Grey Gardens fan Todd Oldham

Although this isn't specifically Grey Gardens-related, designer Todd Oldham is a fan of the film and used Little Edie for inspiration in his collections when he was a fashion designer. Oldham was featured in special features in the Criterion Collection DVD of Grey Gardens and Ghosts of Grey Gardens.

From New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer, edited by Jesse Oxfeld with Michael Idov, on 31 January 2007

21 Questions: For Todd Oldham, Brunch is a Prison

Name

Todd Oldham

Age

45

Job

Designer and host of Bravo's Top Design, premiering tonight.

Neighborhood

Tribeca

Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?

So many. Susan Sarandon, Stuart Davis, Andy Warhol...

What's the best meal you've eaten in New York?

Any one of my trips to Lupe's. Best Mexican food in New York.

In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?

I design and make things all day.

Where do you get your coffee?

I don't care for coffee, but I get my tea at Olives on Prince Street.

What's the last thing you saw on Broadway?

I saw Grey Gardens, but it was before it went to Broadway. Does that count?

Do you give money to panhandlers?

Yes.

What's your drink?

Vodka and anything.

How often do you prepare your own meals?

Usually something every day.

What's your favorite medication?

Rescue Remedy.

What's hanging above your sofa?

About 30 Charley Harper silk-screens from the mid-fifties.

How much is too much to spend on a haircut?

I cut my own hair often, but the best cuts I ever had are by Cristian. I loved it so much it would not matter what it cost.

When's bedtime?

Somewhere between twelve and two.

Brunch: pro or con?

Con — so often it's like Sunday-morning prison with a big bill at the end.

What's your thread count?

300.

What do you hate most about living in New York?

Moving about in it when it's raining.

What's your brand of jeans?

APC.

When's the last time you drove a car?

Yesterday to work.

Who should be the next president?

Anyone that tells the truth and isn’t hateful would be welcome at this point.

Times, Post, or Daily News?

Daily News

Yankees or Mets?

I don't have any interest in watching baseball. But the Yankees have nicer colors.

What makes someone a New Yorker?

Anyone who has paid the get-your-ass-kicked dues that this wonderful city almost always offers up.

Source

Matt Cavenaugh, the musical's Joe Jr. & Jerry, on his dual roles

Here's an article that Matt Cavenaugh, who plays Joe Kennedy Jr. and Jerry Torre in Grey Gardens the musical, authored himself!

From Broadway.com, by Matt Cavenaugh, on 31 January 2007

Matt Cavenaugh: Joe Jr., Jerry and Me

About the author:

He first won fans as hunky Bud in the short-lived Broadway musical Urban Cowboy, and now Matt Cavenaugh has earned the respect of musical theater lovers for his dual performances as Joe Kennedy Jr. and Jerry Torre in Grey Gardens. In Act One, Cavenaugh plays the careful, cultured golden boy of the Kennedy clan, uneasily engaged to lively Edie Beale of East Hampton. In Act Two, he morphs into a slouching 17-year-old handyman who vainly attempts to help the now-middle-aged Edie and her elderly mother maintain their rotting mansion and overgrown gardens. The 27-year-old actor, an Arkansas native and second oldest in a family of seven children, has amassed impressive theater credits only a few years, including the national tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie and regional productions of Anything Goes, Footloose, and Princesses. Broadway.com asked him to comment on the challenge of playing a pair of real people—one iconic and one who was in the audience on opening night at the Walter Kerr Theatre.

I have one of the best jobs on Broadway. I get to play two very different people, both of whom are famous for very different reasons. My journey began in November 2004, when I received an invitation to come to the Sundance Theatre Lab the following month to develop the role of Joe Kennedy Jr. in a new musical called Grey Gardens. At the time, I didn't know anything about Grey Gardens. I wasn't familiar with the documentary. And I didn't know that I would also be developing the role of Jerry Torre, affectionately know as "the Marble Faun."

I say "develop," rather than "perform," because that's the mission of Sundance. There is no pressure to build to a performance; it is strictly a forum to workshop material. In fact, when we arrived, only the first act of the show was written. I was certainly excited, but also a bit intimidated by the caliber of people I would be working with, including Christine Ebersole, Mary Louise Wilson and John McMartin. I remember thinking that I had been invited into the club, but I wasn't quite sure if I belonged. And that's to say nothing about the formidable task of playing a Kennedy!

Whenever I play someone who actually lived, I try to gather as many specifics about his life as possible. The fact that this information might not be written into a scene doesn't mean it can't be present. Luckily, there was a wealth of material available on the Kennedy family. I was familiar with John and Bobby, but I didn't know that much about Joe. It was fascinating to learn about his upbringing, his years at Harvard, his travels overseas and how he was groomed to do great things. Joe was the eldest and favorite son, the star pupil and athlete. He was an intelligent, charming and confident young man. Joe unabashedly stated that he would be the first Catholic president of the United States. I tried to understand not only his ambition, but also the expectations placed on him throughout his short life, which affected me on a deeper and more personal level. It takes a lot of trust in yourself to step into those shoes, especially knowing that everyone has a strong opinion about what makes a Kennedy.

