All Entries in the "Nathan Lane" Category
Nathan Lane on Vacation from The Addams Family
Nathan Lane will be on vacation from The Addams Family Musical next week, August 24 thru 29. We’d love to hear from anyone who’s seeing the show with Merwin Foard in as Gomez. 
Please leave your comments here.
Nathan Lane on the set of Modern Family
Eric Stonestreet tweeted this picture of him and Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the set of Modern Family with guest star Nathan Lane.
Nathan Lane to Appear on “Modern Family”
I was so excited when I read this. If you haven’t seen “Modern Family”, now you have an excuse to tune in to TV’s funniest sitcom since “Seinfeld” (in my humble opinion).
Nathan Lane adds to ‘Modern’ family
by Gary Levin, USA Today Aug 1, 2010
Nathan Lane will guest star in ABC’s comedy hit Modern Family as Pepper, the flamboyant older friend of Mitchell and Cameron who was referenced last season.
He’ll appear in one of fall’s early episodes. Lane approached producers about doing the show, and executive producer Steven Levitan says he fits the part perfectly. But mostly, “we’re toning down on stunt casting; we don’t want to turn into a guest of the week. The audience loves our characters and we have enough of them” in the large ensemble.
That hasn’t stopped several big-name Hollywood stars from offering to play a part: “The network, if they found out, would be screaming at us to do it, but we’re not going there.” His biggest worry? “Not repeating ourselves. We’re scared of a sophomore slide.”
Executive producer Christopher Lloyd says other early episodes will involve an earthquake, “which triggers a crisis of confidence by Manny, of all people,” and an appearance by Cameron’s mother (yet to be cast), who rankles phobic Mitchell with her excessive “touching.”
Nathan Lane To Perform At The White House
Monday, July 19th – The President and First Lady will continue the White House music series celebrating the arts and demonstrating the importance of arts education by featuring Broadway music and its prestigious performers.
The Tony-winning performers are actor-singers Nathan Lane (two Tonys), Audra McDonald (four Tonys), Idina Menzel, Tonya Pinkins and Karen Olivo (one each, for “Wicked,” “Jelly’s Last Jam” and “West Side Story,” respectively), and pianist Marvin Hamlisch, a Tony winner for his score to “A Chorus Line.” Working behind the scenes is Jerry Mitchell, Tony-winning choreographer (for the 2004 revival of “La Cage aux Folles”), who will guide 20 Washington, D.C., dance students in a segment from “Hairspray,” another show he choreographed.
Also performing are Brian d’Arcy James (”Shrek: The Musical”), Chad Kimball (”Memphis”) and Assata Alston, a 12-year-old from Queens, N.Y., who recently debuted at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
The White House announced Friday that Elaine Stritch and “Hairspray” veterans Danielle Arci and Constantine Rousouli have been added to the show; Stritch is a Tony winner (for her one-woman show, “Elaine Stritch at Liberty”), bringing the ensemble’s collective career Tony haul to 12).
Presumably, critics who slammed the president and first lady last year for wasting taxpayer money when they flew to New York for dinner and a Broadway show (August Wilson’s drama “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone”) won’t complain about Broadway coming to them. Obama-watchers can catch the president’s show-opening remarks live on Monday at 4 p.m. Pacific on the Internet at www.whitehouse.gov, but the public will have to wait until October for the performances, which will be taped for broadcast Oct. 20 as an installment in the PBS series, “In Performance at the White House.”
Bebe & Nathan Soar at the Tonys
Bebe and Nathan hit it out of the park at the Tony Awards. And are incredibly good sports.
An Ode to Nathan (or Owed to Nathan)
Nathan Lane is almost unbelievably popular in New York theatre circles, as he should be. Here’s the latest ode — this time from the New York Times’ Charles Isherwood.
Why, It’s Good Old Reliable Nathan
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD, New York Times
Published: May 25, 2010
Nathan Lane as Gomez in the Addams Family Musical.
I WOULDN’T dare to venture an opinion as to who is the greatest actor to appear on Broadway in the past decade or so. Most accomplished diva? Definitely won’t touch that. But the greatest entertainer? That one is easy: Nathan Lane.
I don’t mean to slight Mr. Lane’s skills as an actor. (Or, for that matter, to imply that he’s no diva.) For evidence that he is a very fine actor, just check him out in the new musical “The Addams Family.” Mr. Lane looks as if he’s having a very good time, his impish way with a joke as appealing as ever, even with that Desi-Arnaz-with-a-head-cold accent.
Possibly he is not. “The Addams Family” got slammed by the critics and snubbed by the Tony nominators. Mr. Lane was left out of the lead actor in a musical category.
Watching Mr. Lane take natural command of the stage at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater, injecting comic adrenaline into an often lumbering show almost every time he opens his mouth, or simply turning those antic eyebrows into a teepee, the oversight seems absurd. Everyone pays lip service to the idea that comedy is the toughest gig in show business, but when it comes to scooping up jewelry for the mantelpiece, the tragedians have it all over the clowns. Although he has two Tony awards, for “The Producers” and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Mr. Lane has but one more nomination to his name.
Great stage entertainers are far rarer today than great stage actors, in part because there isn’t the material to support them. Mr. Lane could well prove to be the last of a breed, the all-around musical-theater performer. His is the kind of talent that provided the yeast for the blossoming of the Broadway musical in the first half of the last century.
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.
Nathan Lane is Broadway.com’s #1 Superstar of the Decade
Broadway.com at 10: Top 10 Stage Superstars of the Decade
Features By Kathy Henderson, May 18, 2010
In the same way that Angelina or George Clooney can “open” a movie, a very short list of theater actors have the star power to attract producers (and audiences) on the strength of their name and talent alone. Broadway.com’s tenth anniversary is the perfect time to pay tribute to 10 stage superstars of the past decade—and to thank them for their loyalty to the Great White Way.
1. Nathan Lane
To borrow a lyric from his Tony-winning character Max Bialystock, Nathan Lane reigns as “the king of old Broadway.” After his triumph in The Producers (2001), Lane could have coasted through his pick of musical revivals, but he’s insisted on stretching his outsize talent in an impressive series of shows with nothing in common beyond his desire to bring them to Broadway: his own adaptation of The Frogs (2004), a smash-hit revival of The Odd Couple (2006), a black-comedy turn in Butley (2006), David Mamet’s satirical November (2008), an acclaimed revival of Waiting for Godot (2009) and now an irresistible performance as Gomez in the new musical The Addams Family. Wow! Where Nathan goes, audiences follow.
The following actors finish the list. To read the entire article, click here.
2. Patti Lupone
3. Kristin Chenoweth
4. Harvey Fierstein
5. Hugh Jackman
6. Liev Schreiber
7. Laura Linney
8. Angela Lansbury
9. Audra McDonald
10. Mary-Louise Parker
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.
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.
Don’t Miss Nathan Lane on Letterman Tonight!
Nathan Lane arrives at The Late Show studio
Tonight (Friday, April 2), Nathan Lane joins Dave on The Late Show With David Letterman. And tune in again on Tuesday, April 6 to catch the cast of The Addams Family perform!
USA Today’s Video Interview with Bebe Neuwirth and Nathan Lane
USA Today has a video interview up with THE ADDAMS FAMILY stars – Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth:
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.”
Addams Family Musical Stars Chat with USA Today
by Todd Plitt, USA Today
‘Addams Family’ stars: Kooky, spooky, in no way spoofy
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth may be dressed in black — a color also favored by Gomez and Morticia Addams, whom they play in the new Broadway musical The Addams Family— but there’s not a whiff of the macabre in the stars’ relaxed conversation.
And perhaps that’s fitting. Based on the Charles Addams cartoons that inspired the hit TV series of the 1960s, this new adaptation — with a book by Jersey Boys librettists Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and a score by Andrew Lippa— presents a happy, loving family. “It’s just that everything they like happens to be the opposite of what ‘normal’ people like,” Lane says.
Chatting hours before a recent preview at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where The Addams Family opens April 8, Lane and Neuwirth discuss the pressures and pleasures of bringing their iconic characters to the stage.
Q: When did you first become familiar with the Addams Family?
Neuwirth: I watched the show on television as a little girl, then discovered the cartoons when I got a bit older.
Lane: I watched the show first, too, and loved it.
Neuwirth: Did you want to be Gomez?
Lane: Nah, I didn’t project myself into it. I just thought it was really fun and different. It only ran for a couple of seasons, but they were obviously memorable.
Q: How about Morticia, Bebe? She’s the first character you’re creating for a new Broadway musical.
Neuwirth: I loved Morticia so much as a girl. I think many women love her; she’s really archetypal. So it’s very important to me that she’s represented properly — that she doesn’t have anything dopey to do or say, or anything that isn’t honest. I feel I have to take care of her.
Q: Word is that this show takes its spirit from Charles Addams’ cartoons. Is there anything that will surprise people who are only familiar with the TV series?
Neuwirth: Its depth.
Lane: Yes, I think we win them over with humor and then …
Neuwirth: Then we sock ‘em in the solar plexus!
Lane: People will expect to laugh and have a good time, but maybe not to be moved by it. But there are some very touching moments.
Neuwirth: The big musical theater moments are there, but they happen in a way that’s true to the Addams Family. There are no sequins on this stage. Nobody wears anything shiny.
Q: Gomez and Morticia are a pretty hot couple. How do you get that chemistry across?
Neuwirth (coyly): You’ll see. Look, these people love each other, they love their family. They love their pets. The boy (the Addams’ son, Pugsley, played by Adam Riegler) has a big lizard, but he loves it like a puppy dog.
Lane: It’s just great fun to be them, you know? For me, it’s been joyous to play someone who is so positive about everything. That’s the opposite of me.
Q: After the show’s run in Chicago last year, (veteran director) Jerry Zaks was brought in as a creative consultant. There was speculation that the darker, more sophisticated humor of the cartoons didn’t translate for audiences expecting to see the TV show replicated. Any truth to that?
Neuwirth: That had nothing to do with it. The show was very good in Chicago; we packed the house every night, and they stood up and cheered. But a good show can get better.
Lane: The producers felt we needed a fresh pair of eyes, and fortunately, Jerry agreed to work with us. And he’s been able to come in like a Jewish Ty Pennington and give us an extreme makeover. But that’s how shows have been created for years — friends give advice, people help.
Neuwirth: You go out of town, you make changes and it keeps evolving.
Lane: Of course, this is a high-profile show, so everyone’s got an opinion. People say (affects a lofty tone), “It’s the most highly anticipated musical of the season.” It’s like you’re being set up for a fall. We’ve done a tremendous amount of work, and there’s more to come. A lot of fun, but a lot of work, too.
The Addams Family One Of Week’s Top Broadway Grossers
Lunt-Fontanne current marquee, photo by Matthew Blank
Broadway box offices warmed up a bit this week, with The Addams Family, which began previews on March 8, proving one of the week’s top grossers. The new musical, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, brought in over $1.1 million in just seven performances, and filled the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre to 98.6% capacity. Impressive numbers indeed!
Here is a look at who was on top for the week ending March 14:
FRONTRUNNERS (By Gross)
1. Wicked ($1,505,286)
2. The Addams Family ($1,192,213)
3. The Lion King ($1,191,289)
4. Billy Elliot ($1,124,274)
5. Jersey Boys ($1,052,412)
