Rachel York and Betty Buckley Grey Gardens in New York?

[Littleshopofcarrie]

Anyone think that this could ever play in New York City? I missed it when it was playing in The Hamptons but do you guys think that it may come to the city in either an Off-Broadway or maybe Broadway revival that Roundabout could pick up?

[Mike Costa]

The production in Sag Harbor was a respectable production in every way for an out of town summer production and Miss Buckley took the role in a different direction which made it her own front and center... to put it nicely.

The original New York production was, every inch, perfection.  

[CarlosAlberto]

I don't think this merits a shot on Broadway...very limited audience = not much $$$$ to be made.

[Call_me_jorge]

They could open this and war paint side by side.

[icecreambenjamin]

I would love to see it transfer to off broadway.

[Auggie27]

The Buckley-York opens at L.A.'s Ahmanson on July 13th, to close the season there.

http://www.topangamessenger.com/story_detail.php?ArticleID=8371

[AC126748]

I don't think anyone in New York is clamoring for another production of this musical. I saw it in Sag Harbor. York and Buckley are excellent, but the problems with the book/score are still there. Whereas the recent revivals of Spring Awakening or The Color Purple presented radically new stagings of those works, this production is basically just as smaller carbon copy of the original. Definitely no chance of a commercial production, so unless someone like Roundabout decides to stick it in the Pels, I think it will have a nice run in LA and then be gone.

[madbrian]

^^I also saw the production in Sag Harbor, and I agree with this assessment^^

[Auggie27]

Ironically, Monday night I rewatched the truly wonderful HBO film with Lange and Barrymore.  What that take managed to do was fill in the intervening years, to show the incremental deterioration as the two women inch toward those beds (it's an underrated script, the cable film, in my opinion; both women are stunningly good, it's understandable that they became the event, mirroring the reaction to the two stars in the musical).  It's not necessarily a problem in the show, those middle years not dramatized.  But it is a very bifurcated evening, the two halves not easy to bridge for people unfamiliar with the documentary.  Many disagree with me, but I felt the show is constructed on an audience's working knowledge of the Maysles' film. People meeting the story for the first time have a certain amount of dot-connecting to do to fully embrace the arc of the evening.  To me, it's not so much a flaw as an obstacle to having a full experience of the emotional journey.  The HBO film in an hour and forty minutes is a very powerful look at the totality of these lives, and by the end, we are devastated.  To be fair, a percentage of the audience at the show get there with "Another Winter..." 

(I post this as someone who dearly loves the musical.)

[AC126748]

I'm also a fan of the HBO film, and feel that it elegantly presents a credible version of the "whole" story. 

[Scarywarhol]

After all the clamour, I was so disappointed when I made the trek our to Sag Harbor. The leading ladies were good. The direction and design was downright incompetent, even for a small space. 

[Kad]

I can't see this returning to NYC anytime in the near future without a revelatory star turn, like Ebersole's, anchoring it.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

I love this show and think it's an underrated jewel. But I have no desire to see Rachel York in the part and have not been impressed by what I've heard or seen of her in the role. And like someone else said, SPRING AWAKENING and THE COLOR PURPLE seem to have made improvements over their original productions that this particular take on GREY GARDENS doesn't seem to be doing.

It'd be great if Buckley eventually got to play the role on Broadway--her rendition of "Jerry Likes My Corn" is incredible--hopefully with one of the greats like Donna Murphy, Victoria Clark, Alice Ripley, or Marin Mazzie. The Ebersole track is tough as hell to cast, most actors can do Act I or Act II, but Ebersole's indelible performance is so memorable because she was equally stunning and believable in both acts, changing her voice and singing style to match the two characters in ways that most actors today cannot do.

[bear88]

So does anyone think it's worth seeing in LA with York and Buckley? I will be there next week, just got a notification that tickets are available. I have never seen the show, it sounds intriguing but odd, but I'm not sensing a lot of enthusiasm for the commenters thus far. 

[LALALand]

The chance to see Betty Buckley in a musical is all I need.  Getting tickets today. 

[GavestonPS]

bear88 said: "So does anyone think it's worth seeing in LA with York and Buckley? I will be there next week, just got a notification that tickets are available. I have never seen the show, it sounds intriguing but odd, but I'm not sensing a lot of enthusiasm for the commenters thus far. 

 

"

I am seeing it on the 19th and have been counting down the days all season. Let's don't let the perfect get in the way of the possible (or whatever it is that the President used to say). There's no reason to think we'll ever get to see Ebersole in the show, so my advice to Los Angelenos is not to miss it (and then download the OCR).