NOW PLAYING: Vintage Theatre's GREY GARDENS

Vintage Theatre presents the Regional Premiere of
Grey Gardens

Book by Doug Wright, Music by Scott Frankel, Lyrics by Michael Korie,

Directed by Craig Bond  

Grey Gardens is the hilarious and heartbreaking story of Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, once bright names on the social register who became East Hampton's most notorious recluses. Set at Grey Gardens, the Bouviers' mansion in East Hampton, New York, the musical tracks the progression of the Beale's fall from a rich and socially polished existence to an isolated life in a home overrun by cats. Winner of the 2007 Tony Awards for Best Actress and Best Featured Actress, Grey Gardens portrays the complicated dynamics of a dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.  
 
The cast includes two of Denver's most accomplished actresses, Deborah Persoff (Edith Bouvier Beale) and Megan Van de Hey (Edie) as the eccentric mother and daughter. Craig A. Bond, the Vintage Theatre Artistic Director and Henry Award nominee directs the production.  The cast also includes Maggie Sczekan (Little Edie Beale), Ellie Schwartz (Jacqueline "Jackie" Bouvier), James O'Hagan-Murphy (Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr./Jerry), Isabel Sabbah (Lee Bouvier), Ken Street (Major Bouvier), Craig A. Bond (George Gould Strong) and Tom Auclair (Brooks).  Andra Brown provides musical direction and the set is designed by Peggy Morgan Stenmark.  
 
Grey Gardens opened on Broadway November 2, 2006, after a sold-out world premiere run in spring 2006 at Playwrights Horizons. Based on the 1975 film Grey Gardens, the show was the first-ever musical made from a documentary. The show won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, a 2006 Richard Rodgers Production Award, the ASCAP Foundation's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, and The Frederick Loewe Award for Dramatic Composition. Composer Frankel calls Grey Gardens  "uniquely American," with themes that explore "roads not taken, missed opportunities, love spiked with resentment, decay, reality vs. delusion, things that are not 'black and white' but literally 'grey.'" Librettist Doug Wright is also the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife. Composer Scott Frankel is well known as the musical director for Falsettos and Into the Woods on Broadway, and lyricist Michael Korie wrote the libretto for both Harvey Milk and The Grapes of Wrath.

Denver, CO - Vintage Theatre presents the Regional Premiere of the new musical Grey Gardens, May 13 through June 12 at Vintage Theatre, 2119 E 17th Ave. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. An Industry Night is offered on Tuesday, May 24 at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are available by calling 303-839-1361 or online at www.vintagetheatre.com.

Photo Credit: Ellen Nelson