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Drama Desk Coverage by Jimmy Merrill
Our special correspondent, Broadway journalist Jimmy Merrill, covers the 2010 Drama Desk Awards for NBC. Some great interviews! Look for Anne Hathaway, Viola Davis and Liev Schreiber. (Courtesy, NBC)
“Three” is an Addams Family Charm
The Addams Family musical continues its money-counting, critic-confounding ways with a box office gross of $1,339,693 for the week ending June 20.
And that’s a lucky Number Three, behind only Wicked and The Lion King.
IT’S OUT!! (The Cast Album, that is)
On June 8, the Cast Album of The Addams Family musical went on sale, released through Decca Broadway. We’ll have excerpts soon.
Here’s the Decca Broadway link —
CAUTION: If you follow the Decca Broadway link, a new window will open and that finger-snappin’ TV theme will play automatically. Be forewarned.
Kevin Chamberlin on Uncle Fester
Tony and Drama Desk nominee Kevin Chamberlin riffs on Uncle Fester, courtesy of playbill.com .
A Slim Day at the Tonys for the Addams Clan
The Addams Family musical only garnered two Tony nominations: Best Original Score, Andrew Lippa; and Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical, Kevin Chamberlin (as Uncle Fester).
Most surprisingly, leads Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth were left out, as were book writers Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman.
Of musicals, the revival of La Cage aux Folles led with 11 nominations, followed by Memphis with eight.
One of the most eagerly anticipated musicals of the season, the Addams Family was edged out for Best Musical by a show called, get this, American Idiot.
Our congratulations to Andrew and Kevin!
Interesting Review
This review from Chris Jones is especially interesting since he was one of the Chicago critics who apparently motivated the producers to apply major surgery to the show.
‘The Addams Family’ opens on Broadway with hilarious Nathan Lane, a little more snap-snap!
THEATER REVIEW
NEW YORK – The Addams Family enjoys near-death experiences. Broadway investors not so much. And thus “The Addams Family,” a musical conceived by a group of artists as individually gifted but collectively counter-intuitive as the lovable family created by cartoonist Charles Addams, opens on Broadway after taking a big lurch toward popular appeal.
At the Chicago tryout, this deeply confused show couldn’t stop running from the TV show on which it was pointedly not based. On Broadway, the fingers start snapping at the top of the overture.
They don’t give out awards for “most improved,” and “The Addams Family” did not undergo some spectacular 11th-hour artistic unification. But clear-eyed changes have moved what was a wildly uneven but ambitiously progressive affair in Chicago much more in the direction of classic, full-tilt, fast-paced, old-fashioned musical comedy — and regardless of reviews, they’re almost certain to cement this immensely popular title as a commercial hit on Broadway and beyond. (The show opened on Broadway with a whopping $15-million-plus advance and has been racking up “Wicked”-like box office returns since previews).
