Grey Gardens News

Life-size replica of Grey Gardens for sale!

2012-01-13T17:58:00.003-05:00

And it's really quite nicely done!

From The Enterprise, by Brent Runyon, on January 10, 2012

Falmouth Home is Replica of Grey Gardens

The facade of a home on Elm Road, Falmouth, is a replica of the Grey Gardens mansion in East Hampton, Long Island, which was the setting of a documentary, a Broadway musical, and a feature film after it fell into disrepair in the 1960s and 1970s.

Unlike the Long Island version, the Falmouth version of Grey Gardens, at 485 Elm Road, is all new construction. From the street it is a near match for the late 19th-century mansion.

The home is on Oyster Pond, a short distance from Surf Drive and the bike path and is on sale for over $3 million.

"It's only the front of the house, but from top to bottom and side to side, it's almost exactly Grey Gardens," said owner Michael E. Jaye. Some exterior details and the interior layout do not match the original mansion, he said, which has an additional wing and is twice as big.

The original Grey Gardens was the home of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter of the same name, known as "Little Edie." The eccentric women were the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy Onassis and the subject of the documentary "Grey Gardens," which was released in 1975.

The film depicts the women discussing their lives and their relationship while surrounded by piles of old clothes and other refuse, while cats and raccoons roam freely through the house. The documentary became a cult classic and was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2006 and an HBO film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore in 2009.

Learns of the Grey Gardens story

Mr. Jaye built the house without knowing anything at all about the story of Grey Gardens. He has never seen the films or the theatrical production.

"I was Googling shingle-style homes and up comes a picture of this house that was exactly what I was looking for, and I just loved it," Mr. Jaye said. He sent the photograph, which did not include the name of the home, to architect Leonard J. Baum of Cranston, Rhode Island, and instructed him to design the home around the front facade. "I had no idea that we were copying Grey Gardens," he said.

Mr. Baum went to work copying the front of the house from the photograph and designed the interior floor plan to Mr. Jaye's specifications. "Usually I work the facade with the plans together, but in this case I had a facade, and I had to work the plans to that," Mr. Baum said. "It wasn't until I basically had it pretty well rendered that we discovered it was a famous house."

Mr. Jaye discovered the fact when he came across another photograph of Grey Gardens taken after it fell into disrepair. In it,"Little Edie," in a fur coat and head scarf, stands in weeds up to her waist in front of Grey Gardens. In the background masses of vines climb to the second floor of the home.

"I saw this picture of my house in complete and total disrepair, and I said, 'Time out, this can't be my house,' " Mr. Jaye said.

After some more Internet searching, Mr. Jaye learned the story of how the Beale women lost their wealth and continued to live in Grey Gardens as it crumbled around them. "They lost their fortune and just became a couple of recluse lunatics who ended up living in a condemned house," Mr. Jaye said.

Director recounts filming of "Grey Gardens"

The Beales were more than reclusive eccentrics to Albert Maysles, one of the directors of the documentary. He counts "Grey Gardens" as one of his favorite films, because of what it reveals about the personalities of and the relationships between these two complicated women, he said in a phone interview yesterday.

The Beales were very easy to work with, he said, but filming the documentary was difficult because of the condition of the home.

"The first thing you noticed was the smell from all the animals," he said. Mr. Maysles said he considered it a compliment that his film indirectly inspired Mr. Jaye to replicate Grey Gardens. "I think it's wonderful," he said.

The original Grey Gardens is no longer in disrepair. After the elder Ms. Beale died in 1977, the house was sold to Washington Post editor Benjamin C. Bradlee and his wife, writer and Washington hostess Sally Quinn, in 1979. "They bought it and restored it to its original brilliance," Mr. Jaye said, a process that took several years.

Mr. Jaye discovered one more case of life imitating art while doing research about the house. In comparing photographs from different eras, Mr. Jaye realized that the picture he copied was actually not the real Grey Gardens.

"Here's the funniest part," he said. "The picture I went by wasn't even the original house. It was the house that they built for the [HBO] movie." The picture that inspired him to build his house, was actually a set built especially for the film.

Falmouth's Grey Gardens goes on the market

Falmouth Grey Gardens was to be a seasonal residence for Mr. Jaye and his wife, Regina, who spend the rest of their time in Scottsdale, Arizona. But just months after it was finished the couple decided to sell, because they prefer the weather and lifestyle in Arizona, where Mr. Jaye is retired and owns a cigar shop. It did not make sense to hold onto such an expensive house, he said, but he is very proud of how it turned out.

In a tour of the home yesterday afternoon, Mr. Jaye pointed out the details he spent so much time and money on. Features include a large entryway and formal staircase, walls of built-in cabinets and closets tucked under the eaves, all to make the home feel like a relic of an earlier age.

