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Grey Gardens
musical theatre/librettos
150 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
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270 people want to read
About the author
Doug Wright
53 books13 followersDoug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 20, 2025
3.5
When a lot of musical’s books feel like simple stage directions and merely connective tissue, I really appreciate the collaboration between Doug Wright and the composers. Wright crafted a respectful and detailed imagining of how the Edies enabled each other’s delusions and succumbed to their heartbreaks behind the garden gate. The songs feel ingrained the best in Act Two and explore character motivation while Act One relies maybe a little too much on the pastiche.
When a lot of musical’s books feel like simple stage directions and merely connective tissue, I really appreciate the collaboration between Doug Wright and the composers. Wright crafted a respectful and detailed imagining of how the Edies enabled each other’s delusions and succumbed to their heartbreaks behind the garden gate. The songs feel ingrained the best in Act Two and explore character motivation while Act One relies maybe a little too much on the pastiche.
November 30, 2022
I do not get Grey Gardens. If this review seems peevish, well, that's why.
Act One takes place in 1941 at the Long Island estate that gives this musical its name, the home of Edith Bouvier Beale, who was then the estranged but very wealthy wife of a Wall Street businessman and the daughter of J.V. "Major" Bouvier, rich patriarch of the clan that also included future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It's the day that Edith's daughter, Edie, is announcing her engagement to Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (the older brother of future president John F. Kennedy). A big lawn party is planned; the Major is there, as are little Jackie and her sister Lee and of course strapping young Joe; his parents are expected, along with Phelan Beale, Edie's absent father.
The whole thing feels like a 1940s movie musical that never was: Edith sashays around, pausing to sing the occasional number to the accompaniment of George Gould Strong, her live-in piano player/repartee partner. Edie and Joe sing a song in the garden about how golly-gosh-grand their life together is going to be. The Major leads his granddaughters Edie, Jackie, and Lee in a plucky charmer of a tune about noblesse oblige. It's like High Society crossed with the first act of Follies, but the off-kilterness seems to have no purpose.
Meanwhile, a more serious plot plays out, albeit in a very superficial way. Edith and Edie have a tense relationship; it's clear that Edie is marrying Joe as much to get out from under her mother's thumb as anything else. Edith has a problem with ego--she needs to be the center of attention ALL THE TIME. There's talk of her ruining previous engagement parties by singing programs of arias. Eventually, some unexpected bad news (which, once we find out what is, shouldn't have been all that surprising) arrives in the form of a telegram from the missing Phelan, and Edith decides to sabotage Edie's relationship with Joe. Joe bails out, and the act ends with Edie escaping Grey Gardens while Edith sings.
Act Two takes place 32 years later. The estate has now become a rundown mess where Edith and Edie live together, alone, apparently driving each other crazy, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?-style. In the first moments of this part of the show, Edie emerges from the house dressed in a kooky bright red ensemble of clothes that are in the wrong places (e.g., she has a skirt wrapped around her head like a turban). She talks animatedly and then launches into a song called "The Revolutionary Costume for Today" that seems to be a justification for her eccentric attire (the argument, tautologically, is that she's an eccentric). I kept wondering: who is she talking to? Then it hit me: she's talking to the camera. Grey Gardens is based on a 1975 documentary of the same title, made by the Maysles Brothers about the real Edith and Edie, filmed at the real delapidated Grey Gardens. And what's happening in Act Two--though it seems a leap of faith on the part of the show's creators to expect uninitiated audience members to understand it--is that we're seeing a faithful re-creation of moments from the documentary, live on stage. All of the scenes in Act Two, except for a couple of musical numbers that seem to reflect the inner thoughts of Edie Beale, are directly derived from the movie; all the funny stuff--such as Edie's using a pair of binoculars to read a scale, or her reading aloud from a cheesy drugstore horoscope book about her ideal man--is appropriated 100%, as far as I can tell.
The documentary seems to be a sort of offhand celebration of a cockeyed but robust form of American individualism. But we don't get enough of who Edith and Edie have evolved into for the musical Grey Gardens to accomplish that goal; instead, with half of the show's running time devoted to that weird first act, which I have concluded is an attempt to show Edie's impression or memory of that presumably pivotal day in her life, we get a look inside a crazy middle-aged lady's head, and a pretty fuzzy and unpenetrating look at that.
Act One takes place in 1941 at the Long Island estate that gives this musical its name, the home of Edith Bouvier Beale, who was then the estranged but very wealthy wife of a Wall Street businessman and the daughter of J.V. "Major" Bouvier, rich patriarch of the clan that also included future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. It's the day that Edith's daughter, Edie, is announcing her engagement to Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. (the older brother of future president John F. Kennedy). A big lawn party is planned; the Major is there, as are little Jackie and her sister Lee and of course strapping young Joe; his parents are expected, along with Phelan Beale, Edie's absent father.
