Realizing how great GREY GARDENS was...

It's a modern classic. It's brilliant. Frankel and Korie are bound to be major players in the next generation. And yes, Christine was THAT good.

Maybe at Encores! in 20 years time. She's only in her 30's, no?

Alice Ripley will be 45 in two days.

I would have LOVED to have seen this show...

I am trying to picture Ripley in the role. It's very intriguing, I must admit. However, as much as I love the girl, I find it hard to imagine combining her voice with this score.

Its kinda a random choice for me too, but ever since I heard Alice sing Meadowlark on that site, I've always had the thought in my head.

I think this show doesn't work without the libretto. If you buy the cast recording, you have to the book with it or else it just doesn't work. I didn't appreciate it at all until I got the book.

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Perhaps I'm in the minority on this thread, but I thought "Grey Gardens" was good, but not quite great. It was definitely lifted by incredible performances -- Ebersole and Wilson definitely deserved their Tony Awards.

But I think the first act is shaky, and doesn't come together until probably midway through (somewhere around "Drift Away"). The second act is very strong throughout, but I think the Broadway production could have done without the cheesy cat projections -- they were just a mistake.

Overall, a good show, but without incredibly talented leading performers, I think the show would more-or-less fall flat.

I think this was avshow that you coulld really love if you knew the source material. I'm curious what anyone who had not seen the movie thinks of the show

I loved it..

"...but without incredibly talented leading performers, I think the show would more-or-less fall flat."

I don't agree with this notion, drewbill. I thought the material was terrific. Though I did have a similar sentiment in that I felt that Ebersole had so defined the character of act II Edie, that I wondered if it would be too tied to her interpretation to ever allow another actress to own the part. I mean performers are always compared to those who did the role before them anyway. And those are usually fictional characters that can be interpreted in many ways.

With Edie, being a real person. There is an expectation of how she should move and sound. As Christine has already embodied this so well, I worried that future performers in this role could only look like they were doing an imitation of Ebersole's imitation of Edie.

Though with the few regional productions that have been done since, I'm glad to hear that this doesn't seem to be the case.

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I have to say this is in my top five favorite shows of all time.
I saw it several times, but I will never forget seeing it closing night.
I was a puddle through all of Act II.

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"The best new musical of the 21st century. And like FOLLIES will not be fully appreciated until later and also was robbed of its major Tonys due to the 'gay mafia' drooling over the hotties in SPRING AWAKENING and Duncan Sheik.

Would love to see Cloris Leachman and Catherine O'Hara tackle the parts."

Couldn't have said it better myself.

The DC production with Barbara Walsh received great reviews, seeming to prove the show will live well with out the terrific Ebersole and Wilson. I'm seeing it in January--very excited to see what they have done with the piece.

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Updated On: 12/14/08 at 11:20 AM