Mr. Jaye said he hoped to make back the money he spent on the house. He purchased the property for $1,125,000 in March 2010. If it does not sell, Mr. Jaye said he will return to Falmouth occasionally to stay in the house.

Mr. Jaye is 66 and from Boston originally. He founded a women's apparel company called Cricket Lane Casuals and sold the company in 1990. Since that time he has been a real estate developer in Boston and Falmouth.

Mr. Jaye grew up in modest circumstances and did not attend college. He said yesterday that he plans to establish a scholarship at Falmouth High School. The $5,000 scholarship will be for a Falmouth High School senior from a low-income family who wants to further their education by attending a trade school or a college, he said. "They just have to be dirt poor and a really good citizen," Mr. Jaye said. He wanted to provide a scholarship for a student who might follow the same path he did, he said.

The home on Elm Road in Falmouth is listed with Robert Paul Properties for $3,195,000. The fact that the facade replicates Grey Gardens is a selling point. Realtor Paul Grover said the home could appeal to someone who wants a newly built seasonal home that feels like an old home. It could also appeal to someone who loves the original Grey Gardens, he said.

The Blythe doll as Little Edie returns!

2011-11-29T14:11:00.000-05:00

In 2007, a Blythe doll dressed as Little Edie visited Grey Gardens the musical. Now, another artist has dressed up Blythe as Edie again, and done another photo shoot with her!

From Flickr, by dastinkytwinz, on February 25, 2011

View the entire sideshow here.

Huge set of photos of Grey Gardens

2011-11-25T11:34:00.000-05:00

Blog reader Brian sent in some great photos of the interior of Grey Gardens. These photos come from a realtor's listing of the house before Celerie Kelble moved in. Compare these photos to photos used to promote the house as a 2-week August rental from earlier this year. Be sure to view them all!

Delightful Little Edie Beale papercut art

2011-11-20T14:34:00.001-05:00

Very clever, and very beautifully done!

From thenonsensegarden, by Jasmine Fiscus, on October 15, 2011

Little Edie's fashion sense is alive and well, thanks to Vanity Fair, Italy

2011-11-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Model Rachel Alexander serves as Little Edie Beale for photographer Signe Vilstrup in the November 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, Italy.

From

Le Freak, C'est Chic

Extraordinary interview with Al Maysles and Ellen Hovde, and the Beales

2011-11-10T14:19:00.000-05:00

An interview with Al Maysles and Ellen Hovde about Grey Gardens is now available to listen to online! And there's even a call to Little and Big Edie Beale in the audio! Visit the source page and click on the play icon to listen! (Edie comes in at 49 minutes.)

From ARTonAIR

Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas: The Making of Grey Gardens (1976)

Recorded at WBAI radio in New York in 1976, a treasure of a conversation illuminating the filmmakers' techniques, the participants' social game, and the ambient legal wrangles surrounding making of the brilliant American documentary. At the table with hosts Charles Ruas and Karen Achenbach are the directors of the film Albert Maysles and Ellen Hovde (with brother David Maysles hovering nearby) and a surprise appearance by "Little Edie" Beale. Plus an astounding phone call from the studio to Mrs. Beale in East Hampton.

The 1975 film documents the mundane drama of two eccentrics, the elderly Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale and and her middle-aged daughter Little Edie, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who live in a cluttered, decaying mansion overrun with cats and surrounded by overgrowth in East Hampton. Wisdom, futility, bittersweet sentiment, dreams, and fate all intertwine in this remarkable portrait of co-dependency and survival.

This program is provided by agreement with the Pacifica Radio Archives and has been re-produced for radio by ARTonAIR.org.

Grey Gardens on the iPad?

2011-11-06T13:42:00.004-05:00

A new iPad-only magazine features our beloved Grey Gardens!

The inaugural issue of HYLAND magazine, an iPad only magazine focusing on high end architecture, interiors, design, art and lifestyle, features a significant (30+ page) interiors and garden spread on Grey Gardens, where Christopher Hyland, our Editor in Chief, shot a segment for NBC/LXTV.

Download it from the iTunes Store here!

Australian fans of Grey Gardens, buy your tickets for the musical now!

2011-11-01T17:05:00.001-04:00

Grey Gardens the musical will reach Australia later this month. Be sure to buy your tickets now if you haven't already!

From The Production Company

Grey Gardens

Winner of 3 Tony® Awards

“…In a statement released today, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis confirmed that her eighty-year old aunt, Mrs Edith Bouvier Beale, and her adult daughter Edie are living in squalid conditions in an East Hampton Estate known as Grey Gardens.

