All Entries in the "Creative Team" Category
Lane Steals The Show At The Drama League Luncheon
Nathan Lane may feel as though he’s getting no respect for his portrayal of Gomez Addams in the new Broadway musical The Addams Family, but the two-time Tony winner certainly stole the show at the Drama League Luncheon Friday at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks presented Lane with the award for Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theater, and the star-studded dais, which included Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, Vanessa Williams and Michael Urie, and the rest of the room roared with laughter and cheers throughout his acceptance speech.
Here’s what he said:
Well, this is the best Drama League Luncheon I’ve ever been to. … I want to say how grateful I am that you chose me for this honor before the reviews for The Addams Family appeared. Otherwise, we’d be honoring Bernadette Peters this afternoon. But the good news is: People in America don’t like to read. … I’ve been an actor for 35 years and The Addams Family is my 17th show on Broadway. Lucky No. 17. …
This is the second elder statesman award I’ve received in a month, and I’m starting to feel like Betty White. As an elder statesman, I’d like to say: Try to be kind to one another and not take [this awards season] too seriously, unless, of course, you’re winning. Good luck at the Tonys, or as they call it at my house, Passover.
I don’t think there’s anything more difficult to create in the theater than a new musical. When it works, it can be glorious, which is why people keep trying, and why the list of great musicals is so short. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying and why we should not be afraid to fail honorably. The irony of receiving this award this year is not lost on me. It’s no secret that The Addams Family was not well-received in certain circles, like the Earth.
Yet it has become a success with audiences. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, best summed up by the words of my dear, departed mother who used to say to me as a child: ”F*ck ‘em!” May all your shows be hits, may you get lots of rest and stay hydrated, and remember what is most important: to do the best you can. Thank you!
Congratulations, Mr. Lane, on this very “Distinguished” award.
“The Addams Family” Visits Borders at Columbus Circle
On Friday, May 14th, Borders Columbus Circle will present “The Addams Family: From Page to Stage”. At the event, Sarah Henry, curator of the Charles Addams Exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, will lead a discussion with The Addams Family creative team members Andrew Lippa (Composery/Lyricist), Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman (Book Writers). Joining them will be Kevin Miserochhi, author of the new collection of Charles Addams drawings entitled “An Evilution”.
The event will begin at 5pm with a discussion of the show’s development, as well as a performance by Tony nominee Kevin Chamberlin, and members of The Addams Family cast.
Drama Desk 8, Tony 2
With the two measly Tony nominations for Addams Family, the eight Drama Desk nominations look just fine to the producers, I’m sure. I have them listed below.
It’s curious to me how two such well-established awards could have such drastically different outcomes. La Cage Aux Folles led the musicals in Tony noms (11) but actually had one fewer Drama Desk nom than Addams Family.
Anyone care to comment?
Drama Desk Nominations for The Addams Family
Outstanding Musical
Outstanding Actor in a Musical: Nathan Lane
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical: Kevin Chamberlin
Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical: Carolee Carmello,
Outstanding Music: Andrew Lippa
Outstanding Lyrics: Andrew Lippa
Outstanding Lighting Design: Natasha Katz
Outstanding Set Design: Phelim McDermott, Julian Crouch & Basil Twist
Note: Drama Desk made an executive decision to include Basil Twist’s puppetry under Set Design.
Speculating on an Addams Family National Tour
Patrick Healy’s recent NY Times article (see “The Addams Family” A Critic-Proof Smash) got me thinking about an Addams Family national tour. If and when the show goes on the road, what might be the first stop? I haven’t found any substantiating evidence on the subject, but if I was to speculate, I would start with FIVE CENT PRODUCTIONS.
Five Cent Productions, which shares an Addams Family Producer credit, is a managing member of Elephant Eye Theatrical. Its members are nationally renowned performing arts centers that are proactively developing new theatrical material for their own theaters and stages worldwide. Here’s a quick look at each of the Five Cent members:
♦♦ Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts of Hartford, CT, whose President and CEO, David Fay, is Five Cent’s managing member.
