Interest in the Kennedy family is perennial. Every few years, another television series, film or book promises to reveal the “true” story behind America’s most scrutinised dynasty. This year, it was Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette that renewed the fascination. But on such well-tilled ground, it is rare for a production to tell a genuinely novel story, or to penetrate much deeper than polished appearances.
That is what makes Grey Gardens, a musical about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s reclusive aunt and cousin, so intriguing. It is based on the iconic and controversial 1975 documentary of the same name, which trained its camera on Big Edie and Little Edie Beale: two former socialites living amid cats, clutter and decay in their once-grand East Hampton mansion. The film caused a sensation, exposing both their squalid circumstances and their intensely interdependent relationship.
The musical premiered Off-Broadway in 2006 before transferring later that year to Broadway, going on to win three Tony Awards. Its first act is set in 1941. Twenty-four-year-old Little Edie sees marriage as her chance to escape her controlling, larger-than-life mother. But Big Edie, herself a frustrated, would-be performer corseted by the strictures of social norms, finds it hard to let her forge her own path.
Act II moves forward to 1973, when the consequences of those fateful decisions play out. Mother and daughter now live in disharmony in the ruins of their once beloved aristocratic home, Grey Gardens. Can they ever escape these well-worn grooves of despair and blame?
Clovelly Fox and fortyfivedownstairs have brought this singular story to the intimate fortyfivedownstairs theatre, in the first Melbourne production of the musical since 2011.
Helen Dallimore leads the cast, playing Big Edie in Act I and Little Edie in Act II. She is excellent in both roles, but especially as the older Little Edie, moving from vulnerable to unapologetic from one moment to the next. As Big Edie, her soaring operatic vocals, as she plans to upstage her daughter’s engagement party, are among the evening’s most consistent crowd-pleasers.
Deidre Rubenstein takes over as Big Edie in Act II. She is compelling as the once-dominating matriarch, now dependent and impoverished, yet still looming large in her daughter’s mind. And Meg Williams plays 24-year-old Edie as a doe-eyed and desperate ingenue.
David Hobson is a standout as Little Edie’s grandfather, Major Bouvier, in Act I. His assured stage presence steadies the production, aided by the panache with which he commits to the comic material. His first number gives the act its first real surge of momentum after an opening stretch of slightly skippable establishing songs and scenes.
At this early stage of the run, some technical elements could still be refined. The intimate theatre is occasionally overwhelmed by the sound mix, particularly during confrontations. In those moments, sheer volume substitutes for emotional force, tipping scenes that should be painful towards camp.
Claudia Mirabello’s design for the decaying Grey Gardens is richly evocative. The comparatively sparse depiction of the house in its prime, however, asks the audience to imagine much of the luxury whose eventual loss is meant to carry such weight.
Even with those rough edges, I wouldn’t miss this rare chance to see a unique, psychologically unsettling musical. Grey Gardens is ultimately a story about the inescapability of family legacies – Kennedy or otherwise.
Grey Gardens is presented by Clovelly Fox Productions and fortyfivedownstairs and runs to 2 August. 45 Finders Lane Melbourne Vic 3000.
Tickets: https://fortyfivedownstairs.com/event/grey-gardens/
Website: https://clovellyfox.com/
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/clovellyfox/ and https://www.instagram.com/fortyfivedownstairs/
Photo credits: Ben Fon
