CAT WOMEN
It all starts out like Camelot, with the great myth of the Kennedy era, but this time in the opulent East Hampton mansion of Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little" Edie in 1941.
It's the day of Edie's anticipated engagement to Joseph Kennedy Jr. but, with music and lyrics reminiscent of a bubbly Cole Porter musical, Grey Gardens implodes the myth of the elite as it interprets the "real lives" of these soon-to-be eccentric women.
The musical, which opened at Playwrights Horizons and has already been extended, is far from the comforting fairytale Bouvier/Kennedy romance that we know. To the contrary, playwright Doug Wright creates this potboiler with intellectual grist, raising the flag on issues such as reality versus "myth," truth against "lying," freedom juxtaposed to responsibility, wealth as opposed to opportunity. Grey Gardens the musical, based on the Maysles Brothers' 1975 documentary of the same name, is perhaps problematic for those familiar with the cult favorite.
They're the ones who will have difficulty swallowing Act I's re-enactments-a party list promising more payout than one could possibly achieve with just one act left to go.
As a "Little" Edie newbie, what does unfold in Act II in 1973 shatters our illusions so painfully that it is difficult to take it all in. Edith (Mary Louise Wilson) and "Little" Edie (Catherine Ebersole), trapped in the deadly squalor of their once glamorous family estate, are ostracized from the world outside and caught up in a past that no longer exists. They've become codependents, with only the means to destroy one another.
Suffocation is one thing; unwieldy and repetitive dialogue is another. While Wright and his director Michael Greif fumble at the play's unfolding, Wilson artfully captures the manipulative Edith in her Act II dotage. Ebersole, who also plays the younger Edith in Act I, appears in Act II as "Little" Edie, the adult child.
Ebersole's character continues to whine about the same things her mother did: the need to be a star and to turn life into a stage. It's the cynicism Ebersole brings to the role which is transfixing. The tragedy of the American dream has found a perfect vehicle, ironically enough, in the form of an American musical.