Grey Gardens is the compelling story of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, ‘Little’ Edie, the delightfully eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Once among the brightest names in the pre-Camelot social register, these two women became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion. Set in two eras – in 1941 when the estate was in its prime and early in 1973 when it was reduced to squalor—the musical tells the alternately glorious and heartbreaking story of two indomitable women, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter, ‘Little’ Edie.

Grey Gardens is many things: a fabled home in the elite seaside village of East Hampton, Long Island, a landmark documentary, a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical and a Hollywood movie. Of all things, Grey Gardens is a breathtaking and alluring portrait of a mother and daughter relationship through the years.

AFI Award Winner, Pamela Rabe returns to The Production Company in the virtuoso roles of Edith Bouvier Beale and ‘Little’ Edie.

Helpmann Award winner, Nancye Hayes plays the role of the aged Edith in turmoil with her daughter.

Roger Hodgman directs this Australian premiere and for the first time, The Production Company will be presenting a musical in The Playhouse.

Kellie Dickerson (musical director of Wicked and Doctor Zhivago) returns to conduct.

Cast and Creative Team

Book by Doug Wright

Music by Scott Frankel

Lyrics by Michael Korie

Based on the film Grey Gardens
By David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, Muffie Mayer and Susan Froemke

Starring

Pamela Rabe as Edith Bouvier Beale and ‘Little’ Edie

Nancye Hayes Oam as aged Edith

Director Roger Hodgman

Musical Director Kellie Dickerson

Choreographer Dana Jolly

Sound System Sound

Orchestra Victoria

By arrangement with Hal Leonard Australia Pty Ltd
Exclusive agent for Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Show Information

Show Times – Evening

Fri 25 November at 7.30pm

Sat 26 November at 7.30pm

Tues 29 November at 7.30pm

Wed 30 November at 7.30pm

Thu 1 December at 7.30pm

Fri 2 December at 7.30pm

Sat 3 December at 7.30pm

Show Times – Matinee

Sat 26 November at 2pm

Sun 27 November at 3pm

Wed 30 November at 1pm

Sat 3 December at 2pm

Sun 4 December at 3pm

Location Details

The Playhouse
The Playhouse is located in Theatres Building [under the Spire].
View Location Map Here

Audition for the upcoming Lionville, PA production of Grey Gardens the musical

2011-10-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

Auditions will be held on Sunday, November 6 at 2:00pm; Monday, November 7 at 7:00pm; and Wednesday, November 9 at 7:00pm. Start preparing now!

From The Theatre Alliance

Auditions: Grey Gardens

Music by Scott Frankel; Lyrics by Michael Korie; Book by Doug Wright; Directed by Michele Bolay

The hilarious and heartbreaking true story of “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, once bright names on the social register who became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses.

Historic aerial photographs of Grey Gardens

2011-09-16T12:52:00.000-04:00

Blog reader Neal emailed me about a website with historic aerial photographs of the United States, which includes photos of Grey Gardens! Be sure to click on the image below to see photographs from 1954, 1960, 1969, 1980, and 2004!

From Historic Aerials

Grey Gardens the Musical in St. Petersburg, FL opens soon!

2011-09-10T10:10:00.001-04:00

Be sure to get your tickets!

From freeFall Theatre

Grey Gardens

book by Doug Wright
music by Scott Frankel
lyrics by Michael Korie

September 15 – October 2, 2011

In 1941 Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie”) were the toast of East Hampton society. The aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier (who would later become Jackie Kennedy) played hostess at their palatial mansion, Grey Gardens. How the two ended up living in squalor with numerous cats and raccoons in the neglected home became very public in 1971 through a series of tabloid articles, and later became the subject of a documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. This hauntingly original musical based on speculation of their heyday and the 1975 documentary will transport you to the lap of American royalty and their subsequent fall from grace. Nominated for 10 Tony awards in 2007, this critically-acclaimed modern masterpiece of musical theatre explores the comically dark side of a mother-daughter relationship gone horribly awry.

Grey Gardens the Musical hits Salt Lake City, Utah

2011-09-01T11:05:00.004-04:00

The show runs from September 8th–24th at the Studio Theater at the Rose. Get your tickets now!

From The Salt Lake Tribune, by Daisy Blake, on August 31, 2011

Wasatch Theatre Company premieres ‘Grey Gardens’

Opening its 14th season, Wasatch Theatre Company is producing a regional premiere of the triple Tony Award-winning musical “Grey Gardens.”

Director George Plautz describes the musical as a unique theatrical hybrid, from tabloid story to documentary to stage musical. “It’s definitely not your typical musical and it is very presentational in style; even more so than most musicals since in the second act the characters talk directly to the audience.”

