ADDAMS FAMILY problem- Page 5

[whatever2]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 1:13pm

yes, Mister Matt, there are people from NYC in Broadway audiences ... that doesn't make those audiences NYC audiences. (there's probably also people from dubuque in them ... by the logic you suggest i guess we should start calling people who go to broadway shows "iowans"???) :)

i suspect you know this already, but if you want to see a NYC theater audience, go to our equivalent of the goodman, or steppenwolf, or lookingglass: Second Stage ... Classic Stage ... Atlantic ... BAM ... yadda yadda.

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 1:32pm

Yeah, Joe, and the carnivorous plant was there as well as Morticia's proclivity for snipping the blooms off roses.... I get it. But, that approach wasn't thorough. There is so much humor to mine from the Addams Family and I saw that potential shrugged off in the interest of pandering pop-reference-heavy humor.... or odd gags about Ohio "A swing state!" that would only play for midwestern audiences. I was waiting for an Oprah joke to rear its head.

That scaly beast moment, btw, while neat, stopped the show dead for a bit when I saw it. I mean, it slowed the show down and everyone in the audience was a bit thrown. That there was no underscoring certainly did not help. Just dead air....

Now that I've criticized it further I will say one more bit of praise: I liked the moments involving Lurch, and thing's two brief cameos. Did I mention I like "In the Arms of Squid" and the tentacle effects were inventive?

Posted: 12/7/09 at 1:55pm

See, I thought the squid song was wildly out of place. The night I saw it, the monster under the bed drew giggles, but then a solid round of applause as the bed slid offstage. And if you think a joke about Ohio being a swing state will resonate only in the Midwest...well I guess we'll see about that.

That is a big part of the fun of seeing a preview, actually. The night I saw it, the biggest laugh was the "Health care" joke. I come on here and see it blasted by people who think that was the nights low point. Which view will prevail? Where will the critics fall? And even if the critics hate it, will the audiences agree? When the reviews ran, who could have ever guessed Wicked would become the biggest hit show in years?
Updated On: 12/7/09 at 01:55 PM

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 3:22pm

Yeah, the Ohio and health-care gags are funny, I guess, but I wish the humor were derived from a more Addams-specific place.

Tish: "Ohio! How exotic!" rings true, but Gomez: "Oh no! Ohio! A swing state!" does not, to my ear.

I think the Ohio-swing-state joke may resonate with some audiences in NY but I believe its origins to be set in appealing to the sensibilities of Chicagoans. I don't think that joke will make it to New York, but it might, sure.

"Arms of a Squid" is out of place, fer sher, but comparatively it made as much sense than any of the other songs, and it stuck with me long after that evening for sheer weirdness. The transformation of the Beineke's reminded me very much of the sexual odyssey of Brad and Janet in Rocky Horror. Did that cross anyones mind?

Posted: 12/7/09 at 3:33pm

I just frankly did not care about the Beienkes at all. He could have gotten eaten by the squid as far as I was concerned. I wanted to focus on the Addams Family.

[Kad]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 5:00pm

That swing state line sounds like something Nathan Lane may have ad-libbed once, either in a performance or rehearsal, that just stuck because it got a good response. Much like "Who do you have to **** to get a break in this town?" in The Producers (and god knows what else).

When you have people like Jackie Hoffman and Nathan Lane, who knows if that one-liner they're saying was in the book?

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 5:57pm

My thought too, Kad, but that kinda of thing NEEDS to go. The tone of Charles Addams is so delicate and nuanced that any jokes that are inconsistent with character or tone stick out like a sore thumb. General audiences may not think of these things, but I can't help hope we're striving for strong work; not merely acceptable work.

I wanted to focus on the Addams Family too, but more time was spent on musicalizing the Beineke plot that I walked away thinking about them more.

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 7:42pm

Yeah. the Beinekes slow the whole plot down...

I just watched the first movie again and realized that there are TWO musical numbers, not just one. The kindergarteners perform "Getting to Know You" and it's just as horrible as you'd expect. The movie makes me remember why I loved the Addamses- the musical is just a couple sex fiends in a haunted house full of the ghosts of political jokes past.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 10:29pm

When does this get reviewed?

[raggballad2]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 10:31pm

Wednesday is opening night, so reviews by Thursday?

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 12/7/09 at 11:03pm

^

Thank You

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 3:04am

The Addams Family rises to new heights of mediocrity.
Updated On: 12/8/09 at 03:04 AM

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 11:33am

The Beinekes are the plot, though.... without them..?

