Grey Gardens - Final

Walter Kerr Theatre - 3/2/07

Some reviewers state the women of Grey Gardens are mentally ill and probably didn't even know that they were being exposed through the Maysles' documentary.

I just think these were two beautiful and talented people who did not get the chance they deserved and lived a secluded life outside of the world. Where inside Grey Gardens, time seemed to have stood still. Where little Edie still sees herself as a little girl who dreams of taking off to her New York career after the age of 56 and big Edie who believes she's never strained her voice and how she should get it back to the way it was when she was in her 40s.


I don't care much for musicals. I can't stand all that singing and dancing "Broadway" style. The lyrics they use are so silly as in this musical, the song "Jerry Likes My Corn" proved to me that I may never see a musical again. The first act killed me with all the exhausting Broadway routine of song and dance. For most people, the first act was a necessary as we had to see just where these women were coming from. How they ended up the way they did. It was interesting only a little bit to me. You first realize how important music is to big Edie. Well, you'd have to be if you had your own live in pianist. A gay one at that, complete with those neck scarves they they all wore at the time. Total poofster, and one that no rich bitch in East Hampton can do without.

Anyway, it was during the second act that shook me to attention. Everything was familiar and I was amazed at how closely the characters resembled both big and little Edie. This is where little Edie becomes the lovable innocent looking after her mother after all these years and never getting the chance to get out and live. It's a little heartbreaking towards the end when she's all packed up to leave Grey Gardens but hears her mother crying for her because she's starving and can't open up the can. She puts everything down and gets back to tend to her mother.