Based on the 1975 documentary of the same name, “Grey Gardens” tells the riches-to-rags story of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ aunt and cousin. Once among the brightest names in the social register, Edith “Big Edie” Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale became East Hampton’s most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion alongside dozens of cats and piles of rubbish. The musical is set in two eras: 1941, when the estate was at its full grandeur, and 1973, after it had been reduced to squalor.

The show, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doug Wright (“I Am My Own Wife”), lyricist Michael Korie and composer Scott Frankel, received a workshop in 2005 at Sundance Theatre Lab in Florida before going on to earn critical acclaim during its 2006–07 Broadway run. “Grey Gardens” was also made into an HBO film, starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, which aired in spring 2009.

Plautz began working with the company in 1999 when he directed “The Fantasticks,” and since then has been directing, producing, writing, performing in productions and acting as the company’s dramaturg. He co-wrote and directed “Hands Up,” an original musical adaptation of a young-adult novel about a serial-killer puppet, for the company’s 2009 Page-to-Stage Festival.

Plautz was enthralled by “Grey Gardens” from the time he heard the cast recording. The company was at first leery because the requirements for setting the two acts are so different, but discussed ways to make the changes more suggestive than realistic. “We have found it so amazing that a work based on a very unique, bizarre family situation resonated so much with each of us,” Plautz says. “There are such strong themes in the show about dreams deferred, the choices for women during the mid-20th century, the need for love and the fear of loneliness.”

Cast members in the show range from age 8 to 68, with Edith Bouvier Beale played by Sallie Cooper and her adult daughter “Little Edie” played by Jennifer Perry-Hughes. Perry-Hughes also plays “Big Edie” to Ali Goldsmith’s young “Little Edie” in the first act.

Cooper recently directed the company’s production of “Greater Tuna” and performed in Hale Centre Theatre’s “A Tale of Two Cities” and Parable Productions “Godspell.” She began working with Wasatch in 2003 after moving from Salt Lake City to Manhattan. She had decided, after teaching, producing and directing, that she wanted to return to acting. “I threw my hat into the ring for the role of ‘Big Edie’ and was both thrilled and terrified when I got the call from George saying I was being offered the role,” Cooper said. “She is one of those ‘roles of a lifetime’ for me, and now I was getting the opportunity to delve into the psyche of this eccentric, beautiful, selfish, clever woman.”

She calls the character repulsive and pitiable, while also clever and calculating, “but always I see her humanity in the love she has for her daughter.”

While researching the story, Cooper learned that many of the song lyrics and most of the script had been lifted from the documentary.

Perry-Hughes teaches theater and directs productions for Ogden’s Saint Joseph Catholic High School while studying acting and French at Weber State University. “Thanks to YouTube, I have been able to spend hours watching Edie, studying her movement, listening to her speech patterns, learning about her relationships,” Perry-Hughes said. “It’s great to actually have the ‘real’ Edie to study for characterization, both physical and vocal, but at the same time it’s daunting to play someone who really existed.”

The cast and director believe the show will appeal to a wide range of theatergoers. “This is a show for strong women, and men who love strong women,” Cooper says. “It is a beautiful peek into a bygone era and speaks to all of us who find ourselves stuck in a life that we never dreamed we would live.”

Matthew Tinkcom's book about Grey Gardens comes out today!

2011-08-30T08:28:00.001-04:00

It finally comes out today!

From Amazon.com

BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens

by Matthew Tinkcom

The Maysles brothers' Grey Gardens (1975) is one of the most important documentary films of the past thirty years. In the past decade the film has gained the status of cult classic, inspiring both a Broadway musical and a 2009 HBO feature film. In this first single volume study of the film, Matthew Tinkcom argues that Grey Gardens reshaped documentary cinema by moving the non-fiction camera to the heart of the household, a private space into which film-makers had seldom previously ventured.

Already well-established figures in the 'direct cinema' movement of the 1960s (with their previous films, including Salesman and Gimme Shelter), the brothers' visual record of a summer spent in the Beale household demonstrated that the private lives of their subjects were rich materials for the camera. By the time the film-makers appeared on their front porch, the film's two central figures, 'Big Edie' Beale and her daughter 'Little Edie', had been living for two decades in near-poverty in their beach-side East Hampton mansion (the 'Grey Gardens' of the title). Close relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by the early 1970s the Beales had lost much of their personal wealth and their everyday lives had descended into a state of barely-controlled squalor. However, as the film-makers discovered, the women were hardly victims of their poverty; rather they saw themselves as artists who were willing to make seemingly any sacrifice for their singing and dancing talents. When the Edies perform for the camera, audiences are challenged by the question of how much anyone would be willing to give up in order to lead a life of eccentric pleasure. Tinkcom argues that the film is one of the first to combine documentary with the conventions of fiction film melodrama, and that the film's appeal arrives in the rich melodramatic dimensions of the Beales' everyday lives in which they argue, dress up, flirt, laugh, sing, dance and reminisce about their experiences in New York's social elite in the first half of the twentieth century.