“Connecticut’s Premier Performing Arts Center”
The Bushnell’s upcoming shows include Porgy and Bess, South Pacific and Steve Solomon’s My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish & I’m STILL in Therapy. For more information, visit Bushnell’s website.
♦♦ The Citi Performing Arts Center of Boston, MA
“…one of the nation’s foremost nonprofit performing arts institutions”
Between their two theatres, the Wang Theatre and the Shubert Theatre, Citi’s upcoming shows are a mix of comedy (George Lopez and Conan) and music (Diana Ross and Celtic Thunder), with Jesus Christ Superstar and Dora the Explorer thrown in the mix. Click here to visit Citi’s website.
♦♦ The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts of St. Paul, MN
“crown jewel of Saint Paul”
The Ordway’s 2010-2011 season boasts such theatrical offerings as Evita, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Stomp, Next to Normal, Guys and Dolls, and 9 to 5 the Musical. Click here for more information.
♦♦ The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts of Philadelphia, PA
“Premier performing arts groups reside in The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Academy of Music, forming an exciting community of artists, and an oasis for art lovers”
The Kimmel Center has an impressive 2010-2011 Broadway series on tap, which includes Jersey Boys, Les Miserables, In The Heights, Mary Poppins, South Pacific and Next to Normal. Visit their website for more information.
♦♦ Pittsburgh CLO
“Exceptional Musical Theater for More Than Half a Century”
Current and upcoming productions (between now and September) include Nunsense, Oliver, Miss Saigon, Curtains, The Producers, and Hairspray. Check out their website for more information.
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♦♦ Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
“The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and development of Pittsburgh’s downtown Cultural District.”
Click here for more information on the venues of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.
So, all of you in the areas of Hartford, Boston, St. Paul, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, keep your eyes and ears open. And let us hear from you!
The Addams Family Nominated for Drama League Awards
Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth announced Drama League Award nominees, live at Sardi's
On April 20, 2010, Bebe Neuwirth (The Addams Family) and Kelsey Grammer (La Cage aux Folles) announced nominations for the 76th Annual Drama League Awards, to be presented at a ceremony and luncheon May 21 in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.
Among this year’s nominees:
DISTINGUISHED PRODUCTION OF A MUSICAL
The Addams Family
Book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice; Music and Lyrics by Andrew Lippa (Lunt-Fontanne Theatre)
DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE AWARD
Nathan Lane, The Addams Family
In addition to this year’s nominees, nine past recipients of the Distinguished Performance Award will be honored for their work this season. However, because an individual can only receive the Distinguished Performance Award once in his/her lifetime, they are ineligible for award consideration this year. Among those past honorees will be Bebe Neuwirth of The Addams Family.
The Drama League announced earlier this Spring that among it’s special recognitions, Nathan Lane will receive the Distinguished Achievement in Musical Theatre Award.
Great honors, indeed. Congratulations to The Addams Family!
Click here to view a list of all nominees.
Wanna Know How Nathan Lane Refers to Michael Riedel?
New York magazine chats with Bebe Neuwirth about her thoughts on The Addams Family experience; and reveals co-star Nathan Lane’s “pet” name for Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel:
Her Kooky Destiny
As Morticia Addams, Bebe Neuwirth is hoping for a perfect fit
I gave a lousy show last night,” Bebe Neuwirth says about fifteen minutes into a chat in her dressing room at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. It seems she fell victim to the storied theater curse that is the “second show,” in which, as Neuwirth explains it, the relief of nailing a part in the first performance before a paying audience leads to a deceptively difficult following night. “It’s a trade secret,” she says. When I note that the cheering audience didn’t seem to notice, Neuwirth immediately regrets her candor: Leaning into the digital recorder at her knee, and with a pointed look in my direction, she says, “I don’t want anyone to tell them I had a bad show!”
