MEET THE CREATORS of GREY GARDENS

Left to Right: Doug Wright, Michael Korie, and Scott Frankel (seated)

A PERSONAL NOTE FROM SCOTT FRANKEL, THE COMPOSER

I was first exposed to GREY GARDENS in the mid 1990's via friends in Provincetown--and have been hooked ever since. It is a fascinating document of two extraordinary women living their lives under extraordinary circumstances.

For me, the story is a uniquely American one. Their fierce individuality, style and intelligence remained a constant even as their world--and the world--changed around them. That they lived with such energy and joy is an inspiration. Both women adored American popular music and harbored aspirations to be performers. The great songs and standards of the 20's, 30's and 40's became the soundtrack for their lives. And, in the end, they have become cultural icons--not for their talent, but for being true to themselves.

The themes explored in GREY GARDENS have always fascinated me--roads not taken, missed opportunities, love spiked with resentment, decay, reality vs. delusion, things that are not "black and white" but literally "grey."

It seemed a story very much worth telling and it is, ultimately, not only the story of Edith and her daughter, but also the story of the country. In the 1970's, the Beales' house was a wreck, an eyesore in great disrepair, but its inhabitants were staunch, steadfast, moral and true. The White House during these years had the outward appearance of propriety and beauty, but was going to rot on the inside.

Before she died, Albert Maysles wrote Edie and proposed the idea of a stage musical version of GREY GARDENS. She replied:

Dearest Al--

I am thrilled by what you wrote about the musical "G.G.!" My whole life was music and song! It made up for everything! My mother was very close to her Mother--the relatives were mean! But French families are very close! Younger ones(siblings) would argue! Thrilled--thrilled-thrilled! I have all Mother's sheet music and her songs that she sang! With all I didn't have, my life was joyous!"

With love always, Edie

-Scott Frankel

A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MICHAEL KORIE, THE LYRICIST

Living amidst cats, raccoons and detritus in a ruin of their once glamorous past, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter “Little Edie” reminded me of the “Sleeping Beauty” legend. Their palace had fallen under a deep spell of sleep. The unkempt privet hedges of Grey Gardens had grown to the height of small trees, walling them off from the world outside. The schism between the way they lived and what they chose to acknowledge impressed me as being intensely theatrical – a place where a tin of cat giblets could pass for paté, or a creatively adorned dish towel could be turned into a fashion statement. Equally theatrical was their constant conversation, variations on the theme of what did or did not happen many yesterdays ago, evoking a singular blend of Beckett, Tennessee Williams and John Waters.

Most of all, what appeared to sustain their world of embraced unreality was music and dance, their beloved Broadway and Hollywood show tunes of bygone eras. The songs they warbled none too prettily – “Tea for Two,” “People Will Say We’re in Love,” and “You and the Night and the Music” seemed to be the magical incantations that kept the grime-stained walls and litter-strewn floors from collapsing. Grey Gardens struck me as a microcosm of a lost America, a perfectly irresistible subject for a stage musical.

-- Michael Korie

A PERSONAL NOTE FROM DOUG WRIGHT, THE BOOKWRITER

I’ve always been irrevocably drawn to eccentrics, because—in them—we see our own foibles, distilled. At first glance, Edie and her mother Edith may seem like larger-than-life freaks, gargoyles even…but I’d argue that we characterize them that way as a means of keeping our own wary distance. When we’re honest with ourselves, we find we have more in common with the Beale ladies than perhaps we’d like to admit. We all love and blame our parents; we all damage and sustain our children. We all torturously replay life’s disappointments, make feverish plans for a happier future, reinvent ourselves to escape boredom or win love, and re-imagine the world in a manner that suits us. If we look in Little Edie Beale’s hand mirror unflinchingly—free of irony, or camp affectation—we’ll see our own image, staring back.

-- Doug Wright