Grey Gardens: East Hampton is the Land of Loss

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 1:40am

It’s rare that a show ever truly has an emotional impact on me and makes me reflect on my own life. I can find the tragic emotional value of shows and appreciate it, but it’s rare that I leave a show with the thought, “Wow, that changed my life.” I suppose it is because I believe that I want to figure things out for myself – so to speak. And, no, Grey Gardens hardly changed my life – but it did make me look back at it.

First Off, I want to state a few technical points on the show:

(1.) Christine Ebersole is Meryl Streep and Grey Gardens is Mother Courage. She carries this show, rickety set and all, on her back for the two and three-quarter hours. The Tony is an inferior award for this performance.

(2.) Mary Louise Wilson is superb in her part, and captures her real life counterpart perfectly. Bob Stillman is also first rate.

(3.) Act I seems like an original, discarded version of The Drowsy Chaperone. It hardly matches the superior second act, although Act II would undoubtedly have less impact without Act I. (And what is it with making fun of the, well… “Hominy Grits” – “Cold Feets”…)

[ETA: Thinking more about it, I want to retract this statement. I think there was a lot of comedy in ACT I that could have been more focused, but the score is quite great. And I still laugh at Brooks, Sr. saying, "She's singing one of her freedom songs"]

(4.) Mr. Greif: A stage consists of upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right, and center stage. It’s OK to use all of these areas, and in many combinations, and not just downstage center.

(5.) P.S. A lot of people don’t sit dead center in the house. Please watch your furniture. (Allen Moyer, you aren’t off the hook.)

(6.) Will You? is a great song and proves you don’t need falling chandeliers to deliver an emotional punch to the audience. It provided the perfect segue way into the emotionally taxing Act II.

(7.) Another Winter in a Summer Town is an incredibly emotional song and such a perfect way to bring the show to a close (yes, I remember there is one reprise after this.)

(8.) I was afraid the set was going to break every time it moved.

(9.) The costumes were fantastic and, of course, the changing set was perfect.

(10.) This show was, despite its flaws, an extremely emotional journey.

This brings me back to the way I began this “review.”

Without going through too many details, my family has not had luck with Alzheimer’s. My aunt – who is like my grandma (as I never knew my grandmas) – is currently suffering. She once was a sort of NYC socialite (though that is a bit too extreme). She currently resides in a reclining chair, unable to move, speak, and even stay awake. She and my uncle used to have a small house in East Hampton (not the only through line), as well as the apartment in NYC. I have spent much of my childhood in the home in East Hampton.

The gray house, there, with its bright blue door that could be seen through the trees, was attached to the main road by a long pebble driveway. Around the house, you could see birds feeding from bird feeders my uncle always filled up and sprinklers watering the plants.

The minute I entered the Kerr Theatre, I heard the bird chirps and my mind instantly raced back to breakfast on the porch in East Hampton. In fact, there was a piece of scenery there that very closely resembles a piece my aunt and uncle had. You may recall the windmill at the beginning of the documentary – the symbol, to me, that represented arriving in East Hampton.

Watching Grey Gardens, my mind jumbled that line between the past and the present: The days when my aunt and uncle would work on the house. Fighting in the kitchen early in the morning, cooking. The sound of the front door creaking open, waking me up. The smell of the house that lingered on my clothes weeks after leaving East Hampton.

And then, my last visit to the house. When my aunt began to succumb to the disease and my uncle was too worn and tired to work on the house. We arrived there, and the house was different. Grass was growing up through the pebble driveway. Bird feeders were rusty and empty. Sprinklers were upside down or sprayed the water poorly at the already dead plants. The door’s creaking was no longer a friendly sound – but the sound of a warped floor. Things were cracking and appliances were broken. The porch furniture was a mess and, since they were getting ready to move, so many of the familiar items in the house were packed away. It was an extremely emotional time. My family never went on vacation, so this house was it. And now it was gone.

