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
Bebe Neuwirth Heading Back To Chicago (Not What You Think)Incredible as it may seem, according to
Playbill,
Chicago veteran
Bebe Neuwirth is heading to the Windy City for her first starring role in an original-run of a Broadway-bound show. She'll be Morticia to
Nathan Lane's Gomez in the stage musical version of
The Addams Family, inspired by late cartoonist
Charles Addams.
The fantasy-league dream casting doesn't stop with those two principals. Neuwirth and Lane will be joined by
Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester and
Jackie Hoffman as Grandmama. The cast also includes
Terrence Mann,
Carolee Carmello,
Zachary James,
Adam Riegler,
Wesley Taylor and
Krysta Rodriguez.
Marshall Brickman and
Rick Elice of
Jersey Boys fame are providing the book, while
Andrew Lippa is offering the score for the tuner that will enjoy its world premiere at Chicago's Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, which had long been home to the city's sitdown production of
Wicked.
Given that this
Addams Family creation is based more on Addams' source material than the
television series or
films of the same name, I'm pretty stoked given the spot-on casting choices. The fact that
Phelim McDermott and
Julian Crouch of the seriously macabre
Shockheaded Peter fame are offering direction may make this altogether ooky, if not a scream.
Whether those decisions make it a snap in next year's Tony derby is yet to be seen.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Andrew Lippa, Bebe Neuwirth, Broadway, Cartoon, Charles Addams, First Word On New Show, Julian Crouch, Marshall Brickman, Musical, Nathan Lane, Phelim McDermott, Rick Elice, The Addams Family
Toxic: Jersey Boys Will Be Boys
At issue is a
February 14 Chronicle story meant to
celebrate the first, lengthy leg of
Jersey Boys' national tour. McAnuff, clearly a legend in his own mind, is thus featured and quoted:
Director Des McAnuff explains why there are only three actresses playing so many roles. When writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice approached McAnuff with the idea for Jersey Boys, there was no script, just the idea.
"I didn't like it very much," McAnuff recalls by phone from San Diego, where he's in rehearsals for Aaron Sorkin's new play, The Farnsworth Invention, at the La Jolla Playhouse. "Marshall and Rick were very gracious about the rejection. And even after I turned them down twice, they were very persistent. So we came up with the outline together. I helped them with the structure.
"And at one point, they came up with a chorus of 16 Jersey girls. Frankly, I didn't think it worked. It was ridiculously extravagant considering the blue-collar nature of the group. So, simply put, the reason we have three girls is because I said we could have three girls -- and that's it."
Not so, says Brickman, who has been honored with Oscar nomination
s, even winning one for his screenplay of "
Annie Hall." Apparently not one to sit idly by while being trashed by the director, Brickman fired back, in part:
We can finally put to rest any lingering doubts about who is responsible for the success of our little offering, Jersey Boys, currently at the Curran Theatre. It is, of course, the director. Le spectacle, c'est lui. I see him now, goose quill in hand, fingers raw, eyes bloodshot from his tireless restructuring of our 72-page "idea."
Would that I had known him years ago so he could have restructured the screenplays for "Sleeper" and "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan" and "Simon" and "Lovesick" and "The Manhattan Project" -- they might have won awards and gained some critical acclaim. Or instructed William Shawn in the proper restructuring of my New Yorker pieces.
But I was naive then and didn't know enough to be persistent. Twice we offered him the crown and twice he refused it, it says. Sheer modesty. We offered it to him 139 times. Only after we doused ourselves with gasoline and lit a match did he agree to interrupt his restructuring of the book for Dracula, The Musical to heed our pleas and, as a bonus, instruct us in the niceties of the musical theater: how to arrive fashionably late, how to humiliate the cast, how to create an atmosphere of collegiality rivaled only by a board meeting at Hewlett-Packard, how to give interviews that, for sheer fantastic invention, rival anything out of Lewis Carroll.
But why be churlish? I owe the man. He wrote our show, ate my dinner, married my wife and fathered my children. For all I know, he may have even written this letter.
Marshall Brickman
Co-author of
Jersey Boys
New York City
No word yet on whether McAnuff intends to claim songwriting credits for any of the Four Seasons' tunes used in the show.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Labels: Broadway, California, Des McAnuff, Jersey Boys, Jukebox Musical, Marshall Brickman, Musical, San Francisco, Touring Production
The Addams Family (The SOB Review) - Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York City, New York
