GREY GARDENS
Co-directed by Jeffrey Fiorello and Mark Happel
Musical direction by Clifford Parish
WHEN: Friday, July 1–24. Friday & Saturday evenings at 8 PM and Sunday matinees 2 PM
WHERE: The Black River Playhouse (corner of Grove St & Maple Ave in Chester, NJ) TICKETS: $24 general admission, seniors/students $22.
This CTG production is GREY GARDENS is based (in part) on the Albert & David Maysles documentary concerning the relationship between Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’ eccentric aunt and cousin.
The touching and heartfelt musical explores the unconventional mother-daughter relationship between former socialite Edith Bouvier Beal and her adult daughter Little Edie “body beautiful” Beal. GREY GARDENS tells an entertaining and poignant story of two unconquerable women, once known as two of the brightest stars in the social register, who later become East Hampton’s most infamous “reclusive inhabitants,” sharing a rundown 28 room mansion with 52 stray cats and rabid raccoons. (right: Barbara Haag as “Little” Edie Beale; photo by Lamont Hill)
From the glittering high society of 1940's New York to the tabloid headlines that rocked the Kennedy clan in the 1970's, GREY GARDENS hurls you into American royalty and leaves you to ponder the questions: “When do private lives become public fascinations? How much is too much? Where does it stop?”
The cast includes
- Edith Bouvier Beale: Barbi McGuire
- “Little” Edie Beale /Edith Bouvier Beale: Barbara Haag
- Young “Little” Edie Beale: Sandy Taylor
- George Gould Strong: Robert Jacobson
- Brooks Sr. / Jr.: Alistair Williams
- Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Jr./ Jerry: Thomas Cioppettini
- Jacqueline “Jackie” Bouvier: Hannah Curtis
- Lee Bouvier: Julianne Grillo
- J.V.”Major” Bouvier/ Norman Vincent Peale: Rich Maloy.
