Archive for January, 2012
Chicago sees The Addams Family National Tour Show as “significantly improved and far more satisfying”
Successfully remade ‘Addams Family’ adds the charm missing from Broadway version
Cast of The Addams Family
Chris Jones
Theater critic, The Chicago Tribune
1:32 p.m. CST, December 28, 2011
“The Addams Family” is not the first musical whose first national tour has been infinitely better than the Broadway production that gave birth to it: such past shows as “Big” and “The Civil War” were also greatly improved. But in most of these rare cases, different directors have retooled existing material. It’s hard to think of another show that has been revised so heavily and, for the most part, successfully, by its admirably indefatigable original authors and composer.
“The Addams Family” that return(ed) to Chicago…(did) not come with Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and the sense of must-see excitement and pumped-up pizazz that pervaded its pre-Broadway engagement at the Oriental Theatre in 2009. That’s the downside. But if Gomez, Morticia and the crew do not arrive like rock stars, this enjoyable if visually simplified national tour features many different songs from the Chicago tryout and a significantly improved and far more satisfying story.
And yes, it is plenty different enough that fans of the “Addams Family” franchise, especially those who have followed this show through its various traumas and trajectories (which we’ve extensively reported in these pages), might find it worth buying a cheap seat at the back and seeing what has gone on since Uncle Fester last fell in love with a Chicago moon. If you’re interested in seeing how multimillion-dollar shows can morph, you’ll find it quite fascinating. And I’ll guarantee you one thing: it won’t seem like the same show.
Finally, the director Jerry Zaks (who replaced Phelim McDermott during the first Chicago run) has been allowed to finish his kind of classic musical-comedy approach, most of the buzz-killing structural issues in the book have been resolved and, perhaps most importantly of all, everyone on the stage now comes off as sufficiently loose and relaxed that the zesty one-liners get to do their collective thing, and the show is actually allowed to be unpretentious and funny. This third shot at the piece by writers Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and composer Andrew Lippa most certainly has the most charm and efficacy. If only everyone had started somewhere near here. But then, if this stuff were easy, everyone would do it.
The Addams Family Broadway Takes Final Bow
The Addams Family played its final Broadway performance on Sunday, December 31 after 725 performances and 34 previews.
Since beginning previews on March 8 2009, The Addams Family has been seen by more than 748,000 people. Prior to Broadway, The Addams Family played an 8 week engagement at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, where it grossed more than $12 million, making it the most successful Broadway tryout in Chicago’s history.
The national tour of The Addams Family launched on September 15 at the Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts in New Orleans and is booked in more than 30 cities through 2012.
Get a look back at the production, from Chicago to Broadway and beyond, below!
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus (Broadway, Chicago); Jeremy Daniel (Tour)
The current Broadway cast of The Addams Family starred Brooke Shields as Morticia, Roger Rees as Gomez; Brad Oscar as Fester, Rachel Potter as Wednesday, Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Heidi Blickenstaff as Alice Beineke, Adam Grupper as Mal Beineke and Jesse Swenson as Lucas Beineke; the original Broadway cast included Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia, Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Wesley Taylor as Lucas Beineke and Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday.
