Grey Matter
Jun 11, 2007
After sitting through the three-hour long Tony Awards ceremonies tonight, I ended up feeling rather disappointed that my favorite new musical, “Grey Gardens”, only walked away with three wins out of the 10 nominations it received. Disappointed, but happy for “Garden’s” two leading ladies, Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, both of whom took home the much coveted statuette for best actress and best featured actress in a musical, respectively, for their portrayals of eccentric mother and daughter socialites, Edith Bouvier Beale and “Little” Edie Beale.
The night clearly belonged to the coming-of-age alt-rock musical “Spring Awakening,” which all but swept every major category, winning eight awards including best musical of the year. I’ve yet to see “Spring Awakening,” so I can’t comment on weather it deserved to thumb up it’s nose at the rest of the night’s competition or not, but in what previews I’ve seen, the show struck me as being somewhat reminiscent of “Rent,” a production which in my opinion, failed to live up to all the hype it generated. Musicals such as this are part of a trend which I refer to as “New Broadway,” meaning the production is geared more towards iPod enthusiasts and vacationing tourists than to the avid New York theatergoer. For all intents and purposes, I prefer theatre in the more traditional sense, minus an MTV video.
In any event, congratulations go out to Christine Ebersole, Mary Louise Wilson and the entire company of “Grey Gardens” for their well deserved win. I’m due for another visit with the Beales and “Grey Gardens” very soon.