Cute video of a very little "Little Edie"

2011-08-25T13:07:00.000-04:00

Very cute! She's starting young!

From YouTube, by LadyMadonna777, on July 25, 2011

Ed(d)ie doing her best Grey Gardens impression...

Little Eddie...

Vanessa Carlton is a celebrity fan of Grey Gardens

2011-08-21T18:15:00.003-04:00

And it sounds like Vanessa Carlton understands Edie, too. How wonderful!

From Twitter, by Vanessa Carlton, on August 15, 2011

My dear Edie of grey gardens. I think she was a genius. CRUSHING it. Icon of the ages. I'll bow down 4ever.

Rare video of Little Edie Beale

2011-08-16T11:59:00.001-04:00

I last blogged about this 5 years ago, but it's worth posting again!

From Myspace, on September 7, 2006

The Living Moment

Trailer for upcoming film Grey Gardens: Get on the Ghost List

2011-08-07T20:44:00.004-04:00

This documentary was mentioned in an article about J.C. Burdine's book. A trailer for the film is available:

From The Finish Line

Trailer for Grey Gardens: Get on the Ghost List

Like us on Google+ and Facebook

2011-07-19T11:04:00.001-04:00

Loyal readers of this blog, please like us on Google+ and Facebook. This raccoon appreciates your support!

Google+

Facebook

Grey Gardens the musical at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg, FL

2011-07-17T15:59:00.004-04:00

The creative people at freeFall Theatre will not only be putting on a production of Grey Gardens this fall, but they also created a video to promote it!

From freeFall Theatre

Grey Gardens

book by Doug Wright
music by Scott Frankel
lyrics by Michael Korie

September 15 – October 2, 2011

In 1941 Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie”) were the toast of East Hampton society. The aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Bouvier (who would later become Jackie Kennedy) played hostess at their palatial mansion, Grey Gardens. How the two ended up living in squalor with numerous cats and raccoons in the neglected home became very public in 1971 through a series of tabloid articles, and later became the subject of a documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. This hauntingly original musical based on speculation of their heyday and the 1975 documentary will transport you to the lap of American royalty and their subsequent fall from grace. Nominated for 10 Tony awards in 2007, this critically-acclaimed modern masterpiece of musical theatre explores the comically dark side of a mother-daughter relationship gone horribly awry.

From YouTube, by freeFallTheatre, on July 18, 2011

Grey Gardens Trailer

New book from BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens by Matthew Tinkcom

2011-07-13T11:12:00.000-04:00

It is yet-to-be-released, but it sounds like it could be an interesting read!

From Amazon.com

BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens

by Matthew Tinkcom

The Maysles brothers' Grey Gardens (1975) is one of the most important documentary films of the past thirty years. In the past decade the film has gained the status of cult classic, inspiring both a Broadway musical and a 2009 HBO feature film. In this first single volume study of the film, Matthew Tinkcom argues that Grey Gardens reshaped documentary cinema by moving the non-fiction camera to the heart of the household, a private space into which film-makers had seldom previously ventured.

Already well-established figures in the 'direct cinema' movement of the 1960s (with their previous films, including Salesman and Gimme Shelter), the brothers' visual record of a summer spent in the Beale household demonstrated that the private lives of their subjects were rich materials for the camera. By the time the film-makers appeared on their front porch, the film's two central figures, 'Big Edie' Beale and her daughter 'Little Edie', had been living for two decades in near-poverty in their beach-side East Hampton mansion (the 'Grey Gardens' of the title). Close relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, by the early 1970s the Beales had lost much of their personal wealth and their everyday lives had descended into a state of barely-controlled squalor. However, as the film-makers discovered, the women were hardly victims of their poverty; rather they saw themselves as artists who were willing to make seemingly any sacrifice for their singing and dancing talents. When the Edies perform for the camera, audiences are challenged by the question of how much anyone would be willing to give up in order to lead a life of eccentric pleasure. Tinkcom argues that the film is one of the first to combine documentary with the conventions of fiction film melodrama, and that the film's appeal arrives in the rich melodramatic dimensions of the Beales' everyday lives in which they argue, dress up, flirt, laugh, sing, dance and reminisce about their experiences in New York's social elite in the first half of the twentieth century.

