Grey Gardens

A musical about the Bouvier Beale family of East Hampton, NY, relatives of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. It's based on the 1975 documentary of the same name, made by the Maysles brothers. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Edie" were once high-class socialites but later became Long Island's most notorious recluses. Act I portrays the family before their descent, and Act II shows their recluse days.

It's beautifully tragic and tragically funny. Christine Ebersole, in a Tony award winning performance, perfectly portrays both Edith and Little "Edie" (the former in Act 1 and the latter in Act 2). Clearly, it's not your typical Broadway musical fare, but that's why it's great. It's like seeing a super-Indie film playing on three screens at your local AMC multiplex. Here, Broadway doesn't mean hammed up and glitz-ified; it just means really really well done. You find yourself laughing at these bizarre and awkward people. But everything saddens when you remember this really happened. Edie's bright young promise did end up with her in a house overrun with cats, wearing a head scarf and alone with her crazed mother. And if that can happen to a member of one of America's most esteemed families, how can there be any hope for us ordinary folks? (That last sentence would be much more powerful if my last name weren't "Kennedy." Try and disregard that.)

Sadly, it closed yesterday, as Mary-Louise Wilson (Tony award winner for her featured performance as well) didn't want to continue on. Look for it when it pops up in the future (London '07-'08, I hear) and pray to the theatre gods that the lead has anywhere near the talent Christine Ebersole had.