Addams Family Review 1/05/10 -Slight Spoilers- — Page 2

Since apparently one needs to establish credentials in order to post an opinion here, I am not affiliated with any shows. I am an avid theatre-goer, both in Chicago and New York, and I have no agenda other than enjoying good theatre. I have been reading these boards for several years. Many shows have problems, and miss their shot at being great by varying degrees. Until seeing the Addams Family this week, I was never disappointed enough to post here. The reviews have alternated between raves and "a few problems that can be fixed." The show I saw this week was much worse than I have read about anywhere. The completely unenthused full house the night I saw the Addams Family - at least a few dozen left before the show ended - felt quite differently than the boosters on this board. At intermission a lady behind me was reading her program, telling her companion omygod there are TEN MORE SONGS in the second act - should we stay? As I said before, I wish every show well and I hope they can fix it before they open on Broadway, but judging from what I saw, it will take a complete rewrite.

Every time I went the show was sold out, had standing ovations upon first opening. I've gotta say that I think the Chicago audiences loved it.

can't wait to see what's in store for it in NYC.

They sold more tickets at a higher price- some people would see that as an indication people REALLY wanted to see it. Apparently that logic is flawed somehow.

The best week Wicked had in that theater was $1.7 million. Addams Family apparently AVERAGED $1.66 million.

Crazy, huh?

Perhaps you can explain why the show also set an all-time record for percentage of capacity? Something which has nothing whatsoever to do with ticket prices (indeed, the higher the ticket price, the LESS likely they would be to set a record for percentage capacity). And something which is even more impressive given the size of the Oriental relative to the Shubert where "Spamalot" and "Movin' Out" played pre-Broadway.

I've resigned myself to simply tolerating your ceaseless vendetta against TAF and the ridicule you heap on people who deign to contradict your opinion and actually like the show or find promise in it. Irrespective of the particular opinion you're expressing and whether I agree or disagree, you've demonstrated that you're a condescending, sarcastic, insulting and downright nasty jerk, but I can't change that.

At the very least, though, when it comes to verifiable facts, know what the hell you're talking about before you take people to task.
Addams Chicago Records

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So, the show is brilliant AND popular!

Just like WICKED!

Popular and GOOD are two different things. A show can be one of those or both. Wicked is Popular, but not good. TAF is BOTH popular AND good!

Pgenre - Please do us all a favor and shut up.

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Is that what that line means? God, I wondered. Now I just have to figure out who TAF is.

Oh, please, you are a tool and no likes you. Toodles!

P

"Is that what that line means? God, I wondered. Now I just have to figure out who TAF is."

My guess is that it's supposed to be a new way of typing "William Howard Taft". But that's just me!

My reason for posting my comments was not to ignite a firestorm of personal attacks. I left the Addams Family feeling very angry that I spent a lot of money to see a show that was tedious, and in some places even painful, to sit through, after reading so many rave reviews on this board and in the papers. There is a lot of good theatre in Chicago, I could have seen several shows that would have at least been interesting for the money spent on this "event." For everyone who has responded, telling me I should have done my homework before going, and all the tickets sold, so it must have been good, let me tell you there was no "word of mouth" for this show. It was only here 8 weeks and the tickets were 90% sold out before the first preview. Apparently people in Chicago remembered Nathan Lane's success in the Producers, which also previewed in Chicago, and expected this would also be a fabulous, must-see show. Later, when the reviews came out and a few of them mentioned "the show has a few problems that need to be fixed," I thought about selling the tickets online because times are tough right now and I can't afford to waste money. The market was absolutely flooded, not by individuals but by resellers like Stubhub, etc. The scalpers must have had a big payday with this show, they certainly seemed to hold all the best seats, and had plenty available for every date, when the box office had long been sold out. I feel sorry for anyone who paid what the scalpers were asking, no wonder there was a sea of sad faces exiting the full house the night I was there.

Helene,

Though my feelings about Addams in Chicago were a bit more positive, I sympathize that you spent a not insignificant sum on a show you did not like. That's never any fun.

That said, two notes:

1) unless you are able to substantiate that 90% of the tickets were sold in advance, please don't state that as fact. Per Variety, the show averaged nearly 95% capacity for the entire run. While I believe that it likely had a healthy advance sale, I have very strong doubts that it only sold 5-10% of its inventory after it began performances and/or after it opened and was reviewed -- a belief backed up by the number of friends of mine that were able to buy reasonably good seats throughout December. While I can't refute your assertion with my own set of verifiable facts, from my past experience and from what anecdotal evidence I have, I believe there still was a sizeable volume of inventory remaining for the final 3-4 weeks for the show to sell before they broke the record.

2) While I can absolutely relate to being unable to afford wasting money, it could be argued that you should have known what you were getting youself into by buying tickets to a pre-Broadway tryout, which is a riskier-than-usual investment. You can certainly hope that the show will already be in perfect shape but chances are, it won't be. So on top of the usual chance that you will disagree with the critical and/or popular opinion that you've read (which you clearly did), you're inherently buying a ticket to a show which, by its own admission, is unfinished. I realize that even in a worst case scenario, you didn't expect to dislike the show as much as you did. But if finances dictate that you need a "sure thing" to not be angry about your purchase, then perhaps you should wait for the Wickeds and the Jersey Boys and the Spamalots to come back to Chicago after they are established hits.

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