Has anyone else that's seen Grey Gardens....

[theperformer]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:21pm

....feel exhausted by the show even days afterwards. I saw in on Friday night and I'm still recovering from it. I walked out of the theatre sobbing and awestruck, and I'm still not ready to see another show for a while. I actually had to walk out of a movie Saturday because I just couldn't concentrate or laugh (it was Pirates of the Carribean 3). Anyone else feel this depressed after seeing it?

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:22pm

YES. I walked around totally depressed for days.

[SDav 10495]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:24pm

I actually had to walk out of a movie Saturday because I just couldn't concentrate or laugh (it was Pirates of the Carribean 3).

Grey Gardens can be an emotional burden, but I have a feeling there were other reasons for walking out of Pirates...

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:30pm

The plot alone is enough to walk out on "Pirates 3" !!!

The last show (or shows) that left a REAL and LASTING (not that I couldnt concentrate) impression on me were "Journey's End" and "Golda's Balcony"-

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:31pm

I can certainly relate to being awestruck by Christine E after seeing GG. I saw it in November and just a few weeks ago. She is brilliant in the role....absolutely BRILLIANT!!!!

Her talent.......and, forgive me in advance for using this "over used" word........her talent is AWESOME....AWESOME! So many people say "awesome" for everything these days. It's this generations...cool. You ask someone how was their lunch..they say awesome. Huh????

AWESOME is The Grand Canyon....AWESOME is sending a man to the moon...AWESOME is Christine Ebersole's talent. Not going to lunch...ya know what I mean? Young people these days don't know how to use adjectives.

The scene with her and her mother when they are going back and forth, and she says, "Because he would have had me committed." POWERFUL!!!!!!!! Extraordinary!!!! AWESOME!!!

At the end of the show when she has packed up her suitcase, and she stands there, tears streaming down her face.....you want her to leave so bad....but, you know that she's not going to.

I was a mess at the end of the show. I was crying....I couldn't speak. Amazing experience!!!

I remember similar experiences....seeing Michael Crawford in "Phantom." He was beyond extraordinary. At the end of the show, I couldn't speak...I was shaking. I was so blown away. That was May 19, 1989, here in Los Angeles. That was 18 years ago...and I remember the exact date as if it just happened a few moments ago.

The first time I saw "Ragtime" with the original Broadway Cast. I was a mess at curtain call....a mess.....I was so emotional from the show and screaming and cheering at the same time.

These people are so extraordinarly gifted!!!
Updated On: 5/28/07 at 05:31 PM

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:35pm

<< The first time I saw "Ragtime" with the original Broadway Cast. I was a mess at curtain call....a mess.....I was so emotional from the show and screaming and cheering at the same time.

>>

Amen to that !! Totally agree !!!

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:38pm

Thanks for understanding about "Ragtime." I was so emotionally drained. Unfortunately, Audra was out the night that my friend and I saw it. It was their first performance after The Tony Awards.

I won't even get into how "Ragtime" was robbed from winning Best Musical and Best Director at The Tonys that year. Another thread entirely!!!!

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:43pm

<< I won't even get into how "Ragtime" was robbed from winning Best Musical and Best Director at The Tonys that year. Another thread entirely!!!! >>

If you did a search by by SN, you will see how many times I have mentioned that !!! It was a joke !!

How can a show as brilliant as "Ragtime" not be on Broadway?

(Then again, "Caroline or Change" didnt do well, so anything is possible !!!)

[Broadwayboy2631]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:44pm

I saw Grey Gardens a couple of says ago, hours after i saw Spring Awakening. I'm still depressed, I just keep thinking of what happened during and after the shows. people around me don’t understand why I'm in a bad mood, nut its because of those damn beautifully depressing shows.

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:45pm

I'll bet that if that puppet show didn't win Best Musical/Best Director, "Ragtime" would have played for many, many years!!!!

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:46pm

I felt in awe after the first time I saw the show but after my third and most recent, I actually felt artisticly inspired and this weekend worked on an art piece entitled "Around the World- Broadway and Beyond". The lyrics and music from the show inspire me a great deal!

