"Around the World": Grey Gardens to Premiere in Japan

By Adam Hetrick
21 Oct 2009

The Tony-nominated musical Grey Gardens will be presented in a new Japanese production directed by Amon Miyamoto at Tokyo's Theatre Creation in November.

Amon Miyamoto, a Tony nominee for the 2004 Broadway revival of Pacific Overtures, will stage a Japanese language production of the musical about the infamous East Hampton mother and daughter, that features a score by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright.

Grey Gardens will premiere at Theatre Creation in Tokyo from Nov. 7-Dec. 6, with a mini tour to follow including stops in Osaka and Nagoya in December. Frankel, Korie and Wright will be in attendance for the Japan opening.

Mariko Kojima, who has also produced Rent, A New Brain and The Spitfire Grill for Japanese audiences, spoke with Playbill.com about her latest project: "The documentary has never been aired here in Japan, and no one here knows about Edith & Edie. For that reason, I think we have to approach this musical from a different aspect. We shouldn't care too much about representing the mother and daughter on stage, but to tell a story about a mother and daughter, who have a strong relationship. I think that every mother and daughter has their own and story: They love each other a lot and hate each other a bit. That is universal."

She continued, "Also, in Japan things are not as free as in the U.S. I mean, in the Japanese society, women are still expected to (lawfully) marry at a certain age, and this is more so than in the US. Also, women are expected to be nice, cute, quite, modest, etc. Quite old fashioned, still. In this kind of society, the story of the musical will be accepted with deep sympathy."

Portraying Little Edie Beale will be Shinovu Ohtake, with Mitsuko Kusabue as the elder, Big Edie Beale. The cast also features Kanami Ayano (Young Edie), Takuji Kawakubo (Joe Kennedy), Keigo Yoshino (George Gould Strong), David Yano (Brooks), Akihiko Mitsueda (Major Bouvier), Tomoyo Kurosawa/Kurumi Okubo (Jacqueline Bouvier) and Yuka Oshita/Kanon Fujisaki (Lee Bouvier).

Shigeru Yawata serves as musical director, with choreography by Chie Oka, set design by Takeshi Kata, lighting design by Ryuichi Nakawgawa, costume design by Ayako Maeda and wig design by Sakie.

Based on the Maysles brothers 1975 cult documentary, Grey Gardens traces the lives of East Hampton socialites "Big" and "Little" Edie Beale, whose mother-daughter tug of war ultimately finds the eccentric and resilient duo residing in a dilapidated mansion overrun with cats and raccoons.

Grey Gardens first premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2006 and subsequently transferred to Broadway where it ran for 307 performances at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Grey Gardens earned a Tony nomination for Best Musical and garnered Tony Awards for leads Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, as well as for costume designer William Ivey Long.