Grey Gardens opened at the Unicorn Theater this week. The musical is based upon the cult 1975 documentary filmed at the Grey Gardens estate. The documentary follows the excentric Beale mother and daughter as they live in squaler in their mansion in East Hampton.
The musical is lead by the fantastic, Cathy Barnett, who brings life and humor to an often destructive realtionship. Mother and daughter live in their 27 room house with 53 cats, and as famously said it’s hard to keep the past between the past and present, you know? It seems that these women have no real lines or sense of reality.
The play opens in the height of Grey Gardens decadence while the second act explores the documentary years as the cats and racoons over run the house. The Unicorn Theater is the perfect venue for Grey Gardens. This show is about intricate emotions and characters. The show is a musical, but if you are coming to see 42nd Street this is not your show. It is a play with music intertwined to enhance the emotions and time of the play. Some songs should be cut, because honestly who needs to hear about someone liking corn?
The play runs through February 28th and is 2 hours and 45 minutes with a 15 minute intermission. This is a well produced play with some outstanding performances. If you are not familiar with the documentary it would help to refresh your history to understand the context and situations throughout the play.
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