Chicagoians...who is seeing the first preview of ADDAMS FAMILY tonight?? — Page 2

PLOT SPOILER

They're the mother and father of Wednesday's boyfriend. I imagine they have some kind of ulterior motives, like getting the Addams fortune. Seems odd they cast Mann and Carmello as the straight men of the piece. They both scream villain.

Updated On: 11/13/09 at 08:37 PM

I'm seeing it official press opening night on December 9th, but if there are student tickets I'm sooo effin there!!


As to what someone said earlier, it's true, besides the true theatre geeks I don't hear much buzz about the show around town...Just among my circle and my circle's circles (all theatre people!).

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Not to nitpick, but it's Chicagoans.

Pretty generic titles and the awkward Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love is nothing but a clunky spin on Cole Porter's infinitely more graceful and more succinct, Let's Not Talk About Love.

Okay, here goes.

Let me start by saying I'm a New Yorker but was lucky enough to be able to schedule a business trip to coincide with the opening tonight. Having said that, I also am a pretty good audience - it takes a lot for me to dislike a show.

I can say that the crowd in general seemed to really enjoy it. A lot of laughter. There was a group of four older patrons in front of me who left at intermission, but for the most part people seemed into it.

Cast:
Amazing. Nathan is in fine form, and Bebe is... Bebe. She can do no wrong in my book. From a critical standpoint she did seem to have some issues in an early song - I don't believe it was her voice, but was her mic. She sounded a little warbly. Sounded much better in the second act.

Krysta Rodriguez, who plays Wednesday, was excellent. She has a couple of real knock-out numbers, including "Pulled" about falling in love and starting to be pulled in a new direction. She has a great voice (previously in A Chorus Line and In The Heights) and really believable as the character.

Kevin Chamberlain was stellar as Uncle Fester. He basically narrates portions of the show, talking to the audience and singing. Very funny, very entertaining, and kind of an emotional center.

Carolee Carmello has a bring the house down number in the first act - "Waiting". I'm always a fan of songs that take a character who you've thought was one type of person with one type of voice and totally surprises you with a belt (much like Penny in Hairspray, though this was not at that level). She has a lot of funny lines which she delivers well, and then a couple of very serious emotional moments which were believable and done very well.

SPOILER:
Terrence Mann sings a song at the end called "In the Arms" which showcases an amazing voice, and I was really impressed because he stayed very true to the emotion in the song despite it basically being about being molested by a giant squid. (Funniest song concept since Springtime for Hitler, but done in a serious way.)

SPOILER OVER

Wesley Taylor plays the boyfriend and he was the least interesting character (IMHO). He was fine... really, just fine. I was sitting towards the back of the orchestra and the way he dressed and talked and behaved just kept making me think I was watching Joshua Jackson in Dawson's Creek.

I wish Jackie Hoffman had more to do -- she does a great job with the small things they give her, and is very very funny. She adlibbed at one point at the end of the first act and cracked up half of the cast (I mean, literally they were covering their faces and unable to continue). She deserves more in every show she's in, I think.

Okay, Bebe and Nathan:

Bebe has a song in the 2nd Act "Second Banana" that is fantastic. She was in good voice for this, and it was an interesting song with interesting choreography, and interesting character development.

Her dancing is in as fine form as ever -- "The Swordfight/Tango" involves just what you think and it is amazing to watch her move.

She also has some interesting interaction with Carolee Carmello's character (the boyfriend's mother) which was very nice, in terms of non-singing moments.

Nathan was, as expected, funny and larger than life. He has some very funny lines, and one fairly serious song that I'm not sure will remain as is by the time it gets to Broadway. I do have a harder time forgetting that he's Nathan Lane and looking at him as a character, but that's just me. He moves way better than I remember: it is shocking to see him almost keep up with Bebe when tangoing.


Okay - some other stuff.
I thought the plot was good - interesting and enough different from anything I've seen relating to the Addams Family that it was fresh. The first number really sucks you in (I think) and starts the tango theme off.

The sets are great - very interesting, especially outdoor scenes. The house itself looks good and all the parts are used to good effect.

Costuming was good - the supporting chorus are all done up as dead Addams relatives from the past so there is a variety of victorian and other types of old styles. The chorus was excellent, good dancing.

Lots of excellent choreography that showcased chorus and leads.

I did think the show began to lose steam at the end, and I also think the first act was too long.

It just felt like it was going to end about two songs earlier than it did, and although the songs that followed my thought that the act was over were important, (and one of them was a show stopper) I was not the only one who felt this. (I saw several people actually get up and head to the doors only to have to turn around when the show continued.) I'm not sure where they could cut it or what they could do to change that feeling - I really think there were a couple of lighting cues that we who see a lot of shows interpret as "the intermission is coming" which they could change and perhaps take care of it. There's a lot of information in the first act.

The end of the second act felt at one point like they didn't know how to resolve everything. The last song was not as strong as many of the other songs, and the ending felt a bit forced. Again, I'm not someone who could say what needed to be done to fix it, but the energy level dropped a lot. Suddenly I was thinking, "wow how are they going to end? They're not going to have this be the last song, are they?"

All in all, I think this was a really good show. I enjoyed 90% of it totally and completely. I laughed more than almost any musical since the Producers, and I liked that.

The "in-jokes" about the Addams Family weren't so much that someone who hasn't seen many episodes couldn't keep up. I was a Munsters fan, not an Addams Family fan, so I don't know that much about it, but didn't feel left out.

There were some topical comments (as there apparently must be in musicals these days) about things like the economic crisis and healthcare and bipartisanship. They didn't feel particularly out of place, but I don't know that they were really needed.

Whew. Hope that satisfies those who wanted a review.

I do plan on seeing this again when it gets to Broadway to see what changes are made. It really was a worthwhile evening of theater - lots of laughter and songs that were entertaining and memorable. I will be buying the cast album whenever that comes out.

Thanks for the reviews!

Thank you for all your thorough reviews!! I hope I can make it to Chicago to see this!

Is it better than Memphis?

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Seriously, thanks for the reviews. Very nice to have two different critical, yet fair, eyes on the piece this early in. Sounds like with some tightening, it could be a very solid show.

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The opening number shows the ceremony when Wednesday turns into a woman because she is now 18.

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Could someone please post the song list with the names of the characters that sing them?

in addition to who sang what, can someone list the understudies?

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