Mother Dear

Based on the lives of Edith 'Big Edie' Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith 'Little Edie' Bouvier Beale, two reclusive yet extraordinary relatives of Jackie Onassis, Grey Gardens is an audacious musical, drawing on their high society hey-dey and charting their famed decline into America's most famed shut-ins as seen on screen in the critically acclaimed 1975 documentary.

What is Grey Gardens About?

Starring Betty Buckely and Rachel York as the peculiar pair, Grey Gardens is an often moving, often hilarious show that explores the dysfunction between this upper-class mother and daughter, whose dependence on each other led to a remarkable life in a crumbling East Hampton mansion, full of cats, garbage and mouldering antiques. From the glittering 1920s, where Little Edie set out to be a film star, to the eventual 'raids' on their condemned property in the 1970s, Michael Williams directs a look at what might have been before showing us the squalor and isolation of their later lives.

Known for her staunch personality and dedication to a theatrical life, Little Edie and her mother have become cult icons, reminders of a very different time and how one can go from debutante to degenerate in seemingly just the blink of an eye.