Our strange story begins in 1973 and, against all oddball odds,
continues Tuesday at 10p.m. on PBS.

First, Lee Bouvier Radziwill - kid
sister of Jacqueline
Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and aunt of the possible next U.S. senator from New York, Caroline
Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg - wanted a documentary made about her childhood as a
Bouvier in the Hamptons.

Lee (whose given name, incidentally, is also
Caroline) was talking to brothers Albert and David Maysles,
pioneering, cutting-edge filmmakers of such cult-classic documentaries as "Gimme
Shelter," about the Rolling
Stones.

But just then, word came that the Suffolk County Board of
Health had condemned the 28-room garbage dump of an East Hampton estate where
Edith Bouvier Beale and her grown daughter, "Little Edie" (reclusive aunt and
cousin of Lee and Jackie), were living with 52 cats, marauding raccoons and all
the predictable aromas of such world-class eccentricity.

You only think you know the rest.

So the Maysles turned
their cameras on Edith and Edie and, in 1975, released the celebrated
crazy-old-lady documentary "Grey Gardens." And almost three years ago, the indie
film became the unlikely inspiration for an Off-Broadway musical. Then the show
went to Broadway, where it got 10 Tony nominations and won acting awards for the
extraordinary Edith/Edie stars Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise
Wilson.

End of story? Not so fast.

Now we have "Grey Gardens: From
East Hampton to Broadway," a documentary about the making of a musical that was
made about a documentary (Tuesday at 10p.m. on WNET/13). Dizzy yet? These deeply
strange women have gone from outcasts to cult curiosities to Broadway heroines.
And, 35 years after tarnishing the aristocratic Bouvier-Kennedy glow with the
fleas of a sanitation scandal, they're about to creep under the tidy psyches of
Americans in their homes.

It is safe to say that Edith and Edie, both
dead, would be thrilled by their improbable turn of fate. The 60-minute
documentary, first screened last year at the Hamptons International Film
Festival, is a riveting re-examination and update of the story - at least so
far.

Albert Maysles,
whose brother David died in 1987, is both behind the camera and in front of it.
The results make a fine introduction for people who have not followed this
strangely indomitable mother-and-daughter saga. But there are new insights for
the insiders. Best of all, the new film manages to connect the dots between the
unthinkable disgraces and the improbable triumphs of women who escaped the
restrictions of their class with bizarre but admirable style and
strength.

We get to marvel at the remarkable similarities between the
real women and their audacious musical interpreters. We can compare the genuine
crumbling estate with the before-and-after translations of the mansion onstage.
Members of the creative team talk about the making of the musical, with excerpts
that make us miss the show all over again.

In one revealing segment,
Maysles interviews the real Jerry Torre, the devoted slacker teen who befriended
the women over the years. Seen in the first documentary as an otherworldly
boy-man in a Newsday carrier T-shirt, he is now a middle-aged taxi driver who
still can't quite believe that he was a character in a big Broadway musical. He
goes back to Grey Gardens, now a beautiful restored mansion for respectable
residents. He peers into the window near the front door and remembers the path
in the cobwebs made when, every other day, Little Edie would come down the hall
staircase to get the food ordered from New Town Grocers.

In the musical
and in life, Little Edie, a fast-talking proud loser with an eye for girdles,
leopard-prints, safety pins and turbans made of sweaters, appears to have more
voices in her head than most of us have friends. "All I needed was an audience,"
she tells Jerry in the show. She certainly has one now.



THEATER
ON TV For people who can't get to Broadway - or, these days, can't afford to
-here are a few other upcoming alternatives.

Last season's dashing and
heartbreaking revival of "Cyrano de Bergerac," starring Kevin Kline and a
pleasantly delightful Jennifer
Garner, will be aired Jan. 7 on PBS.

On Jan. 20, also known as
Inauguration Day, Will Ferrell begins previews for his first Broadway showcase, "You're Welcome America: A
Final Night With George
W. Bush." The comedy solo, scheduled to run through March 15, will be
telecast live by HBO. Dates are not confirmed, though it will probably happen
toward the end of the run.

Spike Lee's
movie based on "Passing Strange," last season's terrific off-center indie-rock
biographical musical by Stew, will have its premiere next month at the Sundance
Film Festival. No news yet on whether we'll have to go to a movie theater or we
can order a pizza and watch at home.