Posted: 12/8/09 at 11:46am

Bring 'em in, and have them storm off at the end of act 1. Bring 'em back at the finale and end the show with a reprise of "Full Disclosure" with each character telling what they learned over the course of the evening. The Beienkes spent the night "doing it" in central park. Marriage saved.

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 2:18pm

haha... orrr, remove the Beinekes altogether, force the family to interact amongst each other. Bring in that weird blonde "normal" cousin or something.. give Cousin It a song or two (j/k)... I don't know the show is fundamentally misconceived. I would have started it off Broadway without Nathan Lane who is such a showboat at this point. His improvisational style might work for Forum, but it's inappropriate in this context, I fear.

[flahooley2]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 3:25pm

START OFF-BROADWAY? THIS IS A 17 MILLION DOLLAR MUSICAL. HAVING SEEN THE SHOW, MR. LANE IS NOT SHOWBOATING, HE IS PLAYING THE ROLE OF GOMEZ, A LARGER THAN LIFE CHARACTER. AND KNOWING SOME OF THE CREATIVES, I CAN TELL YOU HE IS NOT IMPROVISING. THE ONLY PERSON WHO IMPROVISES OCCASIONALLY IS JACKIE HOFFMAN. IF HE SEEMS TO BE MAKING IT UP AS IT GOES ALONG, THEN THAT IS WHAT IS CALLED BEING SPONTANEOUS.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 3:43pm

whatever2 - I know exactly what you're saying. It's pretty much the same point I made in my post to which you responded. I just thought it was funny that it needed clarification, so I decided to just go with it. Perhaps I should have said "NYC theatregoers" or something so that we could avoid such heinous misrepresentation.

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 4:12pm

"Interestingly enough, Nathan Lane has adopted Raul Julia's pan-European accent, a feature he is only attributed in the movies. This is unusual since they claimed to be only based on the comics."

Funny, I just can't remember the accent he had in the comics?

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 4:16pm

"IF HE SEEMS TO BE MAKING IT UP AS IT GOES ALONG, THEN THAT IS WHAT IS CALLED BEING SPONTANEOUS."

Or spontaneously bad writing.

P

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 4:18pm

Looking at it again, the accent is less of the embellishment. Rather, this production's script in general plays up Gomez's Spanish background in a way none of the past adaptations have. It's a whole new element of his character that goes further than the accent- he speaks constantly about his Spanish ancestry.

Posted: 12/8/09 at 4:20pm

PGENRE HAVE YOU SEEN THE SHOW?

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 7:29pm

The show, as written, would play a lot better in a smaller venue with the ancestor chorus disposed of. Off-Broadway would have been a great place for it. The show as it was a few weeks into previews does not remotely represent what is expected on Broadway in scope OR writing competency. (Who really needs to see the Addams sing? Who needs to see them going through the predictable motions of Meet the Parents? Why is there so much dancing?) I don't care how much the thing cost. As a creative decision putting this tepid work on a pre-Broadway engagement going to NY was unwise. I'll be shocked if this is embraced; unless it goes under some serious revision.

Could we quit with taking the criticism so personally and reduce our usage of the caps lock please? Thanks.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/8/09 at 7:41pm

THE SCORE SUCKS. THE BOOK IS TERRIBLE.

SORRY, JOEKV.

One only needs ears and half a brain to understand that.

P

[Marlothom]

Posted: 12/9/09 at 11:26am

Saw this last night and had a lot of issues with it.
-The score is very weak (Pugsey's song? really? I don't think "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love is strong enough to be used so much, I can't remember many of the songs this morning, except maybe "Pulled" and "Full Disclousure".
-Lane's accent comes and goes and takes different permutations, but for the most part he just sounds like, well, Nathan Lane.
-Not sure if Newurth is doing the odd vibrato as a character choice but it sounds odd
-The ancestors! Half of the were selling the numbers and being sexy, the other half was acting like Zombies; I prefer the latter for this show. Also, anytime they sang, I could not understand a word they said.

The best part of the show for me, was the the house "board" fell and you saw the Adam's Family in all their glory.

All that being said, the show got an immediate standing O, so people must have had a good time. It definitely got huge laughs; I would be interested in reading the reviews tonight.

Updated On: 12/9/09 at 11:26 AM

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 12/9/09 at 11:50am

Oh, yeah, "Full Disclosure." I think I forgot about it because the confessions were also not particularly memorable. Fester is in love with the moon....