Sorry, but what might in another context serve as a cheap gotcha provides a humanizing moment for Neuwirth, who, in her 25 years in show business, has excelled at the stylized and remote. As shrink Lilith Sternin on Cheers, she etched pop culture’s platonic ideal of an ice queen. Her 1996 Tony-winning turn in Chicago as Velma—little black minidress, big red lips, blinding white skin—was an equally iconic take on a brassy Broadway siren. Her current role, as Morticia, in the new, $16.5 million musical adaptation of The Addams Family (opening April 8), finds Neuwirth back in signature pallor and basic black. Although the production is based on Charles Addams’s macabre drawings for The New Yorker, the 51-year-old Neuwirth took the part because of a childhood infatuation. “Marshall Brickman called me up to say he’d written this musical, The Addams Family, and I just about screamed because I loved Carolyn Jones. Her Morticia [on the mid-sixties ABC sitcom] was really an archetypal character. As a child, I wanted to embody her qualities.” Wry, stoic, and smarter than her hot-blooded mate (John Astin’s Gomez), TV’s Morticia was a dark prefeminist outlier in a TV landscape known more for the va-va-voom vacuity of Ginger, Mary Ann, and Jeannie. “She wasn’t even part of that competition,” says Neuwirth. “She was doing her own thing. Who knows what that inner life of hers was, but she was hip. You know, I think Rhea Perlman’s character on Cheers once referred to me as Morticia.”
There is a certain Shelley Duvall–playing–Olive Oyl inevitability to Neuwirth’s latest role. “From the very top of the show, the audience sees Bebe and they go, ‘That’s Morticia,’ ” notes composer Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party). “It’s like that feeling you get watching Barry Bonds at the plate; this fantastic moment where it looks like it’s going to be great … and then it is great. And boy is that satisfying.”
This being Broadway, there’s the usual tabloid gossip of backstage bickering between Neuwirth and her Gomez, Nathan Lane. “I was told Cindy Adams reported that we had a frosty relationship,” says Lane. “And then [Post theater columnist] Michael Riedel—or as I like to call him, Rosemary’s Baby—picked up on that. The most shocking thing about that is that Cindy Adams is still alive. God bless her, still trying to stir it up, and I wish her well. But it couldn’t be further from the truth.” As Neuwirth puts it, “I think we both have a nice, healthy dose of diva. But we also do really go together. You’ve got the little clown running around, and you have a very still, dry person. That’s a fun pairing.”
Neuwirth’s last extended appearance on Broadway was a second go-round with Chicago in 2006, that time as Roxie. Since then, she’s mostly been offered TV roles. But she finds regular series work, like her two short-lived Dick Wolf dramas Deadline (2000) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), too ponderous. “It’s the waiting around and the long hours on set,” says Neuwirth. “I’m a dancer first, and a very physical person. Even Cheers was difficult for me, and that’s one of the best shows ever.” On the other hand, scripts were not “piling up outside my door … and being middle-aged makes it exponentially harder to find a role. I don’t fit into the wives, mothers, and housewives stereotype.”
Unless it’s the sort of wife and mother who wears black gowns slit to here and dominatrix boots up to there. (The boots were Neuwirth’s contribution to Morticia’s costume, revealed to thunderous audience approval.) It’s been nearly two years since the actress did her first Addams Family table read. After a commercially boffo but critically so-so holiday-season tryout on the road, the production has been, depending on whom you ask or read, tweaked, reshaped, or overhauled. And that’s especially true of Morticia. The show’s plot has a smitten Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) rejecting her parents’ eccentricity in the hope of marrying a milquetoast small-town boy, spurring a conflict that leaves Morticia feeling old and irrelevant. In the harshest of the out-of-town reviews, the Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones noted that Neuwirth “looks like she’s not having much fun.” Neuwirth was stung by the comment but doesn’t necessarily disagree: “In that production, Morticia was deeply, deeply unhappy from the middle of the first act through the end of the show.”
“That’s not a fun thing to play,” says Lane, “and it kind of undermined the character.” The creative team, he adds, “had to find a wittier way of dealing with it and not make it her main story line.” That, presumably, is part of the job of multi-Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks, who was brought in at the end of last year to consult with the show’s designer-director team, Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott (Shockheaded Peter). Songs have been cut, others are still coming; Neuwirth is getting an upbeat number that will help tip Morticia away from concerned mom and back toward vamp. “My forte is restrained sarcasm and a certain kind of bearing, which is what Morticia has also, so it’s a good match. But the character wasn’t served as well as she could have been—the part stressed panic,” says Neuwirth, pointing out that Morticia doesn’t do panic. “The show’s getting better all the time, but I don’t think it’s quite right yet. I’m awaiting more wisecracks.”
New And Improved Addams Family Musical Hits Broadway Running
photo by Matt Hoyle
Seth Rudetsky Lunches With The Ladies of “The Addams Family”
On a recent Thursday, actor, writer, music director and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky had the pleasure (so it seems) of lunching with the ladies of The Addams Family. He shares that experience in his February 1 Playbill.com article ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunched:
“…On Thursday I had lunch at delicious 44×10 with Bebe Neuwirth, Krysta Rodriguez, Carolee Carmello and Jackie Hoffman, who are the four leading ladies from the The Addams Family musical. I’m writing a feature on them for the March Playbill, and we had a great/delicious time. If you’ve seen Jackie’s Joe’s Pub shows, you’d know that she’s always complaining about not getting gigs. One of her biggest laments is about not even being able to get an audition for Fiddler on the Roof. Well, true to form, as soon as we sat down, she noticed that her bread plate was empty and she quipped, “Look! It’s just like Broadway. I didn’t get a roll.” Brava on the double meaning. I bit into my delicious roll and asked her what the audition was like for the role of Grandma. She remembered that she looked at the scene and noticed there was a little salty language in it, so she figured she could do one of her original songs. The language in her act is more than a little salty, and this particular song is about her resenting being asked to do non-stop benefits. It begins with: “F*** you for asking me to do a show for free!” and then repeats that theme many times. When the song was over, she received a sea of blank faces… and no call back. However, that was for the initial workshop, and later on she was asked to go in again…this time for the Chicago-to-Broadway production. She was slated to do the Doug Cohen/Douglas Carter Beane musical Big Time, which would mean that she’d have to choose between the two if she got cast as Grandma. She knew she couldn’t sing the same song she sang before (non-stop cursing = blank British faces), so she decided to sing one of her songs from Big Time because it was fabulous and always brought down the house. She told me that she “had the chutzpah” to call the composer and ask for a copy of the music…but not tell him she was using it to audition for a show that would prevent her doing his show! He got the sheet music to her, she auditioned and got Addams Family and subsequently chose to leave Big Time. Doug Cohen, the composer, called her a few days later and warily asked, “Jackie, did you use my song for your Addams Family audition?” Jackie admitted she did. She told me that she then literally heard a wail emanate from the phone. The good news is Big Time was postponed, so hopefully she can eventually do both shows!
Speaking of auditions, Carolee was starring in Mamma Mia! when she was asked to come in for the reading of Addams Family. She looked over the monologue and was surprised that there were all of these great Broadway ladies at the audition. S he then found out that the audition wasn’t for the reading, it was for the Broadway production! She frantically took out the monologue and this time gave it more than a once over. Apparently, she sassed her audition because she got the role of Alice Beineke. She and Terrence Mann (the original Rum Tum Tugger in Cats) play a couple who are visiting the Addams family manse. She told me that she and “Terry” have a completely different style of acting in a show eight times a week. Carolee loves to figure out how something should be played and then lock it in. Terry, who plays Mal Beineke, likes to make different choices each night. And, I mean different. Bebe said that there’s one entrance he does that has a totally new take each night. At one performance it was sultry and seductive, and Bebe whispered to Nathan (Lane), “Here comes Barry White.” The next night it was high energy and rock n’ roll-ish, and Nathan whispered, “Look. It’s Rum Tum Mal.”
The ladies were all telling me that Jackie has a section of the show where she gets to improv, and I asked for an example. Bebe told her to tell me about the Dec. 31 line. Apparently, on that night, Grandma croaked out, “It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m going to go up to my room for some Dick. (long pause). Clark.”
We were all talking about Jerry Zaks, who is coming in to oversee the production, and Bebe mentioned that he was in the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof. I nodded, but then said I thought it was the national tour. She was adamant that it was the Broadway production because he knew a family friend of hers who played the Constable. I then said that the Grease tour was his first big credit, and that happened in the 70’s and Fiddler was more of a 60’s show. I mentioned that maybe the Constable did the tour as well. I could tell the whole table was annoyed at my obsession with minutiae, so I decided to get to the bottom of it. I whipped out my cell phone and texted Jerry. Of course Jackie yelled, “You have his cell phone number? I don’t have his cell phone number!” I ignored her and typed away. I wrote that I needed to know whether he did Fiddler on Broadway or on tour. Lunch ended before I heard back from him, but as I walked up Ninth Avenue I got his text: ”Alas. Only on tour.” HA! I don’t want to say, “I told you so, Bebe,”…so I’ll write it: I told you so, Bebe…”
Michael Riedel Can’t Get Enough of “The Addams Family”
It’s only been a month since New York Post gossip columnist Michael Riedel drew the ire of The Addams Family’s Nathan Lane and Rick Elice (see Lane and Elice react to Riedel’s Comments), but he’s at it again. In his latest article, Fast Lane to a better play, Riedel admits to being one of the vultures circling overhead the musical. And once again he relies on ”sources close to the show” to provide accusations such as “ Broadway’s top musical star (Lane) is, I’m told, pretty much calling the shots on this $15 million musical…”
While drawing attention to Riedel feels like reacting to a child throwing a temper tantrum, I just can’t help it. It’s so darned entertaining.
A Look At What’s “Troubling” The Addams Family
Hiring Jerry Zaks as a “creative consultant” to the Addams Family team (see Tony Award Winner Jerry Zaks Joins Addams Family Creative Team) has left the door open for speculation that the bound for Broadway show is in trouble. And while the producers emphasize that the show is not in trouble, they do acknowledge that the musical needs changes to improve its hopes for a long run and a potentially lucrative life as a touring production. That makes perfect sense to me, and I feel confident that the hugely talented creative team of the Addams Family Musical will happily make the changes necessary to bring a smash hit show to Broadway on April 8.
But it does make one wonder….what causes what many believed to be a sure-fire hit not so sure-fire? Many have jumped at the opportunity to answer that question, and an article earlier this month by Patrick Healy of the NY Times, in my opinion, does a great job of getting to the meat of the issue: “What works brilliantly in morbidly hilarious cartoons …is a tougher trick to translate to live theater…” And he doesnt’ stop there. Healy did his research and put together an article that takes an in depth look into the challenges of transforming “… a series of darkly witty moments — some even without captions…” into a successful Broadway musical.
That Old Black Magic, So Hard to Recapture
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 5, 2010, NY Times
CHICAGO — Among the dozens of cartoons that Charles Addams drew of his devilishly subversive Addams family is one in which Gomez and Morticia; their daughter, Wednesday; son, Pugsley; and manservant, Lurch, are admiring the view from their new picture window. The view is of a cemetery crowded with tombstones.
A cemetery is also the setting of the first scene of the new “Addams Family” musical, now finishing a tryout here before its scheduled arrival on Broadway in March. In that opening number, “Clandango,” the family dances and sings about loyalty to the Addams way of life; a chorus rollicks around the stage carrying gravestones; and Morticia and Wednesday team up for a mother-daughter tap dance atop a coffin.
What works brilliantly in morbidly hilarious cartoons, however, is a tougher trick to translate to live theater, as the producers of “The Addams Family” have learned.While the musical has drawn huge audiences here, it has received mixed reviews from critics and raised enough concerns for the producers that last week they took the unusual step of hiring the Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks to take over and work with the creative team to make 11th-hour fixes to the production, which stars Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.