The whole thing feels like a 1940s movie musical that never was: Edith sashays around, pausing to sing the occasional number to the accompaniment of George Gould Strong, her live-in piano player/repartee partner. Edie and Joe sing a song in the garden about how golly-gosh-grand their life together is going to be. The Major leads his granddaughters Edie, Jackie, and Lee in a plucky charmer of a tune about noblesse oblige. It's like High Society crossed with the first act of Follies, but the off-kilterness seems to have no purpose.
Meanwhile, a more serious plot plays out, albeit in a very superficial way. Edith and Edie have a tense relationship; it's clear that Edie is marrying Joe as much to get out from under her mother's thumb as anything else. Edith has a problem with ego--she needs to be the center of attention ALL THE TIME. There's talk of her ruining previous engagement parties by singing programs of arias. Eventually, some unexpected bad news (which, once we find out what is, shouldn't have been all that surprising) arrives in the form of a telegram from the missing Phelan, and Edith decides to sabotage Edie's relationship with Joe. Joe bails out, and the act ends with Edie escaping Grey Gardens while Edith sings.
Act Two takes place 32 years later. The estate has now become a rundown mess where Edith and Edie live together, alone, apparently driving each other crazy, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?-style. In the first moments of this part of the show, Edie emerges from the house dressed in a kooky bright red ensemble of clothes that are in the wrong places (e.g., she has a skirt wrapped around her head like a turban). She talks animatedly and then launches into a song called "The Revolutionary Costume for Today" that seems to be a justification for her eccentric attire (the argument, tautologically, is that she's an eccentric). I kept wondering: who is she talking to? Then it hit me: she's talking to the camera. Grey Gardens is based on a 1975 documentary of the same title, made by the Maysles Brothers about the real Edith and Edie, filmed at the real delapidated Grey Gardens. And what's happening in Act Two--though it seems a leap of faith on the part of the show's creators to expect uninitiated audience members to understand it--is that we're seeing a faithful re-creation of moments from the documentary, live on stage. All of the scenes in Act Two, except for a couple of musical numbers that seem to reflect the inner thoughts of Edie Beale, are directly derived from the movie; all the funny stuff--such as Edie's using a pair of binoculars to read a scale, or her reading aloud from a cheesy drugstore horoscope book about her ideal man--is appropriated 100%, as far as I can tell.
The documentary seems to be a sort of offhand celebration of a cockeyed but robust form of American individualism. But we don't get enough of who Edith and Edie have evolved into for the musical Grey Gardens to accomplish that goal; instead, with half of the show's running time devoted to that weird first act, which I have concluded is an attempt to show Edie's impression or memory of that presumably pivotal day in her life, we get a look inside a crazy middle-aged lady's head, and a pretty fuzzy and unpenetrating look at that.
June 14, 2022
Interested to see this one live. Pretty good music and fun characters. TW for Minsteral music.
October 30, 2023
"Grey Gardens" is a landmark documentary that follows former socialites Big Edie and Little Edie, and which has now been turned into this charming play-shash-musical.
If you missed it, the original film follows the two mother-daughter duo as they galivant through their unusual lives. Formerly massively wealthy, the two now live in the decrepit quasi-ruins of the Grey Gardens estate, surrounded by filth, broken furniture, and way too many feline friends for even this cat lover to muster. The film has a strange quality to it, as it is at the same time repulsive and captivating - the two ladies live in the past, still imagining themselves to be great dames while living in squalor. You both feel sorry for them and admire their incomprehensible refusal to leave Grey Gardens.
This play is something of a retelling, as it starts with a (fictional, did not happen in real life) first act, set a few decades before the original film takes place, in which Little Edie is almost engaged to a Kennedy - only to have him scared of by her overbearing mother.
The play then flashes forward to the events of the movie and plays them almost to the tee, but adding so much lot of subtext as to how Little Edie feels trapped by her mother in Grey Gardens. She is no longer the bright, hopeful young girl with so much potential from the first act, but a washed-up, lightly manic middle-aged woman.
This is more of a musing than a complaint, as I truly did enjoy this play. It's just that it's funny how differently different people interpret things. The author clearly saw Little Edie as someone who was bullied by her mother into squandering her own life. She’s sassy, but too weak-willed to leave, largely because Big Edie keeps on gaslighting her into believing she can’t too better.
