GREY GARDENS for Best Musical 2007 — Page 3

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.

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.

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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

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).

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

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.

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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.

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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!

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*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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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