Soundtrack to Grey Gardens available for download

2011-07-06T18:56:00.005-04:00

Those of you with the book Grey Gardens by Sara and Rebekah Maysles already have these MP3s, as they were included on a CD in the book. If you don't have them, though, all 21 tracks are now available on Amazon.

Soundtrack to Grey Gardens MP3s

You can download the entire album or select individual tracks below.

Soundtrack to Grey Gardens

You Must Always Make a Beautiful Picture – Albert Maysles, Edith Bouver Beale, David Maysles, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (1:14)

The Highest Palate in America – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Edith Bouver Beale (2:54)

Toujours L'Amor and Iris – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale, David Maysles (5:20)

Drove East Hampton Crazy – Edith Bouver Beale (0:39)

Lois and the Raccons – Lois Wright, Edith Bouver Beale, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (6:15)

Connais-tu le Pays – Edith Bouver Beale, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (2:17)

Quite a Pair – Edith Bouver Beale, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, David Maysles, Albert Maysles (5:46)

These Lights of the Maysles – Edith Bouver Beale, David Maysles (13:57)

Posed for Hours – Edith Bouver Beale, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (1:53)

That Beach Belongs to Me – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale, Lois Wright, David Maysles, Jerry Torre (2:18)

Jerry and Mother – Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Edith Bouver Beale, Jerry Torre (5:41)

The Lavatory Light – Edith Bouver Beale, Jerry Torre (0:33)

Tomorrow Is a Promissory Note – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (0:29)

God Live in Africa – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale (1:14)

Shroud Your Mind in Cerise – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale, Albert Maysles, David Maysles (4:38)

A Girl Named Edith – Edith Bouver Beale, Albert Maysles, David Maysles (0:45)

Come Dance With Me – Edith Bouver Beale, David Maysles, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Albert Maysles (4:32)

There Will Always Be Drama Left Here – Edith Bouver Beale, Albert Maysles, David Maysles (0:52)

Why Did You Make the Film? – David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Edith Bouver Beale, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (10:11)

Watching Grey Gardens – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale (0:47)

After Watching Grey Gardens – Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouver Beale, David Maysles, Brooks Hires, Albert Maysles, Lois Wright (2:58)

Grey Gardens the musical hits Chester, NJ

2011-07-01T17:53:00.004-04:00

It opens tonight, in just two hours, and it runs through the month. Enjoy!

From Patch, by Anthony Stoeckert, on June 28, 2011

'Grey Gardens' Grows into a Complex Musical

Chester Theatre Group presents a musical about two reclusive relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Recluses who live in a dilapidated house and suffer from mental illness aren’t the stuff of which musicals are often made.

So you might think “Grey Gardens,” which is being presented by the Chester Theatre Group, is some sort of dreary affair. But one of the show’s directors says that’s not the case.

The musical, running at the Black River Playhouse from July 1 through July 24, is based on the 1975 documentary about a mother and daughter, both named Edith Beale. The older Edith (full name, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale) was an aunt to Jacqueline Kennedy. The two women were both members of high society and ended up living in a rundown mansion in the Hamptons.

It doesn’t exactly sound like a toe-tapper, but Jeffrey Fiorello, who’s co-directing the show, said “Grey Gardens” actually has a good bit of levity to it. That’s especially true of Act 1, which recreates the lives of the two Ediths during their salad days when they were happy and living well.

“Act 1 is treated very much like a traditional musical, there are happy songs, serious songs and some ballads,” Fiorello said. “It plays very much like an old-fashioned musical. Whereas act 2 is quite different and delves into the two women’s psyche and quite a bit more.”

Fiorello said the first act is a fictionalized account of the Beales’ lives in the 1940s. The second is set in the 1970s, when they become shut-ins, and is pretty faithful to the movie of the same name (there's also a 2009 update), Fiorello said.

In casting the show, Chester Theatre Group followed the model used on Broadway by having the same actress play Edith in the first act and “Little Edie” in the second act. Christine Ebersole won a Tony for pulling the double duty on Broadway, and Barbara Haag will play the two roles in this production. Barbi McGuire plays the older Edith in the second act, and Sandy Taylor plays young “Little Edie” in the first act. The cast also includes Robert Jacobson, Alistair Williams, Thomas Cioppettini and Hannah Curtis as Jacqueline Bouvier.

Fiorello is co-directing “Grey Gardens” with Mark Happel, who’s also a board member at Chester Theatre Group. The two-director format came along because of both directors’ schedules.

“I’ve directed a couple of pieces for them and Mark has as well,” Fiorello said. “We’ve collaborated creatively on shows but we’ve never worked together as co-directors. Mark loves this show, possibly more than me, and when we were looking at doing it, everyone kind of assumed Mark would be directing it. Mark felt he was going to be a little too busy at this point of the year to take on the whole project by himself.”

