House of Rot (Green Door Theatre Company), at Malthouse Theatre and Hayes Theatre

A sensational, largely musical tribute to Grey Gardens, House of Rot resonates … and how, from the first note.

Grey Gardens was a derelict 14-room mansion in the wealthy neighbourhood of East Hampton in New York.

It was populated by two reclusive, upper-class women – a mother and daughter.

Photos by Gianna Rizzo

Their names were Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (known as Big Edie: 1895 –1977) and Edith Bouvier Beale (who went by the moniker Little Edie: 1917 – 2002).

Respectively, they were the aunt and first cousin of former US First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

With limited funds, after Big Edie’s husband left her, the pair lived together at the estate, in increasing squalor and isolation, for decades.

Their living conditions were exposed in an article in the National Enquirer and a cover story in New York Magazine, in the early ‘70s. 

A documentary about the women, which let them tell their own stories, was released to critical acclaim in 1976.

Fascination with Big Edie and Little Edie continued, resulting in a Broadway musical in 2006 and an HBO dramatised, biographical film in 2009.

Despite their living conditions, the two were known for their dignity, wit and charisma.

Little Edie became a cult fashion icon. She wore idiosyncratic outfits and headscarves to cover her alopecia.

Inspired by Grey Gardens, House of Rot honours the spirit of Big and Little Edie and their legacy as accidental queer icons.

It captures their eccentricities, fusing absurdism with high camp from the cabaret canon.

The musical repertoire is timeless – from soulful ballads to up tempo pop, powerful and poignant, performed with sensitivity and soul.

I speak of the likes of I Am What I Am, Tea For Two, Ageing, I Touch Myself and Young & Beautiful, just to name a few. 

The co-creators, director Dino Dimitriadis and musical director Victoria Falconer, have crafted something mighty special – stunning, complete with artistic flourishes.

The show begins with Falconer tickling the ivories with the Academy Award winning song The Windmills of Your Mind (which also closes the show).

Thereafter enters Paul Capsis in a black shift as Big, and Adam Noviello dressed to the nines, also in all black, statuesque, complete with hood, as Little.

Their playground is merely seven black wooden chairs, which they work on and around deftly. 

Mind you the stagecraft in this show, complete with fog machines and stunning lighting design – white, yellow and red – by Brockman, is next level.

Frankly, in toto I couldn’t get enough of what was on offer.

I speak of captivating, off the wall tales, mainly from Big, morphing into a succession of solo numbers and a few memorable duets from Capsis and Noviello.

Their singing voices are positively heavenly, combining depth with dynamism, leaving the audience transfixed.

Falconer too shows her supreme talents, vocally, on piano and with a breathtaking violin break.

House of Rot is a mesmerising homage, intimate, layered and pointed, a brilliant production that celebrates lives that don’t conveniently fit the norm.

An hour of superb entertainment, I would readily see it again tomorrow. It is that damn good – unquestionably among the year’s very best offerings.

Plaudits all around.

House of Rot is on at Merlyn Theatre, at Malthouse Theatre, until 20th June. It then moves to the Hayes Theatre from the 23rd to the 28th June, 2026.