Unlike most musical adaptations for Broadway, which come from movies or books, the producers of “The Addams Family” musical chose to base their show on Addams’s cartoons, mainly published in The New Yorker magazine in the 1940s and ’50s. Preferring to eschew the slapstick humor of the popular “Addams Family” television show of the 1960s and three movies in the ’90s, the producers have said their goal was to create a musical that reflected the mordant wit of the cartoons, like the famous one of Gomez, Morticia and Lurch preparing to pour a cauldron of boiling oil on a group of Christmas carolers.
The Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, which holds the copyrights to all of Addams’s works, granted the rights for a Broadway musical to one of the show’s lead producers, Stuart Oken, because he shared the foundation’s desire “to ignore all previous interpretations of the characters known as the Addams family and to create a new story based solely upon the cartoons by Charles Addams,” H. Kevin Miserocchi, the executive director of the foundation and one of its two trustees, said in an e-mail message.
The challenge is undoubtedly steep, given Addams’s ingenuity.
Brickman and Elice’s Jersey Boys Chicago Run Comes To An End
Sunday was a sad day for the Chicago theater community, not to mention to Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman. Not only did they say goodbye to The Addams Family Musical, which finished up its eight week pre-Broadway try-out, but they also bid farewell to the Chicago run of Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theatre. At its closing, the show had played 27 months – a total of 951 performances – and been seen by 1.3 million patrons.
Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune, Theater Loop Blog had this to say about the Jersey Boys closing: “…while all closings are emotional, there’s no question that Jersey Boys, which has been kept in top form and looked as good Sunday as on its opening night, exceeded all reasonable expectations in Chicago and proved that shows other than Wicked could sit down here and thrive.
Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, the authors of (conveniently) both Jersey Boys and The Addams Family, took the stage at the Jersey Boyscurtain call, with Elice noting that ‘what we thought was going to be a 10-week stint’ had, in fact, turned into a run seen by 1.3 million people. ‘This has to be the most spectacular opening night I have ever experienced,’ Brickman joked, clearly moved by the emotion of the occasion.”
Congratulations to Rick and Marshall on the successful run of Jersey Boys in Chicago. May all their endeavors be so blessed!
Rachel de Benedet Takes The Stage as Morticia
Rachel de Benedet, understudy for Morticia
Some Broadway shows go an entire run without ever having to make use of the understudies. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for the Addams Family Musical in Chicago. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Nathan Lane took ill and was replaced (superbly, I hear) by his understudy Merwin Foard (Nathan Lane Out Sick Thanksgiving Weekend). On the weekend of the new year, Bebe Neuwirth apparently suffered from tendonitis, giving her understudy, Rachel de Benedet, the chance to show off her Morticia. And show off she did … a few comments I’ve seen floating around …
…”Rachel de Benedet was a terrific Morticia. (She) and Nathan Lane had really good chemistry, for her being an understudy…”
…”(de Benedet) was absolutely stunning as Morticia and her voice was clear and gorgeous…”
…”I can’t believe Bebe Neuwirth was sick. The understudy was great though.”
Ms. de Benedet is no stranger to Chicago. In September of ‘08 she could be seen performing with Rachel York and Jeff Daniels in the Goodman Theatre’s world premiere musical Turn of the Century, which was directed by Tommy Tune, with the book penned by none other than Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.
Most recently, Rachel co-starred with Norbert Leo Butz, Aaron Tveit, Tom Wopat, Kerry Butler and many more in the world premiere of Catch Me If You Can in Seattle last summer. It will be interesting to see what happens when/if that show comes to Broadway in the Fall.
Congratulations to Rachel on her most successful “fill-in”. And we wish Ms. Neuwirth a very speedy recovery!
Tony Award Winner Jerry Zaks Joins Addams Family Creative Team
- Jerry Zaks
According to the New York Times, Addams Family producers announced Monday that Tony Award winning director Jerry Zaks has been hired as a “creative consultant” to supervise significant changes to the production, now in it’s final week of try-outs in Chicago.
