Posted by Nathalie Weinstein

Tears in the cat food cans at Grey Gardens

Sweater headdresses were plentiful at the opening night of Portland Center Stage's production of Grey Gardens, a musical about the fate of socialites Edith Ewing Beale and her adult daughter Little Eddie, the eccentric relatives of the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis. As the play progresses, the audience watches as the mother and daughter transform from America's royalty, to a reclusive life rummaging through discarded cat food cans in their decaying 28-room mansion.

After a prologue that breaks down the family history, the lights open on the mansion as it was in its heyday during the 1940s, all fine china, pianos and the brooding portrait of Phelan Beale, who paid for it all. The set utilizes a giant turntable that takes the mansion from its former glory to its eventual squalor between acts. Big Eddie, played to perfection by Rebecca Eichenberger, is hosting an engagement party for her daughter Little Edie, played by the enchanting Janine DiVita. DiVita is simultaneously innocent and vampish, with a voice that will rip your heart out of your chest.

At once it is evident that Read the rest of this entry »