But I swear I know a little Edie myself, and my interpretation is so different – in this case, it really was that the person couldn’t muster living alone. I wonder if this was the case for Little Edie, although the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I think that’s what makes Grey Gardens ultimately so fascinating – the myrriad of different interpretations people have had over the years over these two women’s lives and their relationship with one another.
I have nothing much more to add than to say that I loved the writing of this play and that I would love to watch it in person. I've even listened to the cast recordings and I love how fitting the lyrics are to the tone of the play. Everything is atomospheric and I'm sure it translates very nicely onto the stage!
If you missed it, the original film follows the two mother-daughter duo as they galivant through their unusual lives. Formerly massively wealthy, the two now live in the decrepit quasi-ruins of the Grey Gardens estate, surrounded by filth, broken furniture, and way too many feline friends for even this cat lover to muster. The film has a strange quality to it, as it is at the same time repulsive and captivating - the two ladies live in the past, still imagining themselves to be great dames while living in squalor. You both feel sorry for them and admire their incomprehensible refusal to leave Grey Gardens.
This play is something of a retelling, as it starts with a (fictional, did not happen in real life) first act, set a few decades before the original film takes place, in which Little Edie is almost engaged to a Kennedy - only to have him scared of by her overbearing mother.
The play then flashes forward to the events of the movie and plays them almost to the tee, but adding so much lot of subtext as to how Little Edie feels trapped by her mother in Grey Gardens. She is no longer the bright, hopeful young girl with so much potential from the first act, but a washed-up, lightly manic middle-aged woman.
This is more of a musing than a complaint, as I truly did enjoy this play. It's just that it's funny how differently different people interpret things. The author clearly saw Little Edie as someone who was bullied by her mother into squandering her own life. She’s sassy, but too weak-willed to leave, largely because Big Edie keeps on gaslighting her into believing she can’t too better.
But I swear I know a little Edie myself, and my interpretation is so different – in this case, it really was that the person couldn’t muster living alone. I wonder if this was the case for Little Edie, although the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. I think that’s what makes Grey Gardens ultimately so fascinating – the myrriad of different interpretations people have had over the years over these two women’s lives and their relationship with one another.
I have nothing much more to add than to say that I loved the writing of this play and that I would love to watch it in person. I've even listened to the cast recordings and I love how fitting the lyrics are to the tone of the play. Everything is atomospheric and I'm sure it translates very nicely onto the stage!
May 15, 2008
It rhymes, it chimes, I used it for my Julliard audition (picture me singing a humorous ode to praise the anti-war movement in the 70s:
"You fight City hall
With a Persian shawl
that used to hang
on the bedroom wall.
Adorned with a pin...").
It is ludicrously entertaining and hauntingly sad.
After all, who could picture Jacky Kennedy's aunt and niece as two quirky femme fatales living with 30+ cats in a remote mansion without any servants and not serving themselves. Also, it shows that if you are a career performer and don't make it, you better have something else to do or be able to live in constant dream land.
I think Little Eddie was incredibly hot!
"You fight City hall
With a Persian shawl
that used to hang
on the bedroom wall.
Adorned with a pin...").
It is ludicrously entertaining and hauntingly sad.
After all, who could picture Jacky Kennedy's aunt and niece as two quirky femme fatales living with 30+ cats in a remote mansion without any servants and not serving themselves. Also, it shows that if you are a career performer and don't make it, you better have something else to do or be able to live in constant dream land.
I think Little Eddie was incredibly hot!
March 23, 2016
Excellent. Saw a production of this in Toronto recently with Lisa Horner in the lead playing both Edith and Little Edie. She was extraordinary... as great as Christine Ebersole was on Broadway (I've only listened to the cast recording - she did win Tony for her performance as did the actress that played older Edith). I have yet to watch the documentary. I did see the film (non-musical) with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, also excellent. What a story and what characters they were...
June 28, 2007
The script of the current Broadway musical about Jackie O's aunt and cousin, who have descended into a Beckett-like existence in a once-glorious, now dilapidated mansion, gives theatergoers more of a chance to linger on the clever lyrics.
August 3, 2007
Christina Ebersole made this show come alive.
September 27, 2008
Love it so far. Only reading the play script. Think I ordered the wrong one -- duh. Looking forward to seeing this with Lynn --- birthday gift.
April 17, 2009
I have never read a play before. It was interesting. A quick read. Really looking forward to seeing the actual documentary if I can ever find it on the telly.
March 21, 2016
This Broadway play came after the documentary--the songs are available on iTunes. It's a mix of fact and fiction, but would be fun to see.
August 17, 2018
Goodness I did not expect to love this with every fibre of my being. The cast recording is good, but this book by Doug Wright is something else. Perfectly structured to tear at your heart every moment and perfectly theatrical, an absolute wonder.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews