Hawken grad helps bring `Grey` eccentricites to stage

In 1976 two documentarians captured the wildly eccentric lives of Edith and Edie Bouvier Beale, the aunt and first cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, in the film \"Grey Gardens.\" `Big Edie` and `Little Edie,` as they were known, had been living in a decrepit 28-room mansion without any running water, surrounded by eight cats, a raccoon and a horrid assortment of fleas, cobwebs, garbage-all the while bursting spontaneously, and often, into song and dance. Composer Scott Frankel `81 was one of the probably thousands of the people enthralled by the mother and daughter after watching the film. He was, however, probably the only one to see the makings of a musical. \"For me the story is a uniquely American one. Their fierce individuality, style and intelligence remained a constant even as their world-and the world-changed around them,\" Frankel said. \"That they lived with such joy and energy is an inspiration.\" With the help of Doug Wright, the Tony Award-winning book writer for \"I Am My Own Wife,\" and acclaimed lyricist Michael Korie, Frankel recently debuted \"Grey Gardens\" at the Walter Kerr Theater in New York City. The musical, starring Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, follows the lives of the two once-aristocrat socialites from their hey days to the place the 70s documentary found them-in cloistered squalor. Critics have been overwhelmingly dazzled by the musical. \"It`s an experience that no passionate theatergoer should miss,\" said Ben Brantley of The New York Times.

Christine Ebersole as `Little Edie` (left) and Mary Lousie Wilson as `Big Edie` in \"Grey Gardens\"

After graduating from Hawken, Frankel, a two-time fellow of the MacDowell Colony, went to Yale University. He`s been involved in several Broadway and off-Broadway productions including \"Into the Woods,\" \"Les Miserables,\" \"Rags to Falsettos\" and \"Putting It Together.\" He`s been nominated for Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for his work in \"Grey Gardens.\" Visit the Web site, www.greygardensthemusical.com for more information.