Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

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re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/8/07 at 11:48pm

Isn't it a song on a radio show Big Edie liked to listen to?

Just give the world Love. - S. Wonder

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/8/07 at 11:57pm

Yes, it's a song Big Edie is listening to on the radio. It also kind of interweaves with Little Edie and young Little Edie. It has much more significance than you would deduce from the CR.

"This table, he is over one hundred years old. If I could, I would take an old gramophone needle and run it along the surface of the wood. To hear the music of the voices. All that was said." - Doug Wright, I Am My Own Wife

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:02am

There's a beautiful bit in the staging when the "chorus" is singing "Choose To Be Happy" in the background, while downstage, Little Edie (Christine Ebersole) is packing her things to leave.

Young Little Edie (Erin Davie) breaks away from the chorus to deliver her lines directly to Christine Ebersole, and they share this heartbreaking moment, wherein (at least for me) I could see how she aged into the person she becomes in Act Two.

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 9:02am

Choose To Be Happy is also a sort of tribute to a haunting scene in the original documentary where mother and daughter listen to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's radio broadcast together. The theme of this broadcast is "try, really try" which is quoted in the bridge of the song.

"I have got to have some professional music!" - Big Edie

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 9:06am

I think it's the weakest song on the CR, but does work well on stage.

Why, hello Margaret! Yes darling, half past five. Well, everyone, simply le tout Park Avenue and la creme de Hyannis! Well, the press table's going to be awfully crowded... but if you don't mind sharing a folding chair with Harper's Bazaar... Sing? Me? Heavens no, it's Edie's day, not mine... Although people can be so insistent, and I hate to disappoint. Twist my arm, blackmail me, threaten my very life, and who knows? You might get a verse of something...

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 9:12am

It's one of my favorite songs from the show along with "Around the World" and "Will You". Agian, like others have said, its from the documentary when Big and Little Edie listen to Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's lecture in which he says "Try really try" among other notable quotes. The scene in the documentary is so heartbreaking to watch because you can see the tears well up in Big Edie's eyes and how mezmorized she is with what he was saying. Really brillant stuff!

Happy...Everything! Kaye Thompson

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 10:45am

Its also one of my songs, though I prefer Young Little Edie's solo on the Off-Broadway recording than on the Broadway recording. But I love the staging of the song, its one of the best parts of the show. Sooo moving...

My 2007/2008 Season: Grey Gardens (7/5) 110 in the Shade (7/6) Mary Poppins (7/7) Xanadu (7/7) Deuce (7/8) Spamalot (7/8) Jersey Boys (8/25) The Year of Magical Thinking (8/25) Mauritius (11/2) Young Frankenstein (11/3) Rock 'N' Roll (11/3) Pygmalion (11/4) Mauritius (11/10) Mauritius (11/21) Mauritius (11/21) Sunday in the Park with George (3/6) South Pacific (3/7) Gypsy (3/8) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (3/9)

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 12:35pm

My fave part of the song is hearing Erin belt. It really shows off her voice in contrast to Act 1.

johnraymondbarker.com

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/9/07 at 1:54pm

This also brings up another thing I love about Grey Gardens, the way all the other actors from Act 1 keep materializing in Act 2. Having Peale portrayed by John Mcmartin, who played the elder Mr. Bouvier in Act 1, adds layers of meaning to this scene.

"I have got to have some professional music!" - Big Edie

#10

re: Choose To Be Happy - Grey Gardens

Posted: 7/10/07 at 3:29am

I bought the cast recording and didn't even finish the song because i thought it was boring, but then i just saw the show..and wow it blew me away. I love the song now and there's so much emotion in that scene. I started crying intensley during "Around the World" and couldn't stop till the end of the show. Anyone else have this reaction?

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