"Grey Gardens has a fantastic story and characters, but the show has a couple of elements that just don't work."
Spring Awakening has quite a few elements that are flawed as well. Grey Gardens may not be perfect, but it isn't any more flawed than Spring Awakening is. Spring Awakening, I felt, told a story with no plot (which is fine, as long as you know what you're doing with it) and tried to jam too many themes into itself. There were times when I was shocked, bewildered, touched, and exhilerated by what I was seeing, but I find most of it IS because of Michael Mayer's brilliant staging.
An example is "Totally F*cked". It's a moment I will never forget, but it has nothing to do with it's contribution to the story nor towards how I feel as a person. Yes, I feel that there's a certain code of conduct I have to follow in this world or else I will be crushed by the wheel of human existance that seems to never stop without a care. BUT, the reason I felt so overwhelmed by the number was because of the freedom that the cast was having in that song. It seemed that finally in a show where everyone has to be restrained and tension fills the air, there was a moment (albeit a brief one) where everyone just jumped around on the stage without a care and the lights went crazy and the music was loud and I more than anything wanted to be up on that stage jumping around, too. That had to do with the production, not the material.
In Grey Gardens, I cried during "Around the World" because during that number and during the rest of the show I thought to myself, "Oh my God. What if I become like that? What if I don't become a successful actor and I end up having to lead a quiet life with a thankless job and an invisible existance? What if I die resentful towards the world of what I never had? What if I don't get to travel around the world, and must to be forced to do so with my imagination?" That response wasn't from the production itself. It was the material. And any show that can do that, I think, has every right to win Best Musical.
"Sing the words, Patti!!!!" Stephen Sondheim to Patti LuPone.
