The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York City, New York
**1/2 (out of ****)So there I was walking down Eighth Avenue.
Much to my delight, I realized I was walking side-by-side with
Jackie Hoffman, who portrays Grandma in the new musical based on
Charles Addams' cheekily macabre
New Yorker cartoons.
Now, Hoffman doesn't know me from
Adam. Heck, for that matter, she doesn't even know me from
The Addams Family. But she was quite receptive to my chatting her up. I couldn't resist informing her I had seen the show during its Chicago tryout. With brutal honesty, I admitted
I hadn't enjoyed it much there.
But I also told her I had just seen
The Addams Family again on Broadway the very evening before our chance meeting. Without being one least bit sycophantic, I shared how much improved I believed the tuner had become since Chicago. Indeed, the show is tighter and fortunately much snappier. Even better is that
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice have tipped the balance more toward the eponymous brood's favor than that clan of interlopers who had me scratching my head in Chicago.
The one last thing I told Hoffman before saying goodbye was while I enjoyed her hilarious comic turn, I still wondered why she didn't have a solo number. She took that comment in stride, literally, and then graciously thanked me and asked me to spread the word about the show.
So here goes.
The critical response certainly been less than kind, often bordering on
scathing. But the truth is that the show
isn't all that bad.
The Addams Family offers geniune laughs, particularly during its first act. It also turns out to be quite a bona fide crowd pleaser with many brilliantly eccentric turns, from the king of comic-timing
Nathan Lane -- whose Gomez consistently rises above the book and
Andrew Lippa's lackluster score -- to
Kevin Chamberlin's scene-stealing Uncle Fester. As Morticia,
Bebe Neuwirth at least looks great, but as much as I've admired her acting prowess, her singing voice isn't what it once was. But she sure still has the moves.
As in Chicago, I still admire
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch's evocative scenic design. Rich in dark reds and black and supplemented by
Natasha Katz’s lighting, the stage is resplendent with a creepy vibe.
The show may still not be a
complete scream, but compared with Chicago, there's at least plenty more here for people wanting to come see ‘em.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post.Labels: Bebe Neuwirth, Cartoon, Jackie Hoffman, Kevin Chamberlin, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Rick Elice, The Addams Family, The SOB Review
The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Oriental Theatre, Chicago, Illinois
** (out of ****)The pivotal clan on display in
The Addams Family musical doesn’t exactly epitomize “all together ooky,” but they most certainly turn out to be more than just a little kooky.
No, I don’t mean the eponymous brood, portrayed by some major stars from the theatrical firmament, each practically begging for their turns in the spotlight in this new tuner. Rather, I’m talking about Mal and Alice Beineke, along with their son Lucas, who’s newly engaged to Wednesday Addams.
What? Never heard of them? Neither had I.
Suffice to say, I could not have cared less about them, either. In short, they weren’t the family I was paying to see. Talk about mysterious and spooky.
Nor was I paying to see a retread of
La Cage Aux Folles. As in that work, conservative parents meet more flamboyant ones before their children marry, the child of the flamboyant parents tries and fails to rein them in, chaos ensues, everybody learns to love their inner freak, etc., etc. We’re seen this all before, but executed infinitely better. And with more verve and heart.
Therein lay the principal problems with this musical stage adaptation of
Charles Addams’ famously funny and macabre
New Yorker cartoons. What were the creative minds behind this show thinking?
Quite inexplicably,
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice’s book and
Andrew Lippa’s tunes have pushed the Beineke bunch forward complete with star turns for
Terrence Mann (Mal) and
Carolee Carmello (Alice). However, they come at the expense of a truly satisfying, original story, not to mention at the expense of those cast as the titular family.
