Review - THE ADDAMS FAMILY (tour) @ Shea's Buffalo

[zamedy]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 6:27pm

I had absolutely no intention of 'wasting' my time or money and seeing this show. I became more interested after reading some surprisingly strong reviews (both by local critics and by friends on Facebook), so I decided to give it a try. I just got back and don't regret my decision for a second. I absolutely LOVED IT.

FAVORITE SONGS - When You're An Addams, Full Disclosure, The Moon and Me. The staging at the end of 'Crazier Than You' also reminded me of the ending of 'Without Love' from HAIRSPRAY.

CAST - All SUPERB. Seriously. Douglas Sills is perfection as Gomez. And what a voice! Sara Gettelfinger makes a marvelous (and very sexy yet convincing Morticia) and the amazing Cortney Wolfson...with an amazing voice...is terrific as Wednesday. Kudos also to Blake Hammond (whom I saw as Edna in HAIRSPRAY on Broadway). His role as Uncle Fester seems to fit him perfectly, and his rendition of 'The Moon and Me' (beautifully and cleverly staged) made the audience fall in love with him. I also absolutely LOVED Crista Moore as Alice Beineke. She did wonders with the role. Her bio says she played Gypsy opposite Tyne Daly on Broadway. Pretty darn cool to see her live.

I know the plot has undergone some major surgery on the road since its Broadway debut. Whatever they did to it WORKED. The storyline was fun and easy to follow. No clutter getting in the way; no long, boring clunker songs weighing things down too much. And some great one-liners, too! Also loved the pacing. Very fast-paced. The story, songs and scenes really moved along. In fact the people I saw it with liked it more than THE LION KING (Zzzz), which was last at Shea's (again) not too long ago.

Bottom line... A great afternoon at the theatre with a cute, fun show that you could take the whole family to see. Kudos to the creative team for making the changes they did to make this show work better on the road. It does.. and the Shea's crowd seemed to eat up this deliciously dark world of THE ADDAMS FAMILY, too. If it's coming to a town near you and you're on the fence, get off it and go see it!

Interested to know... What are the major changes from this show and the Broadway version? And I know Carolee Carmello was also in the OBC. I'm assuming she played Alice?

[philly03]

Posted: 12/11/11 at 6:41pm

Carmello was Alice (she was terrific).

They added a few songs (most notably lacking was "Secrets"), and cut a lot of "funny" stuff (ie: "In the Arms," a truly terrible, completely unfunny song about Mal finding love in his wife after meeting the Addams' family squid.)

There's an article on Playbill that documents it, as well as TampaBay Online which goes even more in depth with it. Updated On: 12/11/11 at 06:41 PM

[ohjustjake]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 3:13pm

Zamedy, I'm so glad you wrote a review haha because I was going to write one as well.

I went to the Friday night performance and absolutely loved it as well. I followed the Broadway production for a while, starting in Chicago to now, so I was familiar with what the critics said and what people on here say. I've listened to the recording many times and love a lot of the music (and skip over some of it..). So I was very surprised to find how much I enjoyed the show on tour!

The story is much different - they got rid of that whole story line of Morticia getting old or whatever that was. Thank God. That never really made sense to me. All the jokes were hilarious and the entire cast was amazing.

But I must say this, if it's anywhere near where you live, go to see the show simply just for Douglas Sills. He STEALS the show. He's outstanding as Gomez. His singing, acting, dancing - all of it was top notch. At curtain call he spoke to the audience and it actually felt weird to hear him not have an accent anymore - he convinced me who he was. So go see the show because of him if you can. He's worth it.

The rest of the cast was great and all the changed they made worked for me. I wonder if they had put THIS version of the show on Broadway if it would've been better received.

[zamedy]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 10:48pm

Ohjustjake - Curious as to what he said to the audience Friday night. No one from the cast spoke at curtain call for the Sunday matinee.. but they all looked like they were having a great time up there taking in the audience applause and standing ovation.

I also got a kick out of the story my friend told me (who works at Shea's) about Gettelfinger (Morticia), and how they have to tape her in to her VERY revealing costume as to avoid a 'wardrobe malfunction.'

[philly03]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 10:51pm

Douglas Sills is one of the best male actors of the Broadway stage in a long time: Voice, looks, charms, acting.. This guy has it all... Yet his career never fully took off to become a "star." Would love to see him in this.

[florida theatre kid]

Posted: 12/12/11 at 11:08pm

I agree. I was hesistant to see it after my family told me what they thought of the Broadway production, but saw it in Tampa and LOVED IT!

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 12/13/11 at 10:24pm

The tour is brilliant. Everything comes together beautifully. The cuts they made are wonderful. I HATED the show in NYC and I had a blast with the tour company. They are an incredibly talented bunch. Top notch talent.

I adored the new songs. Doug Sills and Sara Gettelfinger are sublime.