There's also the matter of that famous Kennedy accent. I couldn't find any recordings of Joe Jr. speaking, so I started by listening to recordings of Joe Sr. PBS made a wonderful series on the Kennedy family, and there is some footage from the '30s and '40s in which Joe Sr. addresses the nation on the radio. I made a conscious effort not to imitate John but to allow him to be a guidepost. Strangely enough, one of the more useful tools was a series of recordings by Vaughn Meader, a popular Kennedy impersonator from the '60s. Allowing Kennedy's confidence and directness come through in my speech made a big difference in fully grasping Joe.

Jerry, on the other hand, was a character I approached from the opposite direction. I, like you, first got to know Jerry from the documentary. I saw a young kid who was certainly aware the cameras were rolling but didn't seem to relish in the attention quite like Edie. His warmth and sweet nature also poured through in his genuine affection for Mrs. Beale. The film was a great tool to pick up Jerry's specific mannerisms in speech and body. I definitely got Jerry's outward form first before I started to understand some of the specifics swimming around inside his head.

I love playing Jerry. I love the way he talks; the way he moves. I love seeing the world of Grey Gardens through his eyes. I also love the real Jerry Torre, whom I first met in October 2005 at a workshop of the musical at Playwrights Horizons. He lives here in New York and has seen the show several times; he is a very sweet man who longs to connect with people and seems delighted and moved with our portrayal of him. Jerry first arrived in East Hampton when he took a summer job at the Getty estate nearby. Mostly out of curiosity, he wandered around the Grey Gardens property just to explore. It was then that Edie came down the stairs, opened the screen door and proclaimed, "Oh my God, it's the Marble Faun." It has been a real privilege for me to learn about Jerry's upbringing and adventures after leaving Grey Gardens—a very different experience from Joe's, but no less fascinating.

As an actor, I know how blessed I am to have the opportunity to embody these two men, the polarity of which keeps the show fresh and fun for me every night. It can also frustrate or encourage me on nights when I think I nailed one and sucked at the other! I'm often asked which role I like more, and I can't choose one over the other. Joe is a very direct fella who, at 26, has a clear vision of what he is after. Jerry, only 17, is a little more indirect in his approach to taking comfort in and care of the Beales.

Truthfully, my favorite moments are probably when I'm observing. I have three amazing women that I share most of my time with on stage. I adore the brilliant Erin Davie, and love jousting with her as she tries to convince me that our relationship is worth holding on to in "Daddy's Girl." I can't say enough about Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson. Both have been great leaders, concerned only about with what is best for the show. Jerry has the best seat in the house as Edie performs "The House We Live In." And Big Edie is a pip, and I can't get enough of her "Corn."

Grey Gardens has been an incredibly challenging and rewarding experience on its path to the Walter Kerr Theatre, guided with great skill and care by our creative team. Composer Scott Frankel, lyricist Michael Korie, librettist Doug Wright and director Michael Greif are very gifted storytellers. Every change or rewrite sharpened the story and fleshed out our characters more fully. One example that involved me specifically was the replacement of the song "Better Fall Out of Love" with "Goin' Places." Our team felt they hadn't nailed the first 20 minutes of the show off-Broadway, so they got to work. I think the specificity of the lyric in "Goin Places" paints a better picture of Joe and Edie's relationship. I also think that, musically, it tells a better story, while fitting more seamlessly into the show—it drives rather than saunters. That, coupled with the cutting of "Body Beautiful Beale" (so that it's very clear that Edie's sobriquet is not a good thing in Joe's eyes), are just two examples of changes that make an actor say "Yes!" when he sees those new pages.

I always felt that there was a place for Grey Gardens on Broadway, but I have to admit I was a little surprised at how easily it found a larger audience. Somewhere, Big and Little Edie must be overjoyed that so many people are touched by their story. I know I feel a real sense of gratification having worked on the project since it was a workshop hoping to get produced, an off-Broadway show hoping to be a hit, and now a Broadway musical hoping to leave a lasting memory on the New York stage. The entire Grey Gardens journey continues to produce a treasure of memories that will last a lifetime.

Source

Big Edie sings ''Tea for Two'' [video]

I'm sure you've all seen this before, but I love these short video clips of Grey Gardens that keep on popping up on the web!

Tea for Two

Source

Two short videos of Al Maysles at Borders

On 5 December 2006, Al Maysles was at the Borders in Columbus Circle (NYC) to promote Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens. In addition, some of the people behind Grey Gardens the Musical were there to discuss their project. A couple of videos of Al at this event just appeared on YouTube.

Albert Maysles Borders 2006

Albert Maysles Borders 2006 2

Source: here and here

Original pre-documentary footage resurfaced?

Before the Maysles visited the Beales to film footage that would eventually become Grey Gardens, they visited the Beales as part of a project for Lee Radziwill. The footage was lost for years, but supposedly it's resurfaced. The following are two e-mails by Jerry Torre from the Grey Gardens Yahoo group.