Now please don’t get me wrong, I can’t blame Mann or Carmello. Both are actually pretty terrific. They imbue Wednesday’s would-be in-laws with a certain charm and ultimate giddiness that all but eludes Gomez (
Nathan Lane) and Morticia Addams (
Bebe Neuwirth). The Beinekes' very presence virtually sucks all the joy out of the two characters in whom the audience already has the most invested. And what are
The Addams Family without joy? This should be fun, right?!
Lane and Neuwirth make due as best they can with the pitiable trifle they’ve been thrown, including a sidebar story in which Morticia misconstrues Gomez’s comments on youth and beauty as an ageist indictment on her. If this musical is to be true to Charles Addams’ original vision, as it claims, would this already ghoulish character really care about being one step closer to the grave? Wouldn’t that be viewed as a welcome departure for this family?
While we’re on the topic of Addams’ concepts, the advance billing for this musical also seemed to suggest that there would be no allusions to the
television comedy and
subsequent films. Rather than dispensing with any such nod to those works at the onset of the tuner and simply move on, directors
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch have inserted their impressive homage to the
TV show’s snappy theme song about a third of the way into the first act. But it needlessly diverts focus away from whatever story has already commenced.
All is not lost in this
Addams Family. No, I actually admire McDermott and Crouch’s evocative scenic design, rich in dark reds and the requisite blacks. Supplemented by
Natasha Katz’s lighting, the stage is resplendent with a creepy vibe.
Additionally, two of the Addamses are actually captured to absolute perfection.
Kevin Chamberlin ’s Uncle Fester gleefully manages to steal the show with a glorious dream sequence number in which he’s courting the moon. And as Grandma, the woefully underused
Jackie Hoffman may have found her solo tune cut on the way to opening night in favor of those star turns by Mann and Carmello, yet she manages the last laugh, almost literally, during the first act’s dinner sequence as she ad libs to hilarious effect -- during my performance, it was one incredibly funny, timely dig at
Tiger Woods.
Do I think that this
Addams Family can be salvaged? Absolutely. Not only because so much is at stake financially, but especially since it contains universally loved and established characters, a stellar cast and some exceptional design elements.
Yet in order to be Broadway ready, it will take more than just a tweak here and slight adjustment there. This demands a wholesale overhaul of focus and plot. Here’s a novel idea, why don’t Brickman and Elice give us a snappier story on how
The Addams Family got to be so eccentric in the first place? Whatever they do, they need to re-center this musical on the folks in the title.
Then maybe, just maybe, it could be a complete scream when people come to see ‘em.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
In keeping with the new that unfairly discriminate against bloggers, who are now required by law to disclose when they have received anything of value they might write about, please note that I have received nothing of value in exchange for this post. I paid my own way for The Addams Family.Labels: Bebe Neuwirth, Carolee Carmello, Cartoon, Chicago, Jackie Hoffman, Kevin Chamberlin, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Rick Elice, Terrence Mann, The Addams Family, The SOB Review, Tryout
The Ritz (The SOB Review) - Studio 54, New York, NY* (out of ****)I hate it when I waste good money. I hate it even more when I see good talent wasted.
Both occurred when I checked out the latest, limp revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz.
I can honestly say that this is the least satisfying show I've seen all year. The only thing truly shocking about this revival was how dull and lifeless it was. It ranks as one of director
Joe Mantello's most disappointing efforts yet, and makes his lackluster revival of
The Odd Couple seem like an all-out triumph.
For starters, with dated cultural touchstone references ranging from
Margaret Dumont to the
Andrews Sisters, the material feels as creaky as an unlubricated floor. As a farce, it's ridiculously predictable and flaccid. And despite all those hard bodies, it's anything but titillating, especially since this den of iniquity is showcased (via
Scott Pask's set design) with all the sterility of a doctor's office.
To be frank, I was bored silly even with the literally ball-busting turns by
Rosie Perez as Googie Gomez and
Kevin Chamberlin as Gaetano Proclo. A caricature of herself, Googie aspires to the type of
Bette Midleresque fame that could only originate in the bowels of the 70s gay baths. She's so bad that she's a wonder.