[tazber]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:53pm

I had a similar experience. It was simply the emotional experience I have had in the theatre in a long time.
I have left shows "walking on air", but this was maybe the second time a show so completely drained me.
Enough simply can not be said about Ms. Ebersole and Ms. Wilson.

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:54pm

Neal, your enthusiasm is just so refreshing!

It's wonderful to read about everyone having such a strong emotional response to theatre. That's why I return to shows again and again. I want to experience all of the powerful emotions that, for me, only live theatre can elicit.

Even though you may feel "devastated" in the emotional sense when you first leave GG, upon contemplation, you may come to realize that it is an extraordinary story of love, survival and determination to retain one's individuality despite the odds. "Armies of conformity are headed right your way!"

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:55pm

I am glad to read that others felt as I did after seeing the Grey Gardens. I, too, was moved beyond words by the show, maybe for different reasons than some posters. I am a single mom of an only child, a daughter, and we are pretty intertwined. Believe me, I saw myself, my mother, my kid, my sister in BOTH Edies. Christine Ebersole so perfectly captured that narrow place between love and hate, duty and despair. It's a amazing story to begin with and the performances just blew me away. I saw it again yesterday afternoon and it still hit me hard. Then I saw Spring Awakening last night and it just made me mad...I wanted to smack the angst out of those characters...you think being young is so hard, try being old! (I realize this is an unpopular opinion on this board.)

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:58pm

Miss Pennywise...thanks so much.

Tazber...I completely agree with you...900%. "Walking On Air" when you leave the theatre, is what it's all about. That's the whole point...to be brought to another place...to have an extraordinary experience that you can take with you and remember all your life!

Stagemom....couldn't agree more!

Updated On: 5/28/07 at 05:58 PM

[miss pennywise]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 5:59pm

That's lovely, stagemom. Thank you so much for sharing that with us.

[antiandrewx]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:09pm

I saw the show on Saturday and I'm still thinking about it 90% of the time. Such a moving show.

[Katecab99]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:12pm

i must admit...i kept randomly crying on my walk back to grand central and on the train after the first time i saw it.

[wicked4life51]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:13pm

yea it was very depressing, i walked out not even talking and i talk a lot not during shows of course but like i went home and went to bed after i saw it , and usually i like to party

[D2]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:16pm

Nope. I saw it, I was moved by Ebersole's performance, I left, I went out to dinner and on with my life.

[theperformer]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:25pm

It's a relief that others have felt the same as me.

Ms. Ebersole put on such a no-bullsh*t performance that is both rare and extraordinary. I wonder what the show will be like after a cast change...

[Fenchurch]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:38pm

Grey Gardens didn't really make me cry, although I expected it to. In fact I was relieved, relieved that finally I was seeing a well-crafted original musical. I haven't seen Spring Awakening yet, and I feel that it's probably on par or better from what I've heard and it's completely in line with my aesthetic, but GG spoke to me on a conventional (but not unoriginal) level and it's writing, direction and performance blew me away.

I was in awe just because it was so well written, but I was not moved to tears.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:41pm

I agree with D2

A great performance but after I left the theater I returned to reality. You can take nothing away from her performance but I am still pulling for Audra as her only real competition

Updated On: 5/28/07 at 06:41 PM

[theperformer]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 6:57pm

I disagree with Mr. Roxy - I believe that one of the things that's so fantastic about her performance is that what you can take out of it is hidden, yet very moving. I guess everyone can take something different out of it. One of the things I thought was amazing about it was the fact that there were so many different things you could take out of it rather than a single message that is pounded into your brain.

[elphieisperky]

Posted: 5/28/07 at 8:16pm

Grey Gardens left me very emotional at the end as well. I saw it with my mom and her sister, my aunt. Their mother died a few years ago, and that was kind of how life was like. Not the cans and everything in the walls, but just the way the family was held together, and how much older Edie was like my grandma. My mom and my aunt (who look and sound extremely alike, and scared Christine Ebersole half to death when they both tried to talk to her), told her at the stage door that they saw my grandma so much in Edie. My mom explained it so vividly though that Christine was probably thinking my family is totally insane, but oh well. Anyway, i was very moved by the performance. And I also didn't take just one thing out of it, as theperformer said, I took a bunch of different things. Wow, replacing that cast should be interesting.
Updated On: 5/28/07 at 08:16 PM