Grey Gardens

Oddly enough, the story of Jackie Onassis’ ultimately reclusive aunt and cousin living with cats in an East Hampton mansion makes a good musical.  At least in the first half.  

Stage-struck Edith Bouvier Beale, the older, loves to dominate her parties with a song, even as she plans the 1941 engagement do of her daughter, Edie, and promising Joe Kennedy junior (Simon McLachlan).  Beth Daly plays Edith as a fine patrician bulldozer and Caitlin Berry brings a desperate grace to young Edie who longs to leave Grey Gardens and hit the boards as well.

So with older Edith’s drunken gay sidekick at the piano (Blake Erickson) and the precocious young Bouvier cousins arriving, all tensions are expertly put to song.  Simon Greer’s elegant mansion and gardens (and Brendan Hay’s dashing costumes) left space for artful choreography while in a small gallery Hayden Barltrop on keyboards controls a tight band of eight.  

This is a polished, confident production from Squabbalogic and director Jay James-Moody. The snappy songs nicely drive the action and characters, with the added poignancy that after the privilege we know all will end in tears and retreat.

The second half, now 1973, sees the house decayed and older Edith (now Maggie Blanco), near bed-ridden but just as manipulative.  Daly is back now playing the entrapped daughter Edie but fails to share the full pathos of her life disappointment.

The static setting doesn’t help; I was left wanting more of Edie’s real life attempts to escape.  With the action stilled, Scott Frankel’s jazzy score and Doug Wright’s book and Michael Korie’s lyrics loose some dynamo and a few songs, like an evangelical Choose to be Happy, seem incongruous.  Squabbalogic still bursts though with onstage talent.

Martin Portus

Photographer: Michael Francis, Francis Photography.