From the Grey Gardens Yahoo group, by Jerry Torre, on 6 October 2006

Lee has it . The BBC had called me to set up our meeting after all these years. Jerry

And, months later, this post:

From the Grey Gardens Yahoo group, by Jerry Torre, on 24 January 2007

Wanting what we don`t have and having what we don`t want.

Lee is working on a project !

Curious minds will no doubt have there questions answered,

however( favourite word as of late) .

I have been asked to contribute, and will to the best of my ability.

We raccoons aren't known for our patience. I'd love more information about this project, especially a clarification about what happened to the footage and who owns it. Hey, BBC, it's free publicity for you! Drop me a line.

Source: here and here

Back in Grey Gardens [video]

I thought this fan-made video was a fun fan-made Grey Gardens video, and I liked how it used clips not seen in many other fan vids. Enjoy!

Grey Gardens Daze

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Three's Company at Grey Gardens [video]

Jerry Torre never actually lived at Grey Gardens, but that doesn't make this video any less fun! I love the idea of Grey Gardens as a situation comedy.

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Followup: Grey Gardens the Musical stars chat & perform at Barnes & Noble in NYC

We've anticipated this for a while now. It took me a while to find images of the event online, but here you go!

From Broadway.com, photos by Bruce Glikas, on 11 January 2007

At the Lincoln Square Barnes & Noble on West 66 Street, Christine Ebersole performed her beautiful act one finale "Will You?" from Grey Gardens.

Grey Gardens conductor Lawrence Yurman accompanied the selection of songs.

Grey Gardens star Bob Stillman, however, accompanied himself (as he does in the show) for the bittersweet ballad "Drift Away."

Playing act one's young Edie Beale and Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., Erin Davie and Matt Cavenaugh charmed the crowd with their duet "Goin' Places."

In attendance, Grey Gardens stage sisters Kelsey Fowler (Lee Bouvier) and Sarah Hyland (Jackie Bouvier).

Also the show's stars John McMartin ("Major" Bouvier) and Michael Potts (Brooks).

And of course the two Edies. Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson.

Speaking of mothers and daughters, Davie and Ebersole are of course Grey Gardens' act one team.

At the Barnes & Noble CD signing table, castmates Bob Stillman and Matt Cavenaugh.

Erin Davie with one of the posters the cast was autographing at the event.

Christine Ebersole holds up the goods.

Barnes & Noble's Lincoln Square manager Karen Catalanotti with Grey Gardens composer Scott Frankel and the album's producer Philip Chaffin.

Grey Gardens genealogy moment! Standing between stars Davie and Ebersole is Maude Davis, cousin to Edie Beale from her father's side.

Family portrait: the Broadway cast of Grey Gardens.

The lady with a bouquet from a fan... as it should always be.

Source

Attempt to study the Grey Gardens phenomenon

Lots of little factual errors here are there... A few of them:

• The house wasn't named Grey Gardens because of the garden's inability to sustain color in the gardens. It was named so because only flowers with muted colors were used in the design of its garden.
• The Beales moved in to the house much earlier than 1952. Little Edie returned to the house in '52.
• It's not a 28-room mansion.
• And, "fifth film tribute"? I count differently.

I also didn't think Sucsy's film was due out this year. But I don't know for sure.

From Monsters & Critics, by Anne Brodie, on 21 January 2007

The 'Grey Gardens' Phenomenon

Nicole Kidman, René Zellwegger, Meryl Streep and Angelina Jolie are all rumored to have wanted a crack at the Beales.

However, Jessica Lange, and Drew Barrymore grabbed the plum roles of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier- Beale in Michael Sucsy’s feature film 'Grey Gardens' due out this year. Sucsy wrote, directs and produces the fifth film tribute to the oddest mother / daughter team in what passes for American aristocratic circles.

The Maysles’ brother’s classic 1975 documentary ‘Grey Gardens’ has just been released on DVD with The Bouvier- Beales of Grey Gardens, which Albert Maysles shot thirty years later.

Singer dancer Christine Ebersole has enjoyed a comeback as Little Edie in the hit Broadway musical Grey Gardens, which opened in October at the Walter Kerr Theatre and continues to draw raves.

Youtube offers a mash up of Madonna’s ‘Hang Up’ over Little Edie bravely dancing with an American flag in the front hall of Grey Gardens, called Madonna is Hung Up on Grey Gardens.

Rufus Wainwright wrote a love sick, lonely song called Grey Gardens in 2001.

In 2005, Liliana Greenfield-Sanders’s documentary ‘Ghosts of Grey Gardens’ fed the mystique.

So what’s the fuss? Two old dears living in squalor in a seaside mansion?

Grey Gardens was a once magnificent seaside summer home of the Bouvier-Beale dynasty, an architectural gem with manicured grounds looking down into Long Island Sound. It was called Grey Gardens because of its inability to sustain color in the gardens.

The only inhabitants from 1952 to the late seventies were a mother and daughter, Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier-Beale, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

They didn’t do much to keep Grey Gardens clean, organized or pretty.

It hit the papers in 1975, not as an upper crust hang out for Edie and her friends, but as a sad reminder of those days.