The two-director format works, according to Fiorello, because the two acts are so different in tone. While both directors share input on both acts, Fiorello is predominantly responsible for the first act, and Happel is more involved in the second.

“We both chime in and make sure the show has a similar feel and that there’s continuity from act to act,” he said. “Mark and I are collaborating considerably on each other’s acts but there’s one point person for the cast to ask questions [for each act]. It’s worked quite well.”

Fiorello saw the show during its original off-Broadway run and again when it moved to Broadway. While he liked both versions, he said he preferred the intimacy offered by a smaller venue, making it a good fit for the 100-seat Black River Playhouse.

“You’re drawn in a little closer when you are as close in proximity as you are in Chester,” he said. “You feel almost like you’re sitting in their living room or sitting in the bedroom with them because at times you feel like you can reach out and touch the performers. It draws you into a piece that does have a lot of subtlety and a lot of nuance.”

Venue size can even affect the performances, he said, because audiences are more likely to notice details when they’re closer to the actors in a smaller setting.

“It’s almost cinematic in a sense, in that you see the actors’ smallest gestures, whereas that would be lost on a large proscenium stage on Broadway unless you were sitting really close,” he said.

He started working at Chester about seven years ago, acting in a production of “A Man of No Importance.” Fiorello said the theater is a special place and that the group distinguished itself by presenting shows that aren’t often done.

“It’s magical, the things that happen in that space,” he said. “They really do take care in producing their shows and making sure everything’s done in the right way.”

Chester Theatre Group will present “Grey Gardens” at the Black River Playhouse at the corner of Grove and Maple streets in Chester, July 1 through 24. Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $24, or $22 for students. For information, call (908) 879-7304 or go to ChesterTheatreGroup.org.

Little Edie as a rapper?!

2011-06-19T10:24:00.001-04:00

Someone made a brilliant album cover for a rap album by "Lil' Edie." Enjoy!

From Tumblr

Lil' Edie – Notorious E.D.I.E.

Featuring: Big Edie, The Marble Faun, Da Mayselz, Dat Libraman, Jackie O

Grey Gardens the musical hits Denver

2011-06-09T17:55:00.002-04:00

Yes, the Grey Gardens musical is being produced in Denver! I learned about this production just before its final few shows! Be sure to visit the theater's site for more information and tickets.

From Vintage Theatre Productions

May 13–June 12, 2011

Grey Gardens (Regional Premier)

Book by Doug Wright, Music by Michael Korie

Directed By Craig A. Bond.

Based on the 1975 documentary of the same title, Grey Gardens is the story of Jacqueline Kennedy’s aunt, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Big Edie) and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (Little Edie). The musical tracks the progression of the Beale’s fall from a rich and socially polished existence to an isolated life in a home overrun by cats. Nominated for a 2007 Tony Award, Grey Gardens portrays the complicated dynamics of a dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.

Staunch: The Grey Gardens Festival, this weekend!

2011-06-09T17:30:00.003-04:00

This raccoon just received an email from Al Maysles himself, inviting to the third annual Staunch! It's this weekend at Maysles Cinema in New York City.

By Albert Maysles, on 9 June 2011

Hi Buster,

Thought you and your fans might be interested in this year's Grey Gardens Staunch Celebration–a weekend exploring "staunch" families on film–families whose members despite everything 'don't weaken, no matter what', for better or worse. I'll be discussing the film following the Sunday screening at 7pm.

All the best,

Albert

From Maysles Cinema, by Albert Maysles, on 9 June 2011

Friday, June 10th–Sunday, June 12th

Staunch 3: The Grey Gardens Festival

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

From Friday, June 10th to Sunday June 12th Maysles Cinema presents, for the third year in a row, Staunch: The Grey Gardens Festival, a film festival celebrating the film Grey Gardens and its legacy. Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles, the theme this year is families. Then on Saturday, June 11th at ... 5:30 pm the original Grey Gardens will be shown. On Sunday, June 12th at 5:00 pm The Beales of Grey Gardens, also directed by Albert and David Maysles will be shown and at 7:00 pm Grey Gardens will be shown again followed by a Q&A with filmmaker and Maysles Cinema founder Albert Maysles. The festival will close with a reception sponsored by Sugar Hill Ale.

Albert and David Maysles were part of a pioneering movement in documentary filmmaking that came to be known as cinema verite or direct cinema. Armed with lightweight cameras and synchronous sound equipment Albert and his brother were able to penetrate into the private interiority of their subject's lives without the need for an authoritative voice-over. This approach was utilized perfectly in the original Grey Gardens, giving the documentary and the brothers unparalleled access to the inner universe that Big and Little Edie Beale had constituted for themselves overtime. In this way the idea of exploring the intimate, inner world of a family and the conventions of direct cinema go hand-in-hand, as that movie proved. It is in this dual creative legacy of direct cinema and honoring the intimacy, singularity and universality of various families, not to mention simply great filmmaking, that the Grey Gardens Festival takes place now for the third year.

