Matt Cavenaugh is impressive as the
youthful Kennedy boy (says one character when introduced to him, "Somewhere
in Athens a pedestal is missing its Greek God"). As the mother's live-in
piano accompanist, Bob Stillman's strong voice and comic timing help make
the first act as good as it is.
There have been significant
changes to the show between its off-Broadway run and its opening here. Songs
have been dropped, others added and the story both tightened up and
deepened. Having originated off-Broadway at the Playwrights Horizons, it is
probably understandable that the original cast was asked to double up on
roles, but here on Broadway, with people paying nearly twice the price of a
ticket to an off-Broadway musical, it seems unreasonable to expect the
audience to accept John McMartin, who makes such a delightful impression in
the first act, appearing in the second as Norman Vincent Peale, or Matt
Cavenaugh, who is such a striking Joe Kennedy, Jr. in the first act, showing
up as a semi-hippy, hanger-on in the second. The other members of the cast
also double up, but as figments in the imaginations of the principals, not
as real people. Of course, the doubling everyone talks about is that of
Ebersole. It is a good thing they didn't change that in the transfer to
Broadway.
Music by Scott Frankel.
Lyrics by Michael Korie. Book by Doug Wright. Based on the film by Albert
and David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer and Susan Froemke.
Directed by Michael Greif. Musical staging by Jeff Calhoun. Musical
direction by Lawrence Yurman. Orchestrations by Bruce Coughlin. Design:
Allen Moyer (set) William Ivey Long (costumes) Paul Huntley (wigs and hair)
Wendall K. Harrington (projections) Peter Kaczorowski (lights) Brian Ronan
(sound). Cast: Matt Cavenaugh, Erin Davie, Christine Ebersole, Kelsey
Fowler, Sarah Hyland, John McMartin, Michael Potts, Bob Stillman, Mary
Louise Wilson.
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