The East Hampton, New York Sanitation Department raided the house with its rotting walls, floors and windows, shorting wires and about 52 cats and raccoons. There was no water service and the house was filled with garbage.

Once the jewel of the ritzy, old money Georgica Pond, it had disintegrated into an overgrown eyesore where two eccentric women wandered, feeding their critters pet food, bread and ice cream, sometimes undressed.

Grey Gardens was never meant to be more than a summer home for the wealthy Bouvier-Beales, but the two Edie Beales moved in 1952 and stayed put.

The former Camelot social register pair shared a tiny room with two single beds, a hotplate and heaps of garbage. The rest of the reeking, 28-room mansion and its fine art and furnishings collected dust.

Imposing society portraits of the onetime beautiful women lined the walls, reminders of what they had been and done, as Camelot era Bouviers, but the Edies didn’t pay much attention.

‘Jackie O’s aunt and cousin living in squalor!’ screamed the papers.

The raid and subsequent publicity shamed Jackie or some say Aristotle Onassis into writing a hefty check to clean it up.

That’s what David and Albert Maysles came to document in 1975.

They were surprised to discover that the Beales were the real attractions - spirited, lively, and resigned to lives of seclusion; a singer and a dancer sentenced to permanent hiding.

Little Edie wore different ‘revolutionary costumes’ and staged shows each day for her mother. Such energy and originality, alas – not much talent.

They bickered about all the men little Edie had to turn down, like Paul Getty and his fellow social register colleagues.

Big and Little Edie were at odds on these points. Did Little Edie just give up because Big Edie manipulated her or was she simply not able to sustain a normal relationship with a man?

Mother and daughter were each other’s only relationship, but it was a tight one, leavened with humor, gentle bickering, love and drama.

Albert Maysles released ninety minutes of unseen footage from 1976 in ‘The Beales of Grey Gardens’ in 2006. It shows the strange effect their story had out in the world, a picture of Mick Jagger anxiously waiting to meet Little Edie (no wonder – she bears a strong resemblance to Jerry Hall).

By that time, after her mother’s death, Little Edie had reinvented herself as a lounge singer. Apparently, she put on quite the show.

The second doco came out in conjunction with the Broadway musical Grey Gardens - which follows Edie Bouvier-Beale from a young, privileged and exceptionally beautiful girl (Erin Davie) to the surreal years at Grey Gardens.

Tony award winner Mary Louise Wilson plays Big Edie. From her life of beauty pageants and debutante balls to singin’ and dancin’ to win her mothers approval, in a mansion about to be condemned, Ebersole as Little Edie finds the joy and spirit so present in the Maysles’ documentary.

Each day Little Edie vowed to wear a ‘revolutionary costume’, cobbled together from a lifetime of never throwing anything away. ‘Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono we had quite a fight’. Ebersole has her flighty, but intimated manner nailed.

The other documentary, ‘The Ghosts of Grey Gardens,’ features interviews with designer Todd Oldham, writer Beauregard Houston-Montgomery, performance artist Johanna Went and current Grey Gardens owners Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee.

The power couple shows us around Grey Gardens as it looks today - and somehow, we want to spend time with Big and Little Edie as the house implodes.

Bring it on, Drew and Jessica!

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DVD cover for UK release of Grey Gardens

It looks like Grey Gardens will be released in the UK on DVD on 19 March 2007.

From DVD Times, by Dave Foster, on 18 January 2007

Eureka Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Grey Gardens and Salesman as part of their Masters of Cinema Series for 19th March 2007 priced at £19.99 each.

And here's the cover:

Although this image has been used to promote the film Grey Gardens in the past, when I see it now, I can't think of anything except that a similar image of Christine Ebersole has been used to promote Grey Gardens the Musical.

Source

Self-neglect, domestic squalor, and social withdrawal

I'm never sure what to make of articles like these. At the very least, I found it absolutely thought-provoking!

From ABC News, by Susan Donaldson James, on 17 January 2007

Squalor Syndrome: Living Happily Among Cats, Fleas and Filth

Broadway Hit 'Grey Gardens' Highlights the Strange Disorder of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' Cousins

The Broadway musical "Grey Gardens" -- headed for Tony nominations and a Hollywood movie -- highlights the fall of socialite Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, who lived in a squalid 28-room mansion among scores of flea-infested cats and raccoons, and towers of dirty cans.

But the hit show also highlights Diogenes syndrome, a disorder characterized by self-neglect, domestic squalor and social withdrawal.

The eccentric Beale pair -- the first cousin and aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- is a classic example of what has also been called squalor disorder, which especially affects the elderly.

The syndrome was named for Diogenes, a Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C., who advanced the principles of self-sufficiency and contentment unrelated to material possessions -- a misnomer -- given the nature of the disorder, which causes people to hoard animals and belongings.

Hoarding occurs in about 1 to 2 percent of the population, according to Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College who wrote "Buried Treasures," a self-help book for hoarders.

About 10 percent of hoarders display the rarer Diogenes syndrome.

Those who live with the syndrome manifest personality traits like reclusiveness, suspiciousness, obstinacy and other isolating tendencies. There are often precipitating events -- such as physical illness, deafness, blindness and bereavement -- that make the syndrome worse.

