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I'm back from beautiful Fire Island.

I've only been there a couple of times, and the last time was when Linda Blair was starring Grease…aka a long time ago. Suffice it to say, it's still stunning! I went out there because I was invited by Ben Hodges (one of the editors of the Theatre World books and the producer of the Theatre World Awards). He asked me if I would come and interview two of the writers of Grey Gardens. James, Juli and I stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast (The Madison Fire Island Pines) that was all white with white flowing fabric everywhere. I felt like I was spending the weekend in one of Barbra Streisand's outfits.

On Saturday afternoon, a big crowd sat around the spacious pool, and I interviewed Michael Korie, the Grey Gardens lyricist and Doug Wright, the librettist. They told us that composer Scott Frankel came up with the idea of writing a musical about Grey Gardens, and Michael quickly came on board. Doug said that they asked him to write the book, and he was on the fence about the whole idea. "I'd show up every week and tell them it wouldn't work as a show. After two years we had a first draft." One of the big problems, he felt, was that the documentary is just a slice of life about these two ladies. There's no beginning, middle and end. One night, though, Michael and Scott were out to dinner when Scott suddenly took a dinner napkin and wrote Act One 1941/Act Two 1973. Those two years not only relate to Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones' birth dates, but they gave the show a framework.

If you didn't see it, let me tell you that Christine Ebersole played Big Edie (the mother) in Act One and Little Edie (the daughter) in Act Two. I asked why Sara Gettelfinger played Act One Little Edie Off-Broadway (and on the recording) but not on Broadway. Doug said that because there were 30 years between acts, they needed a Little Edie in Act One who'd look like a young version of Christine Ebersole in Act Two. Sara is taller than Christine and has a naturally dark look, and they felt that it was confusing for the audience for the two Edies to look so different. Michael remembered being in final callbacks for the role of Little Edie on Broadway. There were two women being considered for the part, and their agents told them that one of the two of them would get it. That same day, they were having auditions for the Little Edie understudy. Cut to: Erin Davie came in to audition for the role of the understudy and later that day her agent called and told her that she didn't get the understudy…she got the part! Michael told us that the other girls cried while they were singing the audition song ("Daddy's Girl"), but Erin made them cry. Brava! Erin was on Fire Island with us and performed "Daddy's Girl" and "Will You?" and was fantastic. Before the show we were chatting, and I asked her how London was (referring to the musical version of Gone With The Wind) and she gently reminded me, "I'm not Jill Paice." Busted! But then I remembered that she had just taken over Jill Paice's role in Curtains, so I was half right. Erin was there with her talented boyfriend Nehal Joshi (Les Miz), and we were talking about the Legally Blonde reality show. Over dinner Erin told us that she recently had a dream where she was trying out for the role of Elle Woods but felt that she wasn't right for it. After she sang, she approached dream Bernie Telsey and said, "I'm sorry. I just don't see myself as the next Elle Woods." She trumped him with his own line!

During the interview, I mentioned that I had met Jerry (the marble faun) the week before, and Doug said that Jerry is now a cab driver, and while Grey Gardens was on Broadway, he'd drive by the Walter Kerr Theatre every night at 10:30 PM. He would always pick up a couple who had just seen the show and listen to them talk in the back seat about it. If they liked the show, he'd wait till he dropped them off to drop that bomb that he was Jerry, and if they didn't like, he'd keep his trap shut. Speaking of keeping your trap shut, reminds me of the fabulous Broadway beltress Liz Larsen. Years ago, she was auditioning for a Broadway show and just to be chatty with the director who was auditioning her, she mentioned a show on Broadway that had failed. She rolled her eyes and said that it was all the director's fault. He said, blank-faced, "I was the director". She thought fast and told him, "Oh, I get so confused. I meant the producer." He said, "I also produced it." Silence. And no call back.

On the Long Island Railroad back from Fire Island, I asked Doug about I Am My Own Wife, which was the show he wrote about a transvestite who had outwitted the Nazis and the Communists. He had heard about the story when he was touring Europe to celebrate his 30th birthday with his college buddy, director Chris Ashley. He met Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, who remained physically a man but still dressed as a woman. In one of the many interviews he did, he found out that one of Charlotte's lovers was a woman! Doug said, "So, at one point you were straight?" and Charlotte replied, "Heavens no. I was a lesbian!"

After the show opened on Broadway to great acclaim, he was directing a reading one day and an intern kept knocking on the door of the rehearsal room. Doug didn't want to be disturbed, but the intern said that there was a very important phone call. Doug picked up, and it was the publicist Don Summa, who told him that there were 100 people who wanted to interview him. Doug was shocked.

"Why?" he asked.
"You haven't heard," asked Don.
"Um, no."
"You won the Pulitzer Prize!" Don screamed.

Doug was so excited that he immediately hung up on Don and called his parents. It was partly for them to share in his joy, partly to alleviate the dishing his mother had given him because at one point he sold his car so he could fly to Germany for one final interview with Charlotte. It paid off. His mother was happiest, though, when he wrote The Little Mermaid because he "finally wrote something his nephew could see!" He said that Mermaid was the most fun he had writing a show. He knows that some of the reviews weren't great but has no idea specifically what they were because his boyfriend has set parental blocks on his computer. Doug said that he can go to the dirtiest porn sites out there, but he can't access any of the theatre websites or message boards!

Right now Doug is working on a movie about Gershwin and the movie focuses mainly on Porgy and Bess. He said that after Anne Brown played Bess, she couldn't get any work singing opera in America because she was black, so she went to Europe where she had a great career. She's the last principal cast member alive from the original production, and he flew to Oslo to interview her where she now resides in a nursing home. She recalled auditioning for Gershwin and singing a Schubert song. He then asked her for something else and suggested a spiritual. She sassed him and said that they didn't teach spirituals at Juilliard! She was annoyed and said, "Why does everyone assume I know spirituals? Because I'm black?" Gershwin backed off, and asked her if it would be all right if he taught her one, and she said yes. So, Jewish George Gershwin taught African-American Anne Brown "City Called Heaven," her first spiritual.

Right now Doug's partner, David Clement, is writing a musical about the Weather Underground with Kate Ryan. Doug said that they've gone out to dinner so much over the past year with William Ayers, he wonders if he's on some kind of FBI list! Continued...