A special benefit screening of the documentary film upon which the new Playwrights Horizons musical Grey Gardens was based will be presented on February 27th at 7 PM.
Those who attend the viewing of the documentary (which will feature never-before-seen footage and a Q&A with with filmmaker Albert Maysles) have the option of returning the next evening for a February 28th preview performance of the world premiere musical about eccentric family members of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis living in a squalid Long Island mansion. It will be followed by a post-show reception that will feature Grey Gardens cast members and creative team at 8 PM. Both will be presented at Playwrights Horizons (416 W. 42nd Street), with proceeds to benefit the famed not-for-profit company.
Grey Gardens: A New Musical will begin previews at the Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater on February 10th and open on March 7th at 7 PM; the limited engagement is slated to end on March 26th. With a book by Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife), composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael
Korie, will also co-star Tony Award-winner Christine
Ebersole (Steel Magnolias, 42nd Street) and Mary Louise
Wilson (The Women, Cabaret), as well as Sara Gettelfinger (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Nine), Matt Cavenaugh (Urban Cowboy), Sarah Hyland (Paper Mill Playhouse's Annie), six-time Tony Award-nominee John McMartin (Sweet Charity, Follies), Michael Potts (Lennon), two-time Tony Award-nominee Bob Stillman (Grand Hotel) and Audrey Twitchell. Tony Award-nominee Michael Greif (Rent) will direct."Grey Gardens concerns the deliciously eccentric aunt and
cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who were once among the brightest
names in the pre-Camelot social register, and are now East Hampton's
most notorious recluses, living in a dilapidated 28-room mansion.
Facing an uncertain future, Edith Bouvier Beale and her adult daughter,
'Little' Edie, are forced to revisit their storied past and come to
terms with it — for better, and for worse," according to Playwrights Horizons notes.
Tickets are $75 each for the screening and Q & A, and a "double feature" for the screening, Q&A, preview performance and reception costs $250. A limited number of premium tickets, which are $500, are also available. It
includes the events of both evenings as well as supper with Maysles and the
creative team of the musical following the February 27th screening. Tickets are available at
www.ticketcentral.com or by calling Jill Garland, director of
development, at (212) 564-1235, extension 3140
For more information on all Playwrights Horizons productions, call
Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit
www.playwrightshorizons.org.