Saw a play

As a birthday present, Nana and her friend Mary Lou took me to see a play called Grey Gardens. It is the true-life story of an elderly, depressed, cat hoarding mother and her obviously mentally ill, middle aged daughter who lived in the Hamptons in a squalid, flea-infested mansion. It's a musical.

Even though I left this romp through rock bottom feeling strangely depressed, it was a good show and a fascinating story. The two women were Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter "Little Edie" Beale. The mom was Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis' aunt and Little Edie was Jackie's cousin. The play is based on a documentary made about them in the 1970s. I really wanted to watch the documentary once I saw the play, so I checked out You Tube to see if anyone had posted anything. They did!

Here is Little Edie showing off her carefully planned outfit to the guy making the documentary. They showed this on a TV set in the lobby of the play. I just love her in all her stark raving madness.



Now here is a 9-minute video of Big Edie and Little Edie in their house. You get the whole picture of everything--their relationship, their house, the cats. Everything.




Not only is it amazing that they made this into a musical, but they used so much of the material from the documentary in the play. It was quite a feat. The woman who played Big Edie in the first act and Little Edie in the second act is a woman named Hollis Resnik. Mary Lou said she's seen her in other things and she's been great. And she was great, especially in the second act when she was the Little Edie. She completely captured her mannerisms and her voice.

Thanks for the show, Nana!