November 03, 2006

Ebersole shines royally in Broadway's 'Grey Gardens'

"Grey Gardens," the musical based on the 1975 documentary about Jackie O's eccentric aunt and cousin, opened on Broadway last night to stunning reviews. The star of the show is Christine Ebersole, who plays Big Edie in Act I and daughter Little Edie in Act II as the story moves from the family's heady socialite days of the 1940s to the derelict Hamptons mansion in the 1970s.

"Grey Gardens" has an open-ended run at the Walter Kerr Theatre, located at 219 W. 48th St., map.

The reviews:

Daily News - "In 'Grey Gardens,' Christine Ebersole delivers a bona fide star turn that is awesome, amazing and astonishing - and that's just the A's."

Variety - "In less adventurous hands, 'Grey Gardens' might merely have been a quirky musical about crazy cat ladies -- a singing, dancing slice of Robert Aldrich-style modern gothic. But Wright and his collaborators Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics) have taken their cue from the Maysles brothers in portraying their multifaceted subjects with depth and dignity. Their show is a haunting account of lives derailed, a textured depiction of the warring, often simultaneous desires to wound and heal that characterize mother-daughter relationships, and a witty celebration of two defiantly maverick personalities."

Newsday - "Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, have finally made it to Broadway - and what a welcome addition they are. That their big break comes long after these world-class eccentrics were alive to bask in stardom is just one of the twisted, tender ironies of their pop-culture infamy"

Post - "Yet for all its narrative interest, it's still a musical that sets out with one grave, even deadly, disadvantage. Its music. This derivative score, by Scott Frankel (music) and Michael Korie (lyrics), sounds like a secondhand, second-rate pastiche."

New York Times - "There is another phrase, by the way, in addition to the immortal 'da-da-da-da-dum,' that I can’t get out of my head. This one is two words, 'Oh, God,' and Ms. Ebersole sings them in her climactic number, “Another Winter in a Summer Town,” with a layering of despair, rebellion and surrender that becomes a heartbreaking epitaph for an entire life. Watching this performance is the best argument I can think of for the survival of the American musical."

Sun - "The net result of the extensive Act I revisions in terms of quality is negligible. A toothless new duet for Edie and Joe called 'Goin' Places' substitutes razzmatazz for the deft one-upsmanship that punctuated the original song in its place, and the Major has an ineffectual new song that addresses the Bouvier women's emphasis on marrying well. But the streamlined book adds a welcome bit of ambiguity to Edith's motives, and 'The Girl Who Has Everything,' an introductory ballad that both honors and condemns Little Edie ('The crowds and the clamor / Aroused by her glamour / Will fade like the echo of a chime'), marks a pronounced improvement over its predecessor."

Associated Press - "The score by Frankel and Korie then becomes more interesting, moving away from the pastiche numbers that fill the musical's first half. For example, there's the haunting 'Another Winter in a Summer Town,' as Edie recognizes time is passing and she is trapped by staying, season after season, with her mother."

NY1 - "There is not a finer voice on Broadway right now."

Newark Star-Ledger - "Expertly drawling out her zingers, Wilson's crotchety latter-day Edith is droll company. McMartin looks grand as disdainful Major Bouvier and later as TV evangelist Rev. Norman Vincent Peale. Cavenaugh's chipper Kennedy heir contrasts with his space-y handyman in the second act. Michael Potts' unflappable houseman and Bob Stillman's tippling piano player lend rich shades to this twilight zone of a musical."

USA Today - "The supporting cast adds to a production that, for all its drollness, transcends the kitschiness that's prominent on Broadway's musical-comedy menu."

Earlier: Grey Gardens secret: How did Little Edie lose her hair?
TKTS snapshot: November matinee edition
'Grey Gardens' musical opens Off-Broadway

November 3, 2006 06:52 AM in Broadway

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