Andrew Lippa Shares Some Songs From The Addams Family

http://www.broadway.com/videos/show/the-addams-family/video-exclusive-andrew-lippa-shares-songs-from-the-addams-family/

Interesting to hear these songs. I know the first two weren't in the Chicago production, so it's kind of cool to hear them!

I slogged my way through that video. I found it hilarious how he's secribing all these different styles for each character and then, at least to my ears, EVERY SONG SOUNDED THE SAME.

Seeing it at the end of the month. Hope it's in better shape.

---

Updated On: 4/3/10 at 01:10 PM

@ ljay889: she has braids at the beginning but then they get cut off during the ceremony at the start of the show.

---

I never did understand the "moon song." Visually it was a lot of fun to watch. But, I found it extremely boring. And it seemed like it came out of nowhere.

---

On a purely superficial note: Andrew Lippa is an odd little man, isn't he?

---

I generally enjoy Lippa's work, but does anyone else think "When You're An Addams" sounds a whole hell of a lot like "Raise The Roof" from his WILD PARTY?

---

Updated On: 4/3/10 at 07:27 PM

As of last Sunday, the show was officially frozen.

I saw the show about two weeks ago and Carmello had her big number "Waiting" at the end of act 1.

Was that cut??

His Wild Party is fine, but it's just one pop song after another. Completely inappropriate for the period the piece is set in.

Addams is the same thing. Pop song after pop song.

He also needs to do that research on Vaudeville. Uncle Fester's song is hardly Vaudeville. It's the same pop fare Lippa writes.

I also think it's a trap to confine each character to a musical style. Especially when you can't write more than one style of music.

Hopefully the performances make this a bearable evening for me.

I wish they would have just gotten the rights to the plot from the first movie. At this point I'd even settle for Paul Rudnick's treatment for the sequel.

I can't help but wonder what Nell Benjamin and Laurence O'Keefe would have done.

---

I think someone already did from the looks of it.

---

I understand the whole thing a bit now, having read the LA Times article to be published tomorrow.

Oken (lead producer) thought he would make the musical commercial, but also edgy and experimental. Benjamin and O'Keefe would have been the obvious choice, but going with the uncommercial Lippa and unconventional McDermott and Crouch would lend the production some street cred. Unfortunately, what Oken found is that...
a) Old-fashioned musical comedy legends like Lane and Neuwirth don't mesh well with weirdo directors and methods.
b) Sometimes it's just easier to give the people what they want (a musical based on the movies or TV show).
But the ultimate problem seems to lie with distrust of the source material. The Addamses should be hilarious and be themselves, and so it's unnecessary not just to incorporate experimental theatre tactics, but also to incorporate a whole OTHER "normal" family into the main plot. I could understand if they were a contrast, the Addamses' sounding board, if you will, but they end up getting more stage time than Gomez and Morticia. The people brought on board needed to have more respect and trust for the source material, not trying to embellish it.

But this is all moot. This show could open as Nathan Lane taking a dump on Charles Addams' ashes for 3 hours and it would still sell out every week, just as it does now.

---

I thought the whole interview was extremely interesting. I love Lippa so much.

And if you're pulling out the argument that Wild Party wasn't authentic, then you obviously don't know much about the point of the show.

---