GREY GARDENS - reviews — Page 2

Thank you, Margo.
MasterLcZ-I never found the ending too cutsy. I mean, it pretty much shows the cycle of the Edie's, that this might have happened before: Edie SAYS she'll leave but she doesn't. She tries, but she just can't do it. By the end of the act I think there's a certain humble feeling to it because you realize that in a sense they ARE happy (strange as it may be). I don't think that Act 2 needs to be darker. Why make it darker? It's pure camp, and if you make it darker it just makes the audience (those who don't know the movie) go, "Wait, are they for real?"

I don't think Ebersole would mind giving up younger Edith if they beefed up older Edie. I mean, both are great roles but I think it's older Edie who is really the definitive character throughout.

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Unless the writers have had the fear of God put into them by the reviews, they are unlikely to reconsider their position of thinking the show perfect. Frankly, at this point, even if they did make changes, it'd be too little too late. The concept for this show simply doesn't work and audiences don't care for it. This show won't be going anywhere.

"It's pure camp, and if you make it darker it just makes the audience (those who don't know the movie) go, 'Wait, are they for real?'"

Precisely. It's an exercise in genre and style over substance. When all is said and done, it was probably a poor choice for lyrical treatment and dramatization.

Allison MacKenzie
Peyton Place, New Hampshire

Updated On: 3/8/06 at 09:09 PM

"This show won't be going anywhere."

I wouldn't bet the farm on that, toots.

Yes - the show has gotten very mixed reviews - but Brantleys 24-karat rave about Ebersole's performance as "one of the most gorgeous ever to grace a musical" may prove sufficient to lure potential backers to re-open GREY GARDENS elsewhere. And thankfully, all its delicious score will be recorded.

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How much is DROWSY CHAPERONE budgeted at? That's my guesstimate.

It already looks as if it has a lot of money in it now - W.I. Long and Peter Kaczrowski don't come cheap. And the staging (particularly of the second act) is inventive and elaborate.

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Updated On: 3/8/06 at 09:40 PM

In your opinion, Margo, is it a show that could recoup running for a limited engagement? I don't even know if there is a theatre for it now, but it seems like just about every theatre has something coming in the next five or six months...

That's what I suspected, Margo - but Playwrights evidently "is" still talking transfer - even after the reviews. Perhaps the material has enough die hard fans/backers who don't care about losing $5 million?

My guess is that unless the reviews today had a sudden surge on the box office, the talk will gradually fade.

MastLcZ-Act One is unintentionally campy. It's like Die Mommie Die! with the intention of being Ordinary People. In Act Two, the characters are sooo over the top that you laugh at how serious they are about what they are saying. Why play it darker? Darker comedy? That might work. But any other side of darkness, such as playing it more serious, would damage it.

And both you and EnchantedHunter misread my quote. You DO want the audience to laugh and say "Oh these women, can they be for real?". But I meant that if you play the show more seriously than the audience watching these women pour the souls out on the stage saying cheesy writing, will just look dumbfounded and say to themselves, "Are they for real? Are they trying to do SERIOUS theatre?"

Act Two I think balances the campiness that is the Bouvier women perfectly and the dipping beneath the surface. I mean, in the documentary, we hear the women talk about what glorious lives they led and all that. But, the show takes a bit of a serious turn when Edie takes some time alone and looks at some of her old belongings. She doesn't say a word, she just let's the items speak for themselves (this would be during "Around the World"). I found it incredibly powerful because you forget sometimes that Edie had everything going for her and it all just slipped away and now she's in seclusion with her mother. It's shimmering moments like this in GREY GARDENS that you see the wonderful show
within that could have been.

It's funny to watch them because they are both enormously entertaining women to watch, but their situation is quite sad. And if you add the flashbacks into the storyline, you get a better sense of how incredibly sad the entire documentary (and Act Two) truly is.

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That was my biggest issue with the show.

The world was little Edie's oyster, and then it literally ALL went to pot.....HOW?

I liked the show for its individual moments, but as a whole, there is a major something missing.

Does anyone know how Little Edie, in real life, actually wound up so....different? I know dreams get shattered, etc. But it did not even seem like the same personality...Anywhere close.

Just a tad off subject, but has anyone seen the documentary from which this show is based?

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I thought MOST of us had seen the documentary -- perhaps I'm wrong.

I've seen it a dozen times over the years (as have most of the people I know) and own the DVD.

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Roninjoey, me neither. That's why I asked, though it has piqued my curiousity and I'll see if it can be rented.

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Truly one of the greatest, most influential and most fascinating documentary films ever made.

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Anybody who considers themself a true cineist should know that the Criterion Collection DVD of GREY GARDENS is required viewing.