The Addams Family Review - 1/2/10 - Rachel De Benedet U/S Morticia- Page 2

[raggballad2]

Posted: 1/4/10 at 3:34pm

I thought the seats were okay for the price. You miss a good bunch on either side, but I preferred the house right box. It seems to have a better balance between music and actors.

I get there an hour before the BO opens, and I've been the last one to get tickets the times I've gone (a Friday and a Sunday..last to get matinee for Sun.) I'd say it's worth it if you want a cheap ticket and have already seen it. I thought it was worthwhile seeing the show again and really seeing what works and what doesn't...you notice a lot more.

Posted: 1/4/10 at 10:24pm

Also, Bebe's birthday was on 12/31

[Mamie]

Posted: 1/4/10 at 11:16pm

I get the impression from a lot of the critical comments that most of the people who've seen it are disappointed that it isn't more like the TV show. Despite the producers statements from the beginning that it was NOT going to be based on the show, but on the original New Yorker cartoons.

It makes me think that going this route might have been the biggest mistake of all. No matter what they say, people are going to be looking for the Addams they remember from their old black and white TV's. That Addams family had a far bigger audience than the ones appearing in the New Yorker.

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 1/5/10 at 6:54pm

Including the Addams Family snaps and then a deconstruction of the theme into an orchestral piece doesn't help to shake the TV show from your head. I don't disagree with including it though.

The issue is not that it's not enough like the TV show--the issue is it is not enough like the Addams, or Charles Addams' humor. The Beinekes come off as the big weirdos, and the Addams are oddly imposed by them. (Gomez is even apologetic about the family at one point if I recall. huh?) It should be the other way around, imo.

Having post-pubescent Wednesday want to date and conform may be the spine to the story but it also makes her, um, not recognizable as Wednesday. (She gets her sibling torture on, then it is whine city from there on.) Same to Morticia and her insecurity about her aging. I would have preferred to see her revel in her crows feet and the beauty of her decrepitude! THAT would make sense to me. I should call Jerry Zaks.

When I saw it in previews, the feeling was almost as if Steve Lawrence and Edyie Gorme walked into the show and demanded to be themselves (I've been reading about Golden Rainbow, if you catch my drift) instead of supporting the piece. With Jackie Hoffman and Nathan Lane's improv instincts grappling for audience interest I fear the idea of musicalizing the Addams is further lost.

I hope the show improves and sufficiently answers "why musicalize the Addams?" I sincerely do! (Don't hurt me.)

[raggballad2]

Posted: 1/5/10 at 7:44pm

I think this is a nice article about the issues with the musical as it is now:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/theater/06addams.html?src=twt&twt=nytimesarts

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/5/10 at 11:53pm

Unfortunately, even THAT has been done better- Marc Shaiman's deconstruction of the theme song, and its pairing with his original The Addams Family Waltz theme, was memorable in a way the Lippa score isn't.

[Gavin Rehfeldt]

Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:23pm

“The difficulty is that people will bring their own sense of the cartoons, plus the TV shows, plus the movies, to the musical, and those sensibilities will differ,” Mr. Feiffer said. “What the producers should not do is water down the family to some lowest common denominator of behavior in hopes that the biggest audience possible will relate to the musical. In doing so, you would lose what’s special about Addams.”

PRECISELY

At other points the humor involves gags, and some of the character arcs — like Morticia’s laments about growing old — are at odds with the cartoons, which portray Morticia as poised and self-confident, for instance.

UH-HUH

Some critics said the show also needed to be truer to the off-center spirit of the cartoons, and to be more fun.

YEP

....while scenes about the oddness of the Addamses “are too few,” Mr. Christiansen added. He said that he also told Mr. Oken that the current ending, which involves the Addams family’s squid’s providing an epiphany for the outsider family, was “not funny in the least.”

But, the squid was at least memorable and the song made an impression.

Good article! Thanks for sharing!

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 1/6/10 at 3:48pm

After the show closes in Chicago are they immediately going to NY to start rehearsing?

[ifuweregay93]

Posted: 3/9/10 at 9:58pm

Yes, this is two months old, but I just found this.

http://addamsfamilyblog.com/?p=370

I was quoted on this from my review here, and it excited me to see it.

That is all. :)

[shrekster224]

Posted: 4/5/10 at 8:30pm

Rachel De Benedet is actually quiet rude at the stage door. For all of the Addams fans that recognize her and ask her to sign, she ignores them, makes a face, sighs, and walks away. That was disappointing to see.

On a different note, does anyone know how many times the leads in the Addams Family have been understudied so far? All I know of is that Merwin Foard went on for Gomez a few times, and then Rachel went on for Morticia once. Anything else?

[blaxx]

Posted: 4/5/10 at 8:45pm

The difficulty is that people will bring their own sense of the cartoons, plus the TV shows, plus the movies, to the musical, and those sensibilities will differ,” Mr. Feiffer said. “What the producers should not do is water down the family to some lowest common denominator of behavior in hopes that the biggest audience possible will relate to the musical. In doing so, you would lose what’s special about Addams.

Thank you - if only Broadway could use this individual as a lesson of artistic integrity, we would have less watered-down sell-off hits that make millions killing brain cells. These musical franchises are like fast food chains - I'm tempted to do the Broadway version of Super Size Me.