All Entries Tagged With: "Krysta Rodriguez; Zachary James"
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…”
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Making The Most of Christmas On The Road
by Misha Davenport, The Chicago Sun-Times (excerpt); December 23, 2009
Krysta Rodriguez (left) and Adam Riegler, members of "The Addams Family" cast, peruse holiday items during their Christmas stay in Chicago.
OK, the stockings hung by the chimney with care are just her socks taped to the wall of her apartment. But Krysta Rodriguez, currently starring as Wednesday Addams in the pre-Broadway tryout of the new musical “The Addams Family,” wouldn’t have it any other way.
“These are the kind of holidays I remember more even than the ones from my childhood,” Rodriguez says.
Like many actors in touring productions or out-of-town tryouts, Rodriguez finds herself away from home for the holidays. Though she and the rest of the cast of “The Addams Family” have both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, they’ll be back to work for a matinee at the Oriental Theatre on Saturday.
Two days isn’t much time to get out of town (especially in unpredictable weather) and as a result, most of the “Addams” family will be having a Chicago Christmas.
Rodriguez says she’s fine with it.
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
Share Your Experience
If you’ve seen The Addams Family Musical, please share your experience with others! Just post a comment to this article, and others can join in the ”conversation”. If you have pictures you would like to share, just e-mail them to afblog@comcast.net, and I will post them here.
Talking With Lurch (Zachary James)
Addams Family – an interview with Lurch (Zachary James)
One could easily make the assumption that Zachary James will be playing quite possibly the most intriguing Lurch ever written, with a musical surprise coming from the man Charles Addams described as a “towering mute.”
This extremely tall (possibly 12 feet?) handsome, bald man has his character Lurch’s physical demeanor down pat – when he demonstrated how Lurch stands hunched over with his arms locked straight holding a serving tray at his knees, he had me sold. In addition to this, James just happens to be a talented and accomplished opera singer as well as proven acting ability to go along with his powerful voice
James gave credit to producer Stuart Oken saying,
“Stuart took the time to look at each individual.”
James said that the talent in all aspects of this production, on stage and off stage, is what will make Addams Family a great musical.
Admitting to being nervous at first knowing he’d be working with Bebe Neuwirth (Morticia) and Nathan Lane (Gomez), James’ admission that, as a kid, he had watched the movie “Bird On a Wire” over a dozen times proved how he could be slightly intimidated to work with Lane.
Sneak-Peek Video of Vanity Fair Shoot
Great behind-the-scenes footage from the recent photo shoot of The Addams Family portrait for Vanity Fair’s December issue.
Addams Family Portrait
The Addams Family Portrait, photo by Mark Seliger, "Vanity Fair" (Dec. '09)
From the December, 2009 issue of Vanity Fair: These Goulish Things. The Addams Family cast, from left: Adam Riegler as Pugsly; Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday; Zachary James as Lurch; Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester; Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia; Nathan Lane as Gomez; and Jackie Hoffman as Grandma.
