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Grey Gardens
Book by Doug Wright
Music by Scott Frankel
Lyrics by Michael Korie
Directed by BJ Jones
Music Direction by Doug Peck
Choreography by Marla Lambert
At Northlight Theatre
9501 N. Skokie Blvd
Chicago, IL
Call 847-673-6300. www.northlight.org
Tuesdays at 7:30
Wednesdays at 1 & 7:30 pm
Thursdays at 7:30 pm
Fridays at 8 pm
Saturdays at 2:30 & 8 pm
Sundays at 2:30 & 7 pm
Running time is 2 hours. 10 minutes with intermission
Through December 28, 2008
Quirky musical about a lost celebrity fuels Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens, based on the documentary film by David and Albert Mayles, is a quirky chamber musical with a hum-drum score by Scott Frankel and lame lyrics by Michael Korie. This show just doesn’t ‘sing;’ it would be better as a powerful tragic drama. What makes this show so enticing is the cult status of the real characters—Edith Bouvier Beal and her daughter” Little Edie,” Jackie Kennedy’s most scandalous relatives. The show is set in two time periods—1941 when the celebrated estate, Grey Gardens, in the East Hamptons was the picture of high society and wealth. This first act played like a Phillip Barry play with a sophisticated family. Edith Beale was a singer and dominantly quirky personality who continually pushed her will on her daughter Edie. She found a way to drive off all suitors from her daughter, even the dashing young Joe Kennedy (Patrick Sarb).
Skip to 1973 to find Edith and Edie living in a dirty, rundown Grey Gardens estate filled with 51 cats and a few rats and raccoons. Edith is old and feeble-minded, Edie is a delusional mental case trapped in the past. They have little money and only one young man to help keep them afloat. The city wants to condemn their unhealthy estate—they are too dysfunctional to care.
Grey Gardens’ Act One songs are a group of character specific tunes musically in the style of Cole Porter or Irving Berlin minus their genius. The twelve songs are bland and forgettable. The Broadway production of Grey Gardens was a show case for Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson—both of whom won Tony Awards for playing the two zany women. Hollis Resnik steals the show with her performance as first the mother—Edith—then the daughter in act two—‘little Edie.’ Resnik sings her heart out trying to give meaning to Frankel and Kories curious songs. Resnik moves from flamboyant, egotistical and dominating mother to a mentally ill delusional middle aged daughter. She is wonderful in this show. If there is a reason to see Grey Gardens, it would be to see Hollis Resnick’s outstanding performance.
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Act Two finds a major shift in tone as the story moves to 1973. The older Edith is played by the marvelous actress and Edith look-alike, Ann Whitney. Unfortunately, Whitney has several songs that were far too challenging for her. I was amazed at this miscasting—better to have a singer for a role that has four songs. That said, Resnick and Whitney are quite effective as the two aging reclusive women. The story is a heartbreaking look at lost celebrities caught in the grips of mental illness and dementia. The reality that this story is basically true only gives it more power.
It is too bad that Grey Gardens has so many inane songs as the composer & lyricists tried too hard to imitate master songsmiths. Better to make Grey Gardens a drama. Hollis Resnick’s stunning performance makes the show tolerable—if only she had better songs.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: November 20, 2008
Grey Gardens Review by Beverly Friend
Fiction inspired by documentary film provides stunning theater experience
The lobby of Northlight Theatre is graced by two, three-sided bulletin boards. On the right, mounted photos show scenes of grace and elegance: wedding and vacation photos and newspaper articles on the fashionable Bouvier/Beale family (cousins of Jackie Kennedy and Lee Radziwill) as they appeared in their heyday: 1941.
In contrast, bulletin boards on the left display pictures and articles detailing the depth to which this family has fallen. In 1973, their Long Island mansion (Grey Gardens) is derelict, inhabited by an eccentric mother and daughter, 51 stray cats and various vermin. Grace is gone, fashion is gone, plumbing is gone. The property has been condemned.
Also in the lobby, television screens loop a 2-minute segment from a 1975 documentary film based on this downfall – showing Edith and Edie Beale, scantily clothed and revealed in all their troubling, eccentric isolation.
We weave our way through the exhibit and enter the theater to experience a brilliant fictionalized capture of co-dependent relationships, bitter rivalries, and painful self-sacrifices in two discrete, highly distinctive acts, the first of which focuses on 1941 (the way things were) while the second deals with the aftermath 30 years later.
Act I begins as a celebration – the engagement party of young Edie Beale (Tempe Thomas) and Joseph Kennedy Jr. (Patrick Sarb). The Elder Kennedy's are expected any moment, and Edie's dynamic mother Edith Bouvier Beale (Hollis Resnik) is preparing to surprise the company by performing a concert of nine songs. The initial discord between a mother who wants to sing and a daughter who fears being upstaged at her own party, becomes far more bitter when the mother sabotages the engagement.
Not only do we know that hopes and dreams will be shattered – watching the couple duet a song titled "Going Places," when we know full well that he will not live to go any place – but we see Edie's immediate pain when Joe suddenly breaks off with her.
Resnik is fabulous in the role of the manipulative, diva-mother, and keeps up the pace in ACT II, when she takes on the role of her daughter (now middle aged). "The girl who had everything" (the initial song of the play), now becomes the girl who has nothing, and who seems to have gone mad with despair, tied to her aging, infirm mother, now played by Ann Whitney. The interaction between the two is bitter, tempered by love, duty, and pity. In a marvelous, surrealistic and ironic moment, Norman Vincent Peale (Dennis Kelly) appears, complete with a garbed church choir, to sing, "Choose to be Happy" – as if life could be as simple as that.
In this Tony Award-winning musical, playwright Doug Wright has created a fascinating study of illusion and disillusion and the destructiveness of a corrosive, suffocating relationship. Kudos to him for his ability to shape characters with which the audience can empathize, even in the midst of condemning their behavior. Scott Frankel's Music and Michael Korie's lyrics enhance the story -- rather than interrupting it -- interweaving thoughts and emotions with the pointed, often insightful dialogue.
Highly Recommended
Reviewed by Beverly Friend
friend@oakton.edu for comments
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