But then came Another Winter in a Summer Town. And I was reminded of a picture that hung on the wall. It was actually a montage of photos taken of my aunt and uncle at the house as it was being built – in the winter time. Snow covered the wood boards. My aunt and uncle were smiling at the thought of this new house. And now the images of the past and present are juxtaposed in my mind (just as Edie’s departure from Grey Gardens in the 40’s and attempted departure in the 70’s were portrayed in the show).

These thoughts were never connected in my mind – perhaps because I refused to accept the present and inevitable future. Nevertheless, Grey Gardens made me think about the little things that I experienced, taking them for granted, and the ultimate loss. At the same time, I am extremely grateful that, East Hampton house or not, I still have my aunt and uncle…as Edie and Edith had each other until the end.

Da-da-da-da-dum. Thanks for reading.

Updated On: 1/15/07 at 01:40 AM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 1:55am

That was very moving. Thank you for sharing that. I think this show touches people in many ways but the jumbled lines between the past and the present, which is so central to the themes, as intangible as it might seem, may be the thing that makes this show something that most people can relate to, especially those of us with elderly family members who we remember as young and vibrant.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 3:44am

In many ways, GG is about all of us. When we are young and naive enough to dream about our future, "perfect" life, everything is sunny and magical. Possibilities seem limitless. Then, as time passes, we lose the hope we once had in abundance. We lose ambition, feel discouraged, become cynical, give up trying to "belong."

I see GG as a metaphor for life and death--as well as a moving story about a woman and her daughter. In truth, we all lose ourselves somewhere in the life journey while, at the same time, we become who we are. It's a paradox that the real Edie understood.

When I watched the show with my sister, I had an epiphany: We grew up in Grey Gardens! When were young, there was singing and the piano playing and the champagne flowing (well, not for us, of course)...and life appeared to be wonderful, exciting and rife with possibilities. Then things changed. When my mother became ill, the house became something else. It was no longer the place I went to regain my happy childhood, it became a hospital and then a tomb. No music, no champagne. It went from light to dark just like that. (GG's lighting captures that beautifully.)

This show touches me in ways I have never explored before. It is making me think about the past and understand how it has never really left me. And it is making me think about the dreams I had that will never be realized because my time is running out. At the same time, I am just trying to make the best of it...and it's clear that Edie was brilliant at doing just that. She made even "the saddest life" one worth admiring.

Moral of the story: The only way to make it through this life is by being STAUNCH!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 4:04am

S-T-A-U-N-C-H!

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:24am

(5.) P.S. A lot of people don’t sit dead center in the house. Please watch your furniture.

you have a point on this one...the portrait of Phelan Beale is such an important element & one whole side of the theater never sees it.


& i am so sorry about your aunt. Updated On: 1/11/07 at 06:24 AM

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 9:17am

Thank you for your thoughtful and beautiful post.

[WesternSky2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:32pm

That was really moving, BSo... I'm glad you posted it. Honestly. That's all I can really say... it was really beautiful.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:48pm

don't forget all the first act moments that end with several characters simultaneously collapsing on the couch for a warm fuzzy giggle.
if only they would let ME re-do the first act....sigh...

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:52pm

Thanks, BSO. GREY GARDENS is something that has had a huge impact on my life, as well - and it's nice to see it happening to others as well.

Though, I don't agree with your comparison of the score to DROWSY. Sure, they both have pastiche in common - but GREY GARDENS' score is levels and levels of sophistication above DROWSY, if you ask me.

[lildogs]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 2:53pm

I enjoyed reading that Bo, and agree with a great deal of it too!

[jaystarr]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 5:59pm

Thanks for your review-that was very touching.. I saw GREY GARDENS too last October and what I can say is -- its an EXCELLENT SHOW!!!

[StageManager2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 6:26pm

"don't forget all the first act moments that end with several characters simultaneously collapsing on the couch for a warm fuzzy giggle."

I noticed that, too. It's one of the reasons why I don't much care for the first act.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/11/07 at 11:38pm

Thanks all!

MUNK - I agree that Act I has a superior score to DROWSY CHAPERONE (well, the whole score is superior). The overall feeling was like I just witnessed an unmemorable joke and it wasn't until the end with WILL YOU? that you understand what you are watching. Or rather, why you are watching this.