Saturday June 11th

Staunch 3

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

5:30pm

Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a broadway musical, several off-Broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Special Bonus Material TBA

Sunday, June 12th

Staunch 3

Curated by Rebekah and Sara Maysles

5:00pm

The Beales of Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.

The 1976 cinema vérité classic Grey Gardens, which captured in remarkable close-up the lives of the eccentric East Hampton recluses Big and Little Edie Beale, has spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical, to a Hollywood adaptation. The filmmakers went back to their vaults of footage to create part two, The Beales of Grey Gardens, a tribute both to these indomitable women and to the original landmark documentary's legions of fans, who have made them American counterculture icons.

7:00pm

Grey Gardens

Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde & Muffie Meyer, 1976, 94 min.

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale—high-society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.—thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. An impossibly intimate portrait and an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, Albert and David Maysles's 1976 Grey Gardens quickly became a cult classic and established Little Edie as a fashion icon and philosopher queen. The film and the Beales themselves have since inspired fashion lines, songs, a Broadway musical, several off-Broadway shows, and a 2009 HBO film.

Q&A with co-Director Albert Maysles

Reception to Follow Sponsored By Sugar Hill Ale

Maysles Cinema
343 Lenox Ave
(127th and 128th Streets)
New York, NY 10027

Grey Gardens News

Life-size replica of Grey Gardens for sale!

Falmouth Home is Replica of Grey Gardens

Learns of the Grey Gardens story

Director recounts filming of "Grey Gardens"

Falmouth's Grey Gardens goes on the market

The Blythe doll as Little Edie returns!

Huge set of photos of Grey Gardens

Delightful Little Edie Beale papercut art

Little Edie's fashion sense is alive and well, thanks to Vanity Fair, Italy

Le Freak, C'est Chic

Extraordinary interview with Al Maysles and Ellen Hovde, and the Beales

Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas: The Making of Grey Gardens (1976)

Grey Gardens on the iPad?

Australian fans of Grey Gardens, buy your tickets for the musical now!

Grey Gardens

Winner of 3 Tony® Awards

Cast and Creative Team

Starring

Show Information

Show Times – Evening

Show Times – Matinee

Location Details

Audition for the upcoming Lionville, PA production of Grey Gardens the musical

Auditions: Grey Gardens

Historic aerial photographs of Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens the Musical in St. Petersburg, FL opens soon!

Grey Gardens

book by Doug Wrightmusic by Scott Frankellyrics by Michael Korie

September 15 – October 2, 2011

Grey Gardens the Musical hits Salt Lake City, Utah

Wasatch Theatre Company premieres ‘Grey Gardens’

Matthew Tinkcom's book about Grey Gardens comes out today!

BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens

by Matthew Tinkcom

Cute video of a very little "Little Edie"

Ed(d)ie doing her best Grey Gardens impression...

Vanessa Carlton is a celebrity fan of Grey Gardens

Rare video of Little Edie Beale

The Living Moment

Trailer for upcoming film Grey Gardens: Get on the Ghost List

Trailer for Grey Gardens: Get on the Ghost List

Like us on Google+ and Facebook

Google+

Facebook

Grey Gardens the musical at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg, FL

Grey Gardens

book by Doug Wrightmusic by Scott Frankellyrics by Michael Korie

September 15 – October 2, 2011

Grey Gardens Trailer

New book from BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens by Matthew Tinkcom

BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens

by Matthew Tinkcom

Soundtrack to Grey Gardens available for download

Soundtrack to Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens the musical hits Chester, NJ

'Grey Gardens' Grows into a Complex Musical

Chester Theatre Group presents a musical about two reclusive relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy.

Little Edie as a rapper?!

Lil' Edie – Notorious E.D.I.E.

Grey Gardens the musical hits Denver

May 13–June 12, 2011

Grey Gardens (Regional Premier)

Staunch: The Grey Gardens Festival, this weekend!

Friday, June 10th–Sunday, June 12th

Staunch 3: The Grey Gardens Festival

Saturday June 11th

Staunch 3

5:30pm

Grey Gardens

Sunday, June 12th

Staunch 3

5:00pm

The Beales of Grey Gardens

7:00pm

Grey Gardens

book by Doug Wright
music by Scott Frankel
lyrics by Michael Korie

book by Doug Wright
music by Scott Frankel
lyrics by Michael Korie