#1
Posted: 5/28/15 at 11:28am
Betty Buckley is going to star in a new production of Grey Gardens with Rachel York and Matt Doyle!
Betty Buckley in Grey Gardens!
#2
Posted: 5/28/15 at 11:29am
Could be thrilling, could be a disaster. At the very least, it's sure to be interesting. Sad I won't be able to see this :/
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#3
Posted: 5/28/15 at 11:31am
Phenomenal casting all around. York has the potential to be brilliant and heartbreaking as Little Edie.
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 11:31 AM
#4
Posted: 5/28/15 at 11:35am
I'd go for Buckley's voice alone!
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#6
Posted: 5/28/15 at 11:56am
Matt Doyle is perfect in everything. Rachel York is a goddess. No doubt this will be thrilling.
#7
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:03pm
Buckley is great, but I wouldn't have pegged her for Big Edie. I'd be very interested to see her performance.
I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.
#8
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:07pm
^you would have pegged right! Betty will be playing Big Edie.
#9
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:11pm
I have a hard time imagining her as Big Edie. It'd have been thrilling to watch her singing some of the songs from the Big Edie (Act I)/Little Edie (Act II) track (unless they are not dividing the roles the same way the Broadway production did). I have an easier time picturing York as Act I Big Edie, but I'm sure she'll be great in both acts.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#10
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:11pm
Edited
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 12:11 PM
#11
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:12pm
I can't imagine a production in which the same actress wouldn't play Big Edie (Act 1)/Little Edie (Act 2). It's integral to the musical.
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 12:12 PM
#12
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:31pm
Betty is too old for Little Edie but too young for Big Edie... I'd love to have her singing "Revolutionary Costume for today" or "Another Winter is A Summer Town", but not being a soprano she would have some difficulties with the first act score (especially "Will You?"). I'm very glad she's playing Big Edie, I just saw her in Follies and she's still really something. I can't wait to hear her singing I Ate The Cake I had and Jerry likes my corn.
#13
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:32pm
Hold the phone. I'm confused.
Buckley is playing the older Big Edie. That actress player older Big Edie only appears in Act 2. Rachel York will play younger Big Edie in Act 1, correct?
The article says nothing about it not being this way, unless I'm missing something.
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 12:32 PM
#14
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:35pm
I think I misunderstood - I thought Buckley would be playing the Christine Ebersole part and Rachel would be playing Act One Young Edie. But still- interesting casting. And I love York.
"Sticks and stones, sister. Here, have a Valium." - Patti LuPone, a Memoir
#15
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:38pm
There is a brief, off-stage prologue before Act 1 that features York (as Little Edie) and Buckley (as Big Edie)
In the first act, set in 1941, Rachel York will be playing Big Edie Beale. Her daughter, Little Edie, will be played by Sarah Hunt.
In the second act, set thirty years later, Rachel York plays Little Edie -- now middle-aged, roughly the same age as Big Edie in Act 1 -- and Betty Buckley (who doesn't appear in Act 1) now plays Big Edie, who is in her seventies.
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 12:38 PM
#16
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:41pm
Basically, Betty will play Mary Louise Wilson's role and Rachel will play Christine Ebersole's part
#17
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:41pm
I'm surprised so many people assumed Rachel York would be playing the Act 1 Little Edie track. She's in her mid-to-late forties -- far too old for the role (just as BLB is really too old for the Ebersole track, and probably doesn't have the voice to sing it).
Updated On: 5/28/15 at 12:41 PM
#18
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:43pm
Thanks for clearing that up.
So Buckley very briefly in Act 1 and then all of Act 2.
Thanks!
#19
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:44pm
Yes, Rachel is in the Ebersole role, and Sarah Hunt (who is an excellent young actress) is in the Davie role. Would love to see this.
#20
Posted: 5/28/15 at 12:59pm
Whoops! I assumed Buckley would be in the Ebersole role!
#21
Posted: 5/28/15 at 1:29pm
By the way, it looks like Ebersole will be performing in concert at the same venue just a few days before this opens.
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
#22
Posted: 5/28/15 at 2:53pm
Buckley will do very well playing the elderly Big Edie. It's a great, great part. Rachel York will likely be quite wonderful as the younger Big Edie and the older Little Edie, too. I'm going to try to get out east to see this.
#23
Posted: 5/28/15 at 3:08pm
Hope I didn't confuse anyone. I was merely pointing out my opinion that I'd love to see Buckley in the Ebersole track simpli because I'd love to see her tackle such wonderful numbers as "The Five Fifteen," "Peas in a Pod," "Around the World" (which she would nail), and "Another Winter..." (which she would also nail). York will sing the hell out of the Act I songs, Ebersole was so specific and uncanny as Act II Little Edie that it's hard for me to picture anyone else in the part, but I'd love to see what someone like York can bring to it.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#24
Posted: 5/28/15 at 7:52pm
Do you guys know where Sag Harbor is? This is a show for the swells.
Stephanatic
#25
Posted: 5/28/15 at 8:27pm
"Hope I didn't confuse anyone. I was merely pointing out my opinion that I'd love to see Buckley in the Ebersole track simpli because I'd love to see her tackle such wonderful numbers as "The Five Fifteen," "Peas in a Pod," "Around the World" (which she would nail), and "Another Winter..." (which she would also nail)
Buckley could probably put her cabaret spin on some of the Ebersole songs, but at no point could she ever sing the songs as written, and especially not at this stage in her career.
