Broadway newcomer Erin Davie will play “Little Edie Beale” in the Broadway production of the musical Grey Gardens, which is scheduled to begin performances at the Walter Kerr Theater on October 3 and to open officially on November 3.
The show will feature most of the original cast of the Playwrights Horizons production earlier this year: Christine Ebersole, Mary Louise Wilson, John McMartin, Matt Cavenaugh, Michael Potts, Bob Stillman, and Sarah Hyland. Nine-year-old Kelsey Fowler will replace Audrey Twitchell in the role of Young Lee Bouvier. The role of Little Edie was originally played by Sara Gettelfinger.
As at Playwrights Horizons, the show will be directed by Michael Greif and will have musical staging by Jeff Calhoun. The Off-Broadway design team of Allen Moyer (sets), William Ivey Long (costumes), Peter Kazcorowski (lighting), Brian Ronan (sound), and Wendall K. Harrington (projections) is reunited for the Broadway production. Orchestrations are by Bruce Coughlin, musical direction is by Lawrence Yurman.
Written by Doug Wright, Michael Korie, and Scott Frankel, Grey Gardens is based on the 1975 documentary film of the same title. It concerns heiresses Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, “Little Edie,” who ended up living as recluses in a run-down East Hampton mansion. The show’s first act takes place in 1941, while the second act is set in 1973. Ebersole plays “Big Edie” in the first act and “Little Edie” in the second.
The show was named Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical by the Outer Critics Circle, and Ebersole picked up Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Obie, and Drama League awards as well as a special citation from the New York Drama Critics Circle for her performance. The original cast recording of Grey Gardens was recently released by PS Classics.
Davie has appeared in the national tours of Wicked, Swing!, and The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber. She starred Off-Broadway in Infertility, and her regional credits include Carousel.