Christine Ebersole & Mary Louise Wilson
Christine Ebersole & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & Bob Stillman & Michael Potts
Erin Davie & Bob Stillman & Matt Cavenaugh & Christine Ebersole
Matt Cavenaugh & Erin Davie
John McMartin & Christine Ebersole & Michael Potts & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & Erin Davie
Christine Ebersole & Michael Potts & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & John McMartin & Bob Stillman
Erin Davie & John McMartin & Bob Stillman & Christine Ebersole
Bob Stillman & Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole & Michael Potts
Erin Davie & Matt Cavenaugh
Erin Davie & Matt Cavenaugh & John McMartin & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & Bob Stillman
Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole
Mary Louise Wilson & Christine Ebersole
Bob Stillman & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & Matt Cavenaugh & Michael Potts & John McMartin & Erin Davie & Christine Ebersole & Mary Louise Wilson
Christine Ebersole & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & John McMartin & Matt Cavenaugh & Bob Stillman & Michael Potts & Erin Davie
Mary Louise Wilson & Matt Cavenaugh & Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole & Mary Louise Wilson
John McMartin & Michael Potts & Kelsey Fowler & Sarah Hyland & Bob Stillman & Matt Cavenaugh & Erin Davie
Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole & Mary Louise Wilson
Christine Ebersole & Mary Louise Wilson
This song introduces the character Little Edie (Edith Bouvier Beale) as she was known before her death. The iconic personality and fashion icon lived on the Grey Gardens Estate, where this musical gets its name. The lyrics of this song are inspired- and in some ways directly quoted- from Little Edie...
[EDIE, spoken]
Oh, hi! Thank heaven you're here
You look absolutely terrific, honestly
Mother wanted me to come out in a kimono so we had quite a fight...
(singing)
The best kind of clothes for a protest pose
Is this ensemble of pantyhose
Pulled over the shorts, worn under the skirt
That doubles as a cape
To reveal you in capri pants
You fashion out of ski pants
In a jersey knit designed to fit
The contour of your shape
Then cinch it with a cord from the drape
And that's the revolutionary costume for today
To show the polo riders, in khakis and topsiders
Just what a revolutionary costume has to say
It can't be ordered from L.L. Bean
There's more to living than kelly green
And that's the revolution, I mean
Da da da da dah...
(spoken)
Just listen to this: The Hamptons Bee, July, 1972:
"The elderly bed-ridden aunt of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy
Mrs. Edith Bouvier Beale..."
My very own mother, can you imagine?
"...and her adult daughter, Miss Edie Beale
A former debutante once known as Body Beautiful Beale..."
They called me Body Beautiful Beale, it's true -
That was my whaddyacallit, my uh ... sobriquet
"...are living on Long Island in a garbage-ridden, filthy 28-room house with 52 cats
Fleas, cobwebs, and virtually no plumbing
After vociferous complaints from neighbors
The Board of Health took legal action against the reclusive pair"
Why, it's the most disgusting, atrocious thing ever to happen in America!
(singing)
You fight City Hall with a Persian shawl
That used to hang on the bedroom wall
Pinned under the chin, adorned with a pin
And pulled into a twist
Reinvent the objet trouve
Make a poncho from a duvet
Then you can be with cousin Lee
On Mr. Blackwell's list
The full-length velvet glove hides the fist
And that's the revolutionary costume for today
Subvert the CrisCraft boaters, those Nixon-Agnew voters
Armies of conformity are headed right your way
To make a statement you need not be
In Boston Harbor upending tea
And that's a Revolution, to me
Staunch!
There's nothin' worse, I tell ya
Staunch!
(spoken)
S-T-A-U-N-C-H
(singing)
Staunch women, we just don't weaken
A little known fact to the fascist pack
Who comes here for antiquing'
Da da da da dah...
(spoken)
Honestly, they can get you in East Hampton for wearing red shoes on a Thursday?
And all that sort of thing
I don't know whether you know that, I mean, do you know that?
They can get you for almost anything ?
It's a mean, nasty, Republican town
(singing)
The best kind of shoes to express bold views
Are strapless mules in assertive hues
Like fuscia or peach, except on the beach
In which case you wear flats
When I stood before the nation
At Jack's inauguration
In a high-heeled pump, I got the jump
On Jackie's pillbox hats
Just watch it where you step with the cats!
And that's the revolutionary costume pour du jour
You mix 'n' match and, Presto!
A fashion manifesto
That's why a revolutionary costume's de rigeur
The rhododendrons are hiding spies
The pussy willows have beady eyes
Binoculars through the privet hedge
They peek at you through the window ledge with guile!
We're in a Revolution!
So win the Revolution with style!
Da da da da dah
The Revolutionary Costume for Today was written by Michael Korie & Scott Frankel.
The Revolutionary Costume for Today was produced by Steven Epstein.
Christine Ebersole released The Revolutionary Costume for Today on Tue Mar 27 2007.