‘Gardens’ hilarious and heartbreaking

Dear reader, please be aware that this is going to be a long list of accolades for a superb evening of theatre you will never forget! Hilarious and heartbreaking this musical tells the story of the aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis who took a slide from the upper crust high society of the 1940s to extreme squalor in the 1970s.

If astounding acting, superb direction and thoroughly professional technical work have anything to do with it, this reviewer predicts that Vintage Theatre’s Grey Gardens will be a major contender at The Henry Awards in July. Everyone who loves musical theatre, serious drama, or both, should see this production. This reviewer’s hat goes off to one and all involved. Craig A. Bond’s direction furnishes us with an impeccable cast and thoughtfully paced production, which is embellished by dynamite technical work. With her portrayal of the doddering Edith Bouvier Beale, Deborah Persoff proves once again what a theatrical treasure she is. Ms. Persoff embodies her character with a gusto that blends humor and pathos and then enhances it with all the requisite quirkiness of geriatric eccentricity. This artist delivers her big numbers, “The Cake I Had,” and “Jerry Likes My Corn,” with sparkling brio. Brilliant character work.

Megan Van de Hey’s performance is simply magnificent. Her self-transformation from mother in Act I to daughter in Act II gives a new definition to the term “actor as chameleon.” Ms. Van de Hey slips from the propriety of the social elite to the eccentric behaviors of a reclusive has-been with incomprehensible ease. In her performance the exquisite upper class polish of a fashionable high society hostess dissolves into the addled fogginess of an unfashionable, unfortunate and unwashed old maid in a New York minute. Ms. Van de Hey’s outrageously brilliant acting is aided in no small measure by a set of pipes that are phenomenal. Ms. Van de Hey’s singing of “The Five Fifteen” electrifies. Maggie Sczekan’s portrayal of young Edie in Act I is a complete delight.

Ken Street turns in a solid portrayal of Major Bouvier, the conservative patriarch whose political opinions about homosexual piano players and black freedom songs are diametrically opposed to the Bohemian ideas of his daughter, Edith. His rendition of “Marry Well,” sung to young Jackie, Lee and Edie, has these little girls marching to the tune of his ‘wishful thinking’ that they should all marry conservative wealthy Republicans.

Peggy Morgan-Stenmark creates the set so well that one is too busy being awe-stricken by her magnificent work to worry as the dilapidated façade of this phenomenally well-designed set is carried offstage. Even that is done with style. Jen Orf’s lighting design provides us as the audience with the professional work for which she has become renowned.

In case you missed something I LOVED THIS SHOW.

Not to be missed.

Grey Gardens

Vintage Theatre

Through June 12