Grey Gardens

Tonight, I went to see Grey Gardens at the Studio Theatre in DC.

So the basic story: American royalty, the family of Jackie O, has fallen from wealth, propriety, and personally hygiene. Interesting musical– a little peculiar and funny.

I would describe this production as the most beautiful failure I’ve seen in a while.

The visual qualities of the show were wonderful. The set was relatively simple, but there was a fantastic use of projections. So often the projections were more texture and color than defining actual shapes. They added the perfect extra something to the stage picture.

There was a particularly nice visual moment late in the show: there’s a number where the main character is feeding the cats, and the company (characters from act one) are fulfilling the rolls of the cats and there is the ghostly sense as they are relics of a former life. Really quite nice to see.

That said, the production really was a failure. The whole point of creating theatre is to tell a story and this one didn’t get told to the fullest. First, there was a sound issue: the performers were just hard enough to hear that the audience can get the gist of the story and miss every nuance in the writing. Second, and more importantly, the character arc wasn’t high enough. Intellectually we get it; but we never feel any of it. We’re still left on the outside looking in.

I left the theater feeling like the show was like a nice thing to put on a shelf. The pretty piece of art that never touches you.