GREY GARDENS for Best Musical 2007- Page 3

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:54am

Well Long had free reign over everything else. I just would have liked for Edie's Act 2 costumes to match the REAL Edie's costumes.

Even the brown costume she wears at the top of the act is very, very different from what Edie actually wore.

Again - it's a stupid thing for me to be complaining about, but I would have liked some more faithfullness there.

And in the scene that Ebersole wears the leopard costume, her snood is FAR too long.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:03am

Does anyone still wear a snood?

That's the point of costuming for the stage.
You go one step more because it is in a theatrical setting.

Remember it has to be seen from the last row and not your cats up close.

[ahmelie]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:04am

Just wanna stop by to voice my opinion for GG love, if it took home the Best Musical Tony I would be one happy little girl.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:49am

And the score is just brilliant. No, it doesn't have the gimmicky slang or the pseudo-folk-rock beats, but it is a score that could have been written 60 years ago. It's a caliber of songwriting that is rarely seen anymore, and only once every so often does a songwriter (or a songwriting team) get it right.

I couldn't agree more, Munk. I have a hard time convincing myself that this score was written this decade. It's just so classic sounding. I feel like I'm listening to a revival cast recording.

The score is not afraid to be what it is.

Easily the best of the season.

[MatthewAddison]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 2:16am

I (heart) GG.

My best friend is seeing it on Sunday, and I couldn't be more happy for her.

"This show's gonna be here for years and years."

[HeyMrMusic]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 3:16am

I agree with Wanna Be a Foster's initial post. I mean, this argument will be around forever, much like the argument about Acts 1 and 2 of Sunday in the Park With George or Into the Woods. I get all of the connections between Act 1 and 2 of Grey Gardens, but I found myself not really caring, or rather first being confused by it all and then not caring once I saw the connection. Don't get me wrong, I adored the performances, but there are just some shows that work better on paper. That's kind of how I feel about some of LaChiusa's work as well, no matter how brilliant his stuff may seem. I feel Grey Gardens may work better on paper than on stage. And there's really nothing to fix that. That's just how it is.

And in regards to Spring Awakening and jumping from teen issue to teen issue, that's what Wedekind's play originally did. Steven Sater was just being faithful to that. Whether it works or not is another story. Just putting it out there, haha.

~Steven

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 3:30am

Count me in! GG is my fave show of the year.

And I believe that every song has a purpose--embellishes character and relationships when not driving the plot forward. The songs are deceptive that way--they provide much insight without one realizing it.

[scooter38432]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 6:42am

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO MAKES ME FEEL LIKE I'M NOT ALONE!

While reading so many threads focusing on Orfeh and other less-inspired performances by Featured Actress contenders, I feel so much better seeing such love for one of the best performances of the year. ERIN DAVIE blew my socks off. She perfectly channels the younger version Ebersole's Act 2 role.

Let's hope the Tony nominators realize how brilliant Davie is in her role. I fear a nomination for her is a longshot, but when I think of people who might bump her out of the running, it's a shame. Orfeh? D'Amboise? Neither of these two performances come close to having the impact that Davie's performance had on me (and the overall outcome of the show).

Updated On: 5/12/07 at 06:42 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 10:08am

I feel SA will take it

First of all, it is a better show. Secondly, it really hit the critics stronger than GG did. Without Ebersole, it might not have made the transfer. Speaking of her, I would rather see Audra win.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 10:18am

I'm wondering why all the SA fans come into this thread to spoil our fun. We all know it's likely to take it, this is just encourage GG.

Wanna Be- Munk said most of what I was going to say. My biggest thing with SA was that you didn't have time to get to know and care about most of the characters. Besides Wendla, Melchior, and Moritz. Martha comes in for one scene, talks about being beaten, and then we never hear about her again. Same for most of the other supporting characters. I don't feel for them. While, during GG, at the beginning we see these beautiful women in all their glory. Yet as the first act progresses, there are hints that it's not quite as beautiful as we think it is. Little and Big Edie go back and forth several times to show their complex relationship. Even with Edie and Joe, who seem to be the perfect couple, there are things throughout the act that show it can never work. And then in the second act we see how the little cracks have snowballed and they are living their rundown lives, reveling in the glory of their past. It's absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful. Just my thoughts.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 10:56am

If GG wins best orchestrations, it'll win Best Score. It's a given that the Best Score of the Year ALWAYS wins orchestrations.
Last year Sweeney Todd won. It wasn't nominated for score, but had it been...
Before that was Light in the Piazza. Score and orchestrations.
Assassins won. Should have been nominated for score (it wasn't THAT much of a classic). Had it been...
Movin' Out was a fluke. They just wanted to give Billy Joel a Tony.
Moddern Millie was a fluke. Ralph Burns had died. They wanted to give him another Tony.
Producers, score and orchestrations.
Kiss Me Kate, wasn't nominated for score, but had it been...
I can't remember what won in 1999.
But in '98 Ragtime won both score and orchestrations.
And Titanic did the same the year before.
If you want to know Korie and Frankel's fate, watch the technical categories online, where I'm assuming they'll be shown to the public.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 11:16am

SA fans haven't come to this thread to spoil anyone's fun. There has been no bashing of GG on this thread. Those who have stated that they prefer SA have given intelligent, thought out reasons why.

