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Hands planted on kidneys, weight cantilevered back on one leg, figure wrapped in a crazy combination of skirts and blouses and snood, Christine Ebersole strikes one of the weirder poses to earn a spot in the gallery of iconic Broadway roles. In the musical version of Grey Gardens, she plays the lucidly nutty Little Edie Beale. She plays Edie’s mother, too, in a prequel to the Maysles Brothers’ cult documentary, one that depicts Edie’s fictional engagement party in 1941. But it’s the second-act strangeness that people will remember, with reason. Intermission ends in a cascade of twirly harp music, the kind you associate with a house spinning from black-and-white Kansas into Technicolor Oz—a suitably fantastical prompt for Ebersole’s appearance. “You look absolutely terrific, honestly,” she effuses to the audience. She has the odd look and gawky bearing—and that silly aristocratic accent—to nail the elegant and monstrous Edie, though you could dismiss this as merely high-grade mimicry. But then she starts to sing. By this point, Ebersole has already flexed her gorgeous voice, tossing off a few bars of Puccini (and many bars of composer Scott Frankel) in the first act. Now, in “The Revolutionary Costume for Today,” she offers a concise, hilarious explanation of her topsy-turvy fashion sense. It’s nearly a patter song, and the onetime SNL trouper wrings every laugh dry. — Jeremy McCarter

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Jeremy McCarter's Full Review (11/13/06)
• Jeremy McCarter's Full Review (3/27/06)

Featured In

• Kylie’s Beale Deal (5/28/07)
• 'Grey Gardens' and the Diary of Little Edie Beale (11/6/06)
• Theater Review: Grey Gardens, Butley (11/13/06)
• Overheard: What the Audience Really Thought About 'Grey Gardens' (11/27/06)
• Q&A With Grey Gardens Actress Christine Ebersole (9/11/06)