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Panel Discusses the Growth of "Grey Gardens"

May 1, 2007 - “Grey Gardens,” the famed, sprawling 28-room mansion in East Hampton, New York, had been the source of much speculation and lore for decades, as the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took reclusive shelter behind closed doors. The story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter “Little Edie,” however, has most recently found a home in Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre – a journey far from their once-glamorous, now-decrepit estate.

On Saturday, April 14, the creative team of the musical smash hit “Grey Gardens” reflected on the process that led to the Great White Way, in “Grey Gardens: The Creation of a Musical,” a panel discussion moderated by Katherine Oliver, Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting. Co-presented with the Summer Play Festival at Theatre Row Studios, MOFTB’s first theatre dialogue of 2007 addressed the inspiration, creative challenges, and production logistics involved in sharing these elegant eccentrics with New York audiences.

The origin of the current “Grey Gardens,” one can argue, isn’t technically Playwrights Horizons, where the show made its off-Broadway debut — but at a lunchtime meeting in midtown. There, as Michael Korie (Lyrics) recounted, he and the production’s author, Doug Wright, brainstormed ways to approach their ultimate source material: the cult-classic 1976 documentary by David and Albert Maysles which exposed the lady Beales’ solitary squalor. “It just can’t be the documentary, and stick in songs . . . no flashbacks, no ghosts,” Korie said about the performance. Instead, it was a happenstance occurrence at that lunch.

The play’s unstoppable momentum also introduced Michael Greif (Director) into the process as the show developed in residency at the Sundance Theatre Laboratory in 2005.

“I’ve never been part of a more creative group,” said Greif of his colleagues and cast members.

Christie Evangelisto, Director of Musical Theater and Dramaturg at Playwrights Horizons, couldn’t agree more: “Trust that the material is good, and audiences will respond,” speaking to the “big risk” involved in producing the largest musical ever staged at Playwrights, at $5 million. In undertaking this exciting venture, the venerated Off-Broadway theatre met new challenges: developing a production of such scale so quickly, fundraising among Playwrights’ subscriber and donor base, exercising the technical prowess of its crews and space.

But some risks, Evangelisto will tell you, are clearly worth taking. After months of further development, rehearsals, and workshops, “Grey Gardens” opened Off-Broadway to popular acclaim, with its artists earning Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Obie awards, and with captivated audiences filling the seats well into its extended run. Among them, producer Randall Wreghitt “fell in love” with what he saw – so much so, he wanted to see it on Broadway.

Transitioning to a larger theatre and operation, the panelists pointed out, raised significant questions about its broadening scope: Who, ultimately, is our audience? How do we clarify and streamline elements of the story? Will our production feel less intimate seen on a larger stage?

However, there was a smooth Broadway transfer for “Grey Gardens,” according to Wreightt and Korie.

“Grey Gardens” has since dazzled theatergoers of every stripe, with audiences transported to Big Edie and Little Edie’s tired yet resilient home eight performances a week. “Time will tell,” director Greif smiled in response to a question from the audience, how the tale behind those closed doors will be penned in the still growing canon of American theatre.
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