I do prefer the new songs to the songs on the CD - and Erin Davie. I wish they would re-record it.

I want to go again to find the little things in ACT I that are repeated in ACT II.

(I also think the sound was terrible.)

"don't forget all the first act moments that end with several characters simultaneously collapsing on the couch for a warm fuzzy giggle."

Oh, yes!

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:09am

Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting into words something I have never been able to put my finger on since I saw the show. I knew I was in love with "Grey Gardens", I knew I was fascinated by it, I knew it touched me, but I've only just realized how it parallels my own grandmother's decline at the hands of Alzheimer's disease. She's been gone two years this week, but the sad final state of her house and her mind left a mark that is still felt by me and my family.

It's that final state of the house that bothers me the most to this day. Seemingly a million years ago, it was the place where my cousins and I would spend hours and hours of fun. But near (and especially after) the end, it was a dark and cluttered place we almost couldn't bear to go to. With my grandmother, I can at least find comfort knowing she's better off...but the thought of the house still standing, having witnessed many happy decades and then devolving into a sad mess, now never to be visited again by myself or my family...it just depresses the hell out of me. The bizarre and heartbreaking journey of Big Edie and Little Edie that plays out at the Walter Kerr is certainly moving, but strangely enough I feel I'm connecting more with the equally heartbreaking journey of the house.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:24am

Let's start campaigning GREY GARDENS for best musical. If if doesn't win a handful of awards, I will be HEARTBROKEN.

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:29am

I love the av, munk.

I want to see SPRING AWAKENING.

But GREY GARDENS, despite its flaws, is doing something right!

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:38am

I think GREY GARDENS is a bigger success than SPRING AWAKENING, but many disagree. I think a lot of it depends on your affinity for the source material.

Did you see THE BEALES OF GREY GARDENS? It's so brilliant.

"It's the PSALMIST! THE PSALMIST! Oh, the PALMist!!"


And did you happen to read "Talk to Her?" There's an interview with Edie and while most of it is sad, there's some REAL gold in there. Stuff like:

"The real Edith Beale is a Spanish dancer. I know 5,000 songs."

and

"I'm just crazy about Bill Clinton."

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:43am

Nope, I wanted to watch GREY GARDENS and see the musical before looking at the other stuff. I taped the documentary off PBS or the history channel - Ebersole and Wilson introduced it. I don't have the tape with me.

Their stuff really is gold. That's what makes ACT II so grand. The writing (their dialogue) is so show-off-ish and so sincere at the same time.

I think knowing Jerry's real story makes JERRY LIKES MY CORN so much more interesting. Updated On: 1/12/07 at 12:43 AM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:45am

YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE DOCUMENTARIES??????????????????????????????????????????????????

COME OVER!!!!!!!!!! You are in for the BIGGEST treat of your life. The first one is depressing at the end, but the second one is just funny.

"Mother it's the MAYSLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:47am

Oh, no!

I saw the original documentary (sorry, that's what I meant by "watch GREY GARDENS").

Did you see the show off-Broadway, too? I really dislike the ending of the CD (especially compared to the somber ending on Broadway).
Updated On: 1/12/07 at 12:47 AM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:49am

I did not, but I hate the ending on the CD. The new ending is much, much, much better.

Now I'm disappointed.

But you still haven't seen the second one?

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:51am

Nope, I haven't seen the second one.

When I get paid I can get both DVDs from amazon.

I'm a little sad for the movie.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:52am

A little sad for what?

[BSoBW2]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 12:55am

The Barrymore/Lange version. Mainly because I'm not a fan of Drew Barrymore.

The ending of the show is so heartbreaking with Edith calling out. I couldn't imagine the show ending any other way.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/12/07 at 1:13am

I was thinking about the film while on the bus today.

It's all wrong. It's going to be awful. Drew Barrymore could not be more wrong for Little Edie. Edie didn't have a lisp.

And both Lange and Barrymore are far too young.