Research shows a relationship between the syndrome and anxiety and depression, and anecdotal studies suggest the disorder may be triggered by a significant emotional or relationship loss, said Frost.

Hoarding -- which is also seen in dementia and mental retardation -- is also associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that can start as early as the teenage years, Frost said.

"When you ask people about their lives, they've been hoarding for years, but they don't get serious about it for another decade," said Frost. "By 65, the community around them starts to pay more attention.

A Web site devoted to this disorder -- Squalors.com -- cites numerous cases of Diogenes syndrome through history, including Beethoven and the English writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp.

Another case was Eliza Emily Donnithorne, the possible inspiration for the Miss Havisham character in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations." Left on the altar in mid-19th century Australia, the 26-year-old reportedly shut herself in the dining room with the wedding feast, where she remained with the cockroaches and the mice, waiting for her fiancé to return.

He never did.

Hundreds in Filth

Those with the condition are often exploited by others. Last year, Milwaukee city health officials cracked down on landlords -- some paid by the city -- who were renting squalid homes to the mentally ill after the local newspaper exposed abuses.

The Journal Sentinel showed images of people living amid rats and roaches in deadly conditions.

"When you go around to these rooming houses, it's horrifying," said Meg Kissinger, who reported the story. "The woman who we started the series with was lying on a mattress, drenched in urine, with piles of spent toilet paper around the room. There was a rash running up and down her legs and she was eating moldy food that the landlady had retrieved from the garbage cans and was serving people."

Violations included infestations of rats, mice and roaches, no heat, no fire alarms, broken toilets, exposed asbestos, raw sewage backing up into the sinks, no running water, broken door locks and windows painted shut.

Many blame national policies in the 1970s that closed psychiatric institutions and released thousands of patients without giving communities financial support to care for them. The topic was chronicled in a book by Harvard University's Jon Gudeman.

In California, a focus on the hoarding aspect of this syndrome began when landlords -- worried about public health and fire hazards -- evicted tenants and made them homeless, according to Belinda Lyons, executive director of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. The association holds annual conventions on the topic.

In private homes and among the rich, odd behavior often goes unnoticed, she said.

"When it's a rental, there are quarterly inspections. But in these huge homes nothing is done unless a neighbor complains or someone passes away or a family member comes in to help declutter," Lyons said. "But there is huge resistance and it's a source of strain for the family."

Shame and Isolation

Those afflicted have few guests and experience shame and isolation, Lyons said. Often the inspectors are called in when the squalor spills out into the yard. And poverty often has nothing to do with it.

In 2002 in California, a Solana Beach home with an "ocean view to die for" was so cluttered the owner had to crawl "almost crablike" over piles of newspapers, mail and rubbish to get anywhere inside the house, according to an article by Denise Nelesen, spokesman for the San Diego County Office of Aging and Independence.

The reclusive woman was living alone in a dilapidated house filled with rubbish and infested with vermin. Excrement and decomposing food were strewn around the floors, and the stench was unbearable to all but the owner.

The woman eventually moved outside and used buckets as toilets that she would dump over the neighbor's fence.

That same year, the local humane society also reported five major cases of animal hoarding, involving 245 animals. In one, a litter of dead kittens was found mummified on someone's living room floor.

Self-Neglect Kills

The San Diego office receives about 1,000 calls a month for cases of elder abuse, and nearly 40 percent of them involve cases of self-neglect like these, said Nelesen.

"It's very common and not much is being done," she said. "A lot of people just don't want to get involved or don't want to bother someone, but you are setting a person up to killing themselves."

The elderly also have physical impairments that can make Diogenes syndrome worse. Add to that depression or the loss of a loved one.

Or -- as in the case of Edith Beale, shunned by her husband, and Edie, distraught over a broken engagement -- an overwhelming sense of unresolved grief.

"They've given up," said Nelesen, "and they don't care anymore."

Source

You ought to be in pictures [video]

Someone has uploaded another clip from The Beales of Grey Gardens to YouTube:

You ought to be in pictures

Source

Reminder: Grey Gardens the Musical stars chat & perform at Barnes & Noble on Thursday

I've blogged about this before, but since it's coming up in 2 days and there have been some recent news articles about it, I figured I'd mention it again. In the article below, it now looks like the entire cast will be there!

From Playbill, by Kenneth Jones, on 9 January 2007

Grey Gardens Troupe to Take Root at Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble Jan. 11

To celebrate the success of the Broadway production of Grey Gardens, Barnes & Noble will present a special appearance event featuring the entire cast, at the chain's Lincoln Square location, Jan. 11.

Part of the store's popular "Live at Lincoln" series, the event will feature the entire cast of the musical — including leading ladies Tony Award winner Christine Ebersole and Tony Award nominee Mary Louise Wilson. The appearance will include musical performances and a signing. The store location is also currently featuring an elaborately decorated window dedicated to Grey Gardens.

Doors will open at 5 PM for the 5:30 PM event.