Stuart Oken (producer) said that feedback he has received “is that perhaps we were taking a little too much for granted assuming that the audience walks in with the relationship with the Addams family fully intact, and we didn’t appropriately reconnect the audience to the family members.”
The original creative team will remain in tact, with Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch still listed as the directors and production designers, but Mr. Zaks will apparently be “running the show”.
According to the Times article, Mr. Zaks is close to Mr. (Nathan) Lane, having directed him in the long-running Broadway musical revivals of “Guys and Dolls” in 1992 and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” in 1996, for which Mr. Lane won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical. Mr. Oken and Mr. Furman said Mr. Lane neither demanded nor requested that Mr. Zaks or any other show doctor be hired.
Kudos to the Addams Family team for not being too vain to admit that they needed a little help, and going out and getting it. After all, that’s what a try-out is all about - if you find that some things don’t work, you fix them.
To read the entire Times article, click here.
Lane and Elice react to Riedel’s Comments
In a recent New York Post article entitled “‘Addams Family’ Vacation,” columnist Michael Riedel … accused Nathan Lane of gossiping about the show at the Four Seasons Spa … made sarcastic comments about the creative team’s holiday travel plans … and referred to the show as “troubled.” Now, I’ve never been a fan of Riedel’s style of “journalism” (using gossip gathered by his so-called “spies” for his “reporting”), but this was particularly irritating to me, especially since he hasn’t even seen the show himself.
Imagine my delight when I saw this article posted the very next day – “Lane’s World – excellent!” – in which Riedel shares Lane’s and Rick Elice’s reactions to his article.
In a letter to Riedel, Lane writes:
Dear Michael,
Just for the record, I am not a fixture at the Four Seasons spa, nor would I discuss the show in public in the manner you described . . .
Everyone on the creative team is working very hard to bring the best possible show into New York. I don’t have to tell you, but I’m going to anyway: Birthing a new musical is no day at the beach. As Larry Gelbart said, “If Hitler’s alive, I hope he’s out of town with a new musical.”
After your column today, I feel [Hitler] might be working for the New York Post.
‘Tis the season of giving, so give us a break! …
The article goes on to share Rick Elice’s reaction to the article:
… “We are not casually lounging in the tropics, nor even visiting tanning salons on the Upper West Side…We’re at work every day, amidst the snow and the shoppers, which is precisely where we want to be. It’s not easy work, but it’s a glorious challenge [and] I wouldn’t trade anything for it. Certainly not the beach, a tan or a mai-tai. Yes, it means we must share your pasty complexion, but we wear ours as a badge of honor.
Hope your holidays are filled with the leisure time about which you seem to enjoy writing. As for me, back to work.’”
I am SO glad to see Rick and Nathan taking up for themselves and the show, and tactfully letting Riedel know that they don’t appreciate being the butt of his “jokes.” Seeing that article yesterday made it a merry Christmas, indeed.
The Addams Family Musical Review “Recap”
Broadway In Chicago’s pre-Broadway world premiere presentation of The Addams Family, a new musical based on the bizarre family of characters created by legendary cartoonist Charles Addams, opened Wednesday, December 9 at the Ford Center for the Performing Arts’ Oriental Theater. The production continues in Chicago through January 10, and will play Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre beginning March 4, with an anticipated opening date of April 8.
The musical stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia Adams, with Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester), Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama), Zachary James (Lurch), Adam Riegler (Pugsley), and Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday) rounding out the “Family”. Playing the “family who comes to dinner” are Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmello as Mal and Alice Beineke, and Wesley Taylor as Lucas Beineke, Wednesday’s love interest.
The production features direction and design by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, and choreography by Sergio Trujillo.
Wednesday night’s performance was attended by many critics whose reactions are mixed, but the consensus is decidedly positive. Excerpts of some of those reviews follow:
By Hedy Weiss, Theater Critic, The Chicago Sun Times
“…there is rarely a dull moment as each grand shock of the new, each adjustment to change, each recognition of aging and each surprising rebirth wraps its arms itself around the characters of “The Addams Family.”
By Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