Googie meets up with fish-out-of-water Gaetano, thinking he's the producer who's going to provide her big show biz break, while in reality, he's hiding out in
The Ritz, ironically enough, to avoid getting whacked. The joke is that this is the last place on earth his brother-in-law would look. If only.
The only real highlight of this play is near the end of the first act when whacked-out Googie takes to the stage of
The Ritz and sings an insipid if it weren't so inspired medley of tunes slapped together from the deviously clever mind of
Seth Rudetsky. For one brief enjoyable moment,
The Ritz thrills before reverting back to the facile facscimile it is.
I can only wonder how truly awful the
first revival of
The Ritz had to be in order to close after just one night. I'm glad I don't have to find out.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Critics Check-In To The Ritz (October 12, 2007)
Vulture Scoops Up Kevin Chamberlin (October 11, 2007)
Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz, The SOB Review
Critics Check-In To The RitzLast evening, the second revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz opened at
Studio 54. With one notable exception, critics on the whole seemed more eager for their check-out.
Hailing the revival as "even funnier" this go round in his three-and-a-half star review,
New York Post's
Clive Barnes is the most solidly positive: "McNally's written the best (
Georges) Feydeau farce since Feydeau, where eccentrics in seedy hotels chase one another wildly in search of love, or at least sex, in a merry-go-round of misunderstanding....Director
Joe Mantello, always in tune with McNally, has gotten a perfect ensemble performance. The adorable (
Kevin) Chamberlin is pitch-perfect as Proclo....But if you need just one reason to visit
The Ritz, I can give it to you in two words:
Rosie Perez."
Calling it a "spirited if essentially hollow revival,"
Rob Kendt in
Newsday offers a tepid review: "Of course,
The Ritz doesn't run on such poignance but on Swiss-watch comic timing. At its best, Mantello's cast whirls around
Scott Pask's multi-storied set like figures on a cuckoo-clock face, with the fey, needy Chris (
Brooks Ashmanskas) as a kind of benign ringmaster. But for all the spring in its step, the play can't help but show its age."
While noting that the "hilarity seems a little forced," the Associated Press'
Justin Bergman offers a mildly positive review: "McNally captured that 1970s underground gay sex scene so remarkably well, it feels fresh and lively three decades later. This probably has as much to do with the
Roundabout Theatre Company's ambitious restaging of
The Ritz on Broadway, though, as it does with McNally's play. The Roundabout has assembled a delightful cast, including Rosie Perez, Kevin Chamberlin and former gay porn star
Ryan Idol who looks far too comfortable dressed only in a sheer white towel."
Dismissing it as a "sporadically funny revival
," The New York Times'
Ben Brantley sniffs: "Well, yesterday’s dirt, as is often the case, has become today’s dust. This latest revival of
The Ritz...is cute, cuddly and often oddly inert....Stripped of the amyl-nitrite-scented clouds of novelty that clung to it 32 years ago, the show is exposed as a friendly, conventional sitcom for the stage. And though it features ace performances by Ms. Perez and by Kevin Chamberlin as a visitor from the planet of the heteros, Joe Mantello’s direction rarely revs up to the dizzy velocity that farce demands."
Complaining "how seldom the fitfully funny comedy gets off the ground,"
Joe Dziemianowicz of New York's
Daily News writes: "Director Joe Mantello is aces at creating still moments....Mantello is less skillful when things are in motion. Slapstick chases and physical business, like when Googie accosts Proclo on a bed, are clumsy. What should be airy ends up a cement soufflé. Chamberlin, a fine comic actor, sets the wrong tone. He's too low-key lovable and not jangled enough. Perez injects Spanglish, spark and spunk, especially in her intentionally off-key medley, a scene that now suffers from been- there, seen-this, a million times."
