Grey Gardens' Odd Couple

In the early 1970s, a mother and daughter living in East Hampton, N.Y., captured headlines when the village began legal proceedings to remove them from their deteriorating beachside mansion, Grey Gardens, in which they were living with no heat, trash stacked everywhere and many, many cats.

It might not have been so intriguing if they hadn't been Bouviers; Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, "Little Edie," were the aunt and cousin, respectively, of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Two quite possibly crazy ladies living in squalor doesn't seem the ideal fare for musical theater, but that's what the Beales became: the characters in "Grey Gardens," Doug Wright's Tony-winning Broadway musical, itself closely based on the 1975 Albert and David Maysles cult documentary of the same name.

Next week, "Grey Gardens" opens at Studio Theatre, which took on the unusual challenge of bringing to life iconic, idiosyncratic women whose every quirk and gesture has already been seen by millions.

"It's totally fascinating," "Grey Gardens" director Serge Seiden says of the process. "I've never had to do that exact thing before."

It didn't hurt to have Barbara Walsh, who stars as matriarch Edith in the first act and Little Edie in the second. Little Edie is clearly the musical's juiciest role.

Edie was in her 50s when the Maysleses documented Grey Gardens, but in her 20s she had been a lithe, gorgeous society girl (she was known as "Body Beautiful Beale"). Eternally stuck between her golden years and the unpleasant present, Edie frequently referred to her own life as if gossiping about someone else's -- in an exaggerated whisper: "Isn't that awful? It's awful, I'm telling you, awful!"

Walsh has it down pat. "She's a great mimic," Seiden says. "She watched [the documentary] a little bit first, then worked on the text, then worked on the music. And then she went back during rehearsal and started to really study it."

Ultimately, Seiden says, he sees the musical as not just about capturing the Beales' eccentricities but also relating the common story of "blaming your parents for what's happened to you, and at the same time loving them deeply. I think if we can get that across, I think we'll have accomplished a lot."

As for what happened to Grey Gardens, it was sold a few years after the Maysles doc was released. Who would take on such a project? Ben Bradlee, then executive editor of this newspaper, and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn, who bought the house from Little Edie in 1979. Edie died in 2002.

The show opens Wednesday. $49-$69. Wednesday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7. Through Dec. 21. Studio Theatre, Metheny Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW. 202-332-3300 or visit http://www.studiotheatre.org.