{"id":2077,"date":"2016-07-18T02:04:39","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T09:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2016-07-18T02:04:39","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T09:04:39","slug":"grey-gardens-hits-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2016\/07\/18\/grey-gardens-hits-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Grey Gardens Hits The Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

LA may slow down in the summer, but it sure ain’t boring.\u00a0 This past week, we had the Dreamgirls<\/em><\/strong> reunion (with exclusive and extensive footage\u00a0on BillyMasters.com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>), Diane Ross <\/strong>at the Hollywood Bowl<\/em>, and Broadway <\/em>royalty at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion<\/em>.\u00a0 That last bit was when the Ahmanson Theatre <\/em>hosted the national tour of Grey<\/em><\/strong> Gardens<\/em><\/strong> starring Rachel York <\/strong>and Betty Buckley<\/strong>.\u00a0 The highlight of the evening happened before the show even started.\u00a0 As the lights dimmed, in scurried Angela Lansbury <\/strong>– well, as much as a 90-year-old can scurry!\u00a0 Some people noticed and applauded, but then the pre-show announcement was made.\u00a0 You know – the one about no taking of photos, silencing your cell phones, unwrapping your candy.\u00a0 Except the person making the announcement was Angela Lansbury – who starred in Blithe Spirit<\/em><\/strong> in the same theatre last year.\u00a0 After the pre-recorded speech ended, the audience started applauding.\u00a0 I said, “Wouldn’t it be great if…wait – she’s up!”\u00a0 Yes, Lansbury got out of her seat, bowed, and got a standing ovation!\u00a0 Certainly a special moment (which we caught on camera, of course).<\/p>\n

As to the show, I’ve always felt this is not a musical – it’s a play with music.\u00a0 What I mean is that the score, while having moments, is really secondary to the script.\u00a0 I think it’s terribly unfair to compare performers, but this is a show created for Christine Ebersole <\/strong>and Mary Louise Wilson<\/strong>.\u00a0 That said, shows are not museum pieces – they have to live and breath and be re-created, re-interpretted.\u00a0 And this new duo is quite game.\u00a0 York is a gifted singer, but she’s not in Ebersole’s league acting-wise.\u00a0 However, she was quite successful in the first act, which was a much more natural fit.\u00a0 And I must mention that when her prop magnifying glass literally fell apart, she handled it with aplomb.\u00a0 Buckley made many curious choices and played the part with more energy and shtick than Wilson – who was truer to the real person (as captured in the documentary).\u00a0 The biggest misstep in this production is the set.\u00a0 While the idea of incorporating video and making the second act a living documentary is inspired, the set is far too grand and spacious to ever feel claustrophobic.\u00a0 An unintentionally great moment occurs when the ladies take their bows.\u00a0 Buckley walks down a large, sweeping staircase – eerily echoing her turn in Sunset Boulevard<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I loved it, but the last thing you want to do leaving a show is be reminded of another show.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LA may slow down in the summer, but it sure ain’t boring.\u00a0 This past week, we had the Dreamgirls reunion (with exclusive and extensive footage\u00a0on BillyMasters.com), Diane Ross at the Hollywood Bowl, and Broadway royalty at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.\u00a0 That last bit was when the Ahmanson Theatre hosted the national tour of Grey Gardens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2078,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions\/2078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}