Lamenting that its original "outrageousness now feels a little mummified,"
David Rooney of
Variety pans: "Terrence McNally's 1975 comedy mostly groans along as a pallid echo of a time both wilder and more innocent, when gay sex was still a risque subject. As in his starry but unsatisfying revival of
The Odd Couple two seasons back, Joe Mantello's slick direction is not always employed to best effect in comedy. In his overproduced staging of
The Ritz, he plays it broad, fast and loud but reveals no feel for farce, which requires a deft balance of giddiness and precision that also eludes most of his cast. What's more distressing, however, is that Mantello lacks any special insight into the era so affectionately captured by McNally."
Unlike the
last, ill-fated revival at another former disco den called
Xenon, this revival will move beyond one regular performance. I'll be taking in the show shortly and providing my SOB Review soon after.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Vulture Scoops Up Kevin Chamberlin (October 11, 2007)
Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Critics' Capsule, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
Vulture Scoops Up Kevin ChamberlinI've mentioned previously how much I admire the work of
Kevin Chamberlin. He's the number one reason (honest, I
swear) why I'm looking forward to seeing the revival of
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz, which opens this evening.
I first caught Chamberlin in the vastly underrated 1992 tuner
My Favorite Year. But when I really sat up and took notice was when he offered such a funny, yet heartfelt performance in
Dirty Blonde toward the beginning of this decade; it was no small wonder he earned a Tony nomination. He repeated that feat a year later with a nod for his work in
Seussical, with many thinking he was about the only good thing in that dud.
While he has three other Broadway credentials to his name, it's been over six long years since Chamberlin last opened on the Great White Way. Portraying Gaetano Proclo in
The Ritz, Chamberlin inherits a role originally created by the late
Jack Weston.
All that leads me to a great Q and A from
New York magazine's Vulture columnist Annsley Chapman, who probes Chamberlin on today's audience reactions to a 35 year old show set in a gay bath house. Interestingly enough, one female audience member was so scandalized by the content that Chamberlin said she had an altercation with the director. Chamberlin muses, "I mean, look at the poster, for God’s sake!"
I'll be taking in the show in the next few days. Look for my critics' capsule tomorrow morning.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Tonight: Puttin' On The Ritz (October 11, 2007)
Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Flashback: Best of 2003-04 (May 25, 2006)
Labels: Broadway, Dirty Blonde, Kevin Chamberlin, My Favorite Year, New York Magazine, Play, Revival, Seussical, Terrence McNally, The Ritz, Vulture
Tonight: Puttin' On The RitzIt's been 32 years since
Terrence McNally's
The Ritz first opened on the Great White Way.
Tonight, the revival of this steam sex farce opens at a venue that seem entirely apropos:
Studio 54. Helmed by
Joe Mantello -- arguably Broadway's current top director --
The Ritz stars
Kevin Chamberlin and
Rosie Perez.
The original production
ran for almost a year, but this limited run is scheduled through December 2.
Will the critics find the new production to be dated? Look for my critics' capsule tomorrow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.
Related Stories:Before The Holidays Strike? (September 25, 2007)
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths (May 31, 2007)
Labels: Broadway, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Opening Night, Play, Revival, Rosie Perez, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
The Ritz: Studio 54 To Transform Into Baths
Talk about coming full circle. The erstwhile den of 70s hedonism --
Studio 54 -- is headed back in a decadent direction this fall as the
Roundabout Theatre Company transforms the space back to the gloryhole days of
The Ritz.
With
Joe Mantello at the helm, this will mark the second revival of
Terrence McNally's 1975 seminal steamy sex farce set in the Big Apple's gay baths --
the first revival, which opened at the onset of the AIDS crisis in May 1983, closed after one regular performance.
Previews for the revival are set to begin September 14, with the opening scheduled for October 11. The comedy will enjoy a limited run through December 2.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: First Word On New Show, Joe Mantello, Kevin Chamberlin, Play, Revival, Roundabout Theatre, Terrence McNally, The Ritz
The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York City, New York
