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Cult 1975 documentary ‘Grey Gardens’ isn’t the obvious choice for turning into a musical, for reasons creator Scott Frankel outlines with admirable honesty in his programme notes to this UK premiere.
For starters, nobody ever turns documentaries into musicals. And more to the point, ‘Grey Gardens’ (the film) doesn’t have a plot, instead simply basking in the peculiar daily lives of Edith and Edie Beale, a mother and daughter – relatives of Jackie Kennedy – who had turned their backs on their once prominent standing in US society in favour of hiding within their sprawling, semi-dilapidated Hamptons mansion, surrounded by piles of junk and prodigious numbers of cats.
Against all the odds, the second half of this ‘Grey Gardens’ (the musical) is actually an enjoyable, slightly mad but in essence faithful adaptation, given a strong UK premiere by fringe musical king Thom Southerland. It is a bittersweet but essentially celebratory look at the two women and their petty arguments, strange neuroses, shackled lives and wonderfully garish dress sense.
In a real casting coup, Sheila Hancock is splendid as the more malign but more vulnerable Edith; but it’s the reliably brilliant Jenna Russell who does the real heavy lifting as Edie:her great tragedy is that when all’s said and done she’s still young enough to escape from this absurd existence – but she won’t. Not a lot happens, but there is an emotional trajectory, and it’s all very winsome, thanks in part to to some well-judged fourth wall breaking.
The trouble is this is only the second half. The first is much more conventional musical fodder. It’s set one fateful night in 1941, with Edie – played by Rachel Anne Rayham – as a brassy debutante and Edith – now played by Russell – as her overbearing but socially active mother. It’s fine in a bland sort of way, but not particularly necessary. The casting decisions also mean that Russell has vastly more stage time than her nominal co-star Hancock. She’s wonderful, but she dominates and even unbalances the show.
I guess it’s these structural peculiarities that have stopped the Tony-nominated show getting a higher profile UK premiere. But certainly none of the faults here can be attributed to Southerland’s colourful, zesty production and his two leading ladies – it’s got its faults, but as a night at the theatre it’s anything but grey.