The event will kick off with the performance of three numbers: Christine Ebersole performing the Act One closer "Will You?"; Ebersole joined by two-time Tony Award nominee Bob Stillman for the duet "Drift Away"; and Matt Cavenaugh and Erin Davie singing the duet "Goin' Places."

("Goin' Places" is one of three new songs written for the Broadway production, and this event will mark the first time fans will be able to hear the song outside the theatre. As the CD preserves the score of the original Off-Broadway production, "Goin' Places" doesn't appear on the world-premiere cast recording on PS Classics.)

A new Broadway cast recording is being considered, the producers announced.

Stillman will play the piano on his duet with Ebersole; musical director Lawrence Yurman will accompany on the other two tunes.

Following the performances, all nine cast members (Ebersole, Wilson, five-time Tony Award nominee John McMartin, Cavenaugh, Davie, Kelsey Fowler, Sarah Hyland, Michael Potts and Stillman) will participate in a CD and poster signing. It is expected to last until 6:30 PM, prior to that evening's performance.

Grey Gardens, based on the documentary film of the same name, is currently playing the Walter Kerr Theatre. The book is by Doug Wright, lyrics by Michael Korie and score by Scott Frankel.

Barnes & Noble's Lincoln Square location is at 1972 Broadway at 66th Street in Manhattan.

Source: here, here, and here

Video Interview with Mary Louise Wilson, the Musical's Big Edie Beale

I just received an e-mail notice about this today:

Visit ArtsPass.com for an exclusive interview with actor, Mary Louise Wilson co-starring as Big Edie Beale in Grey Gardens.

Mary Louise shares with viewers about her role in Broadway's hit musical and her multi-faceted stage, screen and tv career.

There's a good bio on Wilson here and the video interview is here.

It's 25 minutes long! Enjoy!

Source

Edie Beale eBay find

Have you ever seen handwriting this extraordinary?

More vintage Grey Gardens articles from Karima

More from Karima!

Brief mentions of Phelan Beale

From The Atlanta Constitution, on 21 December 1902

Mr. Phelan Beale, who is attending the law department of Columbia, college, in New York, has come home to spend the Christmas holidays.

From The Lima News (Lima, OH), on 13 August 1937

Lion's executors threatened to foreclose the mortgage against a bank, as executors of Jonathan's will, and were successful in the ensuing litigation. The island was ordered sold at public auction June 10 at East Hampton. Miss Gardiner bought it Not only did she save the island for the family, but according to Phelan Beale, New York, who announced the sale, she prevented several contemplated ideas from being carried out.

And a bit about the house

From The Oakland Tribune, on 12 September 1972

Jackie's Kin Eviction to Be Dropped

Suffolk County is expected to drop eviction proceedings against an aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis "after extensive repairs and of their 28-room mansion, an official says.

Sidney Beckwirth, director of inspectional services for the county Health Department, testified at a hearing Friday that Edith Beale, 76, and her 54-year-old daughter, Edie, "had substantially complied with his demands.

The two women had been ordered to fix up the old house, Grey Gardens, or get out.

Inspectors had found them living with no heat or running water and the rooms littered with excrement from pet cats and dogs.

Beckwirth said the roof had been fixed, a new heating system installed, the house rewired, and new plumbing and a water heater were put in, along with a stove and refrigerator.

Minor repairs are still needed, but the Beales' lawyer, William van den Heuvel, said they will be made.

Beckwith said he expected hearing officer Aldo Andreli to recommend to Health Commissioner George E. Leone that the eviction proceedings be dropped.

Source: here, here, and here

Oh, my dear Lord... [video]

Glorious sacrilege!

Grey Gardens is burning!!!!!

Source

Fruits of Karima's Grey Gardens research

Karima of the Grey Gardens Yahoo! group has posted quite a few interesting articles on the Edies over the past few months. I've reposted some here in the past, but haven't done so lately. Here are some of my favorites that I couldn't resist passing on. The first block is about the Edies and the second block is reviews of the documentary.

About the Edies

From News-Herald (Panama City, FL), on 13 December 1971

Jackie's Aunt Staying

In this old-line summer resort, filled with New York's elite during the summer but mostly deserted now, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis are determined to remain in their 28-room mansion despite a Suffolk County Health Department ruling the house is unfit for human habitation.

Edith Beale, 55, Jacqueline Onassis' cousin, said Sunday the Health Department allegations were "absolutely ridiculous. "Why, what they made out, one might think we were living in piles of, of I don't know what," she said.

Sidney Beckwith, head of the county health department's housing and sanitation division, has visited the house twice. He said Miss Beale and her mother, Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale, 76, were both ill, that the house lacked running water, that the women were living with 12 diseased cats and that the mansion, known as Grey Gardens, was unfit for human habitation. Beckwith said he planned to return later this week and if the house was still unfit, he would order an immediate eviction hearing.

Miss Beale admitted all but one toilet did not work and said she "had lots of raccoons last winter" which ate several shingles. She confessed that the house was in need of "doing over," but maintained that her mother had already decided to have the house renovated and to sell the mansion before the health department took action.

"Mother estimated it would take one to three years to fix the house for sale," Miss Beale said. "Now she's got it down to one."

The house was built in 1905 by a sea captain whose ghost still haunts the place, Miss Beale said. Her mother, the sister of Jacqueline Onassis' father, has lived there since 1923. Miss Beale said she and her mother both were dancers.

"We have 8 cats, not 12" Miss Beale said. "They're certainly not diseased. They're household pets."

Were she and her mother ill?

"We've caught terrible colds with all these people (health department inspectors) coming into the house and looking around and everything," Miss Beale said.

"Of course the house isn't perfectly normal. The house has to be done over. You know how hard it is to get plumbers in the autumn."

Beckwith has scheduled another visit for Wednesday after which he will decide on an eviction hearing.

Miss Beale said she had not yet contacted Mrs. Onassis about her predicament.

"I really must write her a letter and tell her about the whole thing from start to finish."

From Bucks County Courier Times, on 24 April 1973

Still in Trouble

Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edith, aunt and cousin of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, were back in the news today -- this time for an unpaid $506.40 tax bill on their 28-room mansion in East Hampton, Long Island. Last year, Mrs. Onassis, her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill, and other relatives contributed $30,000 to refurbish the sprawling home after Suffolk County officials called it a health menace and threatened to evict the Beales. The Beale's latest troubles will again have a happy ending according to their lawyer. William vanden Heuvel, who said that Mrs. Beale's son, Bouvier, a Manhattan lawyer, will pay the back taxes. Beale's secretary confirmed this.

From The Washington Post, 10 March 1977

A vine-covered, 26-room mansion in the fashionable Long Island summer resort of East Hampton, may be up for sale soon.

Edith Beale, whose cloistered life with her mother was depicted in the movie "Gray Gardens," said Tuesday she wants to sell the house that gave the film its title and move to Paris in order to avoid he cousins, Lee Radziwill and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

"My mother ordered me to do it," said Miss Beale after appearing on a television talk show. She also had said that she hears "interesting" ghosts, and wants $500,000 for the mansion.

Reviews

From Oakland Tribune, by Robert Taylor, on 25 June 1976

Bickering Beales a Bore

By now every reader in the country must be aware of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' eccentric aunt and cousin who live in a bitter fantasy world of their own among ramshackle surroundings on Long Island.

The story has been exploited for "the Jackie connection" since the women were discovered in 1971, although filmmakers David and Albert Maysles approached them with sympathy and understanding.

Their film documentary, "Grey Gardens" may not set out to exploit Ms. Edith Beale and her daughter Edie, but eventually it does no more than present their shabby, wasted life in excruciating detail.

The movie opened this week at the Act Two theater in Berkeley.

The Maysles brothers' documentary style, developed in "Salesman" and "Gimme Shelter," is to present the subjects without any narration or comment of their own. They may eventually get to the core of truth by this method, but "Grey Gardens" leaves many obvious questions unanswered.

It is easy to see the mess the Beales have made of their lives. But how did they get that way? Why? What happened to the family money? What happened to Edie's attempted career on the stage?

What the film explains at length is the women's continual bickering, their love-hate relationship, the family ties that bind 56-year-old "Little Edie" to the crumbling house and her indomitable mother.

The story has been compared to Tennessee Williams' Southern Gothic, but reminded me more closely of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night."

The film is not as depressing an experience as I expected, thanks to the Beales' occasional but incisive wit. Mrs. Beale is the sharpest of the two.

"If you can't get a man to propose to you," Edie says, "you might as well be dead. I think it's disgusting for women to live alone. What are they proving? They have to go around with dogs or "other women."

"Dogs are lovely," her mother replies! "I'll take a dog any day."

Their dialogue is fascinating for a while, but eventually the bickering and babbling becomes unbearable. It struck me as aversion therapy which the Maysles brothers could have ended after an hour, rather than letting it continue for another 35 painful minutes.

When "Grey Gardens" is finally over, the impulse is to escape these women rather than consider what the movie says about them. It certainly proves that money don't insure that women can cope with their lives after the money and beauty are gone.

From Daily Times-News, by Celestine Sibley (Women's News Service) on 30 October 1975

Jackie's Cousins Are Exploited in 'Grey Gardens'

Last fall while I was spending a few days on Long Island in East Hampton, a friend asked me how I would like to go see the Beales, the mother-and-daughter team of recluse cousins of Jackie Onassis. I said I'd love to and she called them up and introduced me over the phone.

"Big Edie," the 80-year-old mother, Edith Bouvier Beale, couldn't have been more charming. She loved Southerners, she said. In fact, she had married one - an Alabamian - and she would like very much for me to come and see her.

Her daughter, "Little Edie", now in her mid-50s, said something in the background and Mrs. Beale corrected herself: "She says I cannot have visitors today, my arthritis is too bad." And then in a sotto voice: "That's a lie! I haven't got a bit of arthritis anywhere in my body!"

"Little Edie" herself came on the phone and we had a very pleasant chat but she finally had to leave to answer the door, she said, because they no longer have a butler.