[Hiram]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 11:31am

I too, adore GREY GARDENS! The best Musical of the last two seasons! I hope it takes the top prize. A fascinating show with legendary performances by Ebersole and Wilson. I left the theatre moved and enlightened. I can't remember the last time I felt that way regarding a new musical.

SPRING AWAKENING left me cold with the exception of John Gallagher Jr.'s perfromance.

[shesamarshmallow]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 11:39am

I'm very pleased by this thread - I'm all about Grey Gardens winning Best Musical. I doubt it will happen, but I'd be well chuffed if it did!

[broadwaybaby086]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 11:54am

I enjoy SA, but there is no way that it is a better show than GG. New and different is a far cry from better. But it's all about opinions.

I completely agree about Erin Davie, as I stated in an earlier thread. I hope that she won't be overlooked, but the chance of that happening is slim. She gives a truly inspired, brilliant performance and I wish she could be recognized and awarded by someone other than us- the way she really deserves to be! I do love me some Legally Blonde (What? A GG and LB fan? UNHEARD OF!), but in that role, Orfeh doesn't hold a candle to Davie.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:28pm

*gasp* No way could you like those two shows!

I mean to add- It's not that I don't like SA, because I do. I think the music is great and the direction is amazing. I just happened to enjoy GG a lot more. Not that people shouldn't be able to show how they like SA, it's just I like the idea that in this thread we can all rave about GG.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:44pm

jv92: What on earth are you talking about?

And don't even get me started on why you think ASSASSINS should have beem deemed a new musical.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:52pm

Living far away from NYC makes it impossible for me to see many shows each year. I feel fortunate to have seen GREY GARDENS with its two memorable performances by Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson and with a score that I could appreciate and connect with. I agree with Munk and others on this thread about the style of the score and to me it was very likable as well as moving. Coming from the "old school" of the Golden Age, I find the generic folk-rock scores of the majority of musicals today interchangeable and boring; to me the scores of HAIRSPRAY and LEGALLY BLONDE just sound the same. I don't plan on buying the CD of LEGALLY BLONDE which is highly unusual for me. I have recordings of virtually every musical I have seen, well over 200 shows.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:55pm

I totally agree with you.

I do not think that HAIRSPRAY sounds like LEGALLY BLONDE (HAIRSPRAY is actually great), but I do think that so many of the little off-Broadway shows have similar scores.

ALTAR BOYZ, EVIL DEAD, TRAILER PARK, etc. etc.

They all just blend into one mind blowingly horrendous show.

[Just_John]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 12:57pm

I'm hoping Grey Gardens wins Best Musical and I wouldn't be completely shocked if it did, though I am not getting my hopes too high up.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:00pm

Munk-
I'm in a minority on Assassins, but what I meant was, people have said Grey Garden seems to be a front runner for the orchestration award. It seems to me that every score that has won since 1997 (the category's inception) has won the best score category (with the exception of the revivals). If it is to win orchestrations, we may be looking at a Tony for Korie and Frankel.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:01pm

But GREY GARDENS isn't a frontfunner for Orchestrations...we just said we thought it was among the best.

I think that COMPANY and LOVEMUSIK's orchestrations are ahead of GREY GARDENS as far as the Tonys go.

[jv92]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:07pm

That's not how I took it, but okay.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:10pm

That was an interesting point you brought up...I hadn't really realized that before!

1997
Score: TITANIC
Orchestrations: TITANIC

1998
Score: RAGTIME
Orchestrations: RAGTIME

1999
Score: PARADE
Orchestrations: FOSSE

2000
Score: AIDA
Orchestrations: KISS ME, KATE

2001
Score: THE PRODUCERS
Orchestrations: THE PRODUCERS

2003
Score: HAIRSPRAY
Orchestrations: MOVIN' OUT

2004
Score: AVENUE Q
Orchestrations: ASSASSINS

2005
Score: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA
Orchestrations: THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA

2006
Score: THE DROWSY CHAPERONE
Orchestrations: SWEENEY TODD


Only 4 times has an original musical won best orchestrations.

I think that, based on the track record of this cateogry, we're looking at a probable win for LOVEMUSIK or COMPANY.

[bwaygal1]

Posted: 5/12/07 at 1:43pm

Without Ebersole, it might not have made the transfer. Speaking of her, I would rather see Audra win.

Christine Ebersole is giving the finest performance of her career, and deserves the Tony. She's absolutely luminous-will win the Tony I think. She gave Little Edie a soul and makes Big Edith's musical aspirations come to life on that stage. It's the most powerful performance I've ever seen in a musical.
Period.

About not making the transfer without her, that's probably true.
But, this doesn't diminish the quality of either her performance or the show itself.