Somehow the whole conversation made me so sad I didn't attempt to whip it into an interview, which was what I had in mind when my friend proposed visiting-the Beales. But I might as well have because their privacy, poor things, is certainly not sacred to the New York media. In fact, a team of movie makers has moved in with the Beales and done them up brown in a production called "Grey Gardens" the name of their lovely, dilapidated old gray shingled house.

As Richard Eder says, "The movie" as shown recently at the New York Film Festival at Lincoln Center "isn't too bad, but the moviegoer," he adds, "will still feel like an exploiter.

To watch 'Grey Gardens' is to take part in a kind of carnival of attention with two willing but vulnerable people who had established themselves, for better or worse, in the habit of not being looked at. And what happens when the carnival moves on?"

I'm with Richard Eder, recluses who were once rich and stylish and now live in filth and squalor, are interesting to all of us, particularly if they are the kin of Jackie Onassis. But who has the taste for seeing them exposed in a movie?

Somehow their very willingness to admit the cameras is a plea for protection. Instead of repairing the house and sending in a cleaning squad, which she and her sister are said to have done, I wish Mrs. Onassis would help her cousins protect themselves from the exploiters.

Source: here, here, here, here, and here

Year-end rankings of Broadway musicals

I'm still getting caught up on posts here...

The Grey Gardens the Musical Myspace Page posted this summary of the musical's status in the year-end rankings of Broadway musicals from many different publications. It's fared quite well! Congratulations!

Grey Gardens Acclaimed on over 25 "Best of 2006" Lists!

#1 Show of the Year

• Time Magazine (Zoglin)

Best Musical of the Year

• Entertainment Weekly (editors)
• USA Today (Gardner-TIE)
• The Advocate (editors)

Performance of the Year

• New York Times (Brantley, New York Times/Audio Slide Show)
• New York Magazine (McCarter)
• Daily News (Dziemianowicz-TIE)
• AM-New York (Windman)
• Broadway.com (editors)
• Where Magazine (editors)

Year-End "Best of" Lists

• Advocate (editors, Top 10 #2)
• Amazon (editors, Top 10 CDs-#2)
• AM-New York (Windman, Best Performance in a Musical-#1 & Best New Musical-#3]
• Bergen Record (Feldberg, "5 Memorable Moments")
• Broadway.com (editors, Top 5 Performances-#1)
• Daily News (Dziemianowicz, moments/performances)
• Edge-New England (Nesti, Top 10-alphabetical)
• Entertainment Weekly (editors, Top 10-#2)
• Hollywood Reporter (Osborne, Top 6-no order)
• New York Magazine (McCarter, Top 10-#2)
• New York Post-A (Barnes, moments/performances)
• New York Post-B (Scheck, performances)
• New York Times (Brantley, Top 10-alphabetical)
• Newsday (Winer, Top 10-#4)
• NY-1 News (Torre, Top 10-no order)
• Playbill Online (Gans "Diva Talk" column, Top 10-alphabetical)
• Star-Ledger (Sommers, Top 10-alphabetical)
• Sirius Satellite Radio/American Theater Web (Propst, "Best Musical"-TIE)
• TheaterMania (editors, Top 50 performances-alphabetical/Ebersole & Wilson)
• Time Magazine (Zoglin, Top 10-#1)
• Time Out-New York-A (Cote, Top 10-alphabetical)
• Time Out-New York-B (Feldman, Top 10-alphabetical)
• USA Today (Gardner, "Best Musical"-TIE)
• Where Magazine

Positive Season Overviews

• Associated Press (Kuchwara)
• Playbill Online (Simonson, "Top Theatre Stories of 2006")
• Variety (Rooney)

Top Broadway CDs of the Year

• Amazon (editors, #2)

Source

Verification: Drew Barrymore was at Grey Gardens

The more news I read about Grey Gardens the feature film, the more excited I get!

From Page Six of the New York Post, by Richard Johnson, on 7 January 2007

We Hear...

That Drew Barrymore and director Michael Sucsy were given a tour of Grey Gardens - the East Hampton mansion where Jackie Kennedy cousins Big and Little Edie Beale lived with 80 stray cats and random raccoons - by Frances Hayward, who rents the estate from Ben Bradlee.

Thanks to the anonymous contributor who passed this along!

What I'd really love is an in-depth interview with Sucsy that gets into the scope of the film and what scenes will be included.

Update

There's also this story:

From Hamptons Online, by Jennifer Tuesday, on 11 January 2007

Talk around Town

Frances Hayward the world class savior of animals lives in the fabled Grey Gardens which she rents from owners Ben Bradlee and wife Sally Quinn and recently welcomed Quogue filmmaker Michael Sucsy for a tour. Mike who is directing the film version based on the Maysles brothers classic documentary brought along a very special guest, Drew Barrymore who'll star in the as Edie Beale with Jessica Lange portraying Edith Bouvier Beale. Drew is no stranger to these parts indeed her roots go back to the early days of Guild Hall when Drews and Barrymores trod the stage at what is the John Drew Theater.

Source: here and here

Groovy Gardens video

So smooth!

Groovy Gardens

Source