Some really interesting pieces from the local Chicago press written during the first few days of previews at Chicago's Oriental Theatre. Some great pics.
So far the word of mouth on the NY board is encouraging. It sounds like the show isn't entirely together yet, but there's nothing about it that can't be fixed by the time it opens in New York. And while I don't think it's going to change the world or be a massive smash, I can see The Addams Family finding a comfortable niche as a quirky alternative or a pleasant night out for nostalgia fans.
It has an Andrew Lippa score. That in itself is enough to make it an exciting prospect to me.
THEATRE 2020: CURTAINS**** LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS***** WICKED***** KEITH RAMSAY TAKING NOTES WITH EDWARD SECKERSON***** KAYLEIGH MCKNIGHT CONCERT***** RAGS***** ON MCQUILLAN'S HILL** DEAR EVAN HANSEN***** THE JURY***
A friend of mine has seen the show and put it like this....
"okay, here's the skinny on THE ADDAMS FAMILY. it's great. great at the beginning, great in the middle and great at the end. (a smidge long perhaps) the look of it is sublime and the opening tableau is worth the price of admission. the cast is spot on and the performances are well... great. it's a holistic magical amalgam of showbiz razzmatazz. go see it."
Guess what's just jumped to the top of my list for NY next year?
Not the best of reviews with a lot of work seeming to be needed between now and spring!
From the Chicago Tribune:
In need of more "Family" time
By Chris Jones
Before Charles Addams' justly beloved macabre characters make their Broadway debuts, someone needs to stick a sharp pair of fireplace tongs into all the Gothic clutter that surrounds them in their overly weighty new musical.
Someone needs to beat back some of the heavy organ notes, the focus-pulling numbers from peripheral characters, and the anonymous chorus from "Les Miserables," and extricate the actual Addamses and make 'em pop theatrically with plenty of gags and tunes.
If (but only if) everyone involved here takes a long, hard look at the title of "The Addams Family" and reacquaints themselves with the characters - Gomez, Morticia, Uncle Fester, Wednesday, Pugsley, Grandma and Lurch - that people are actually coming to see, I think that this new musical, which opened its pre-Broadway run in Chicago Wednesday and is stocked with Grade-A talent, will have a chance in New York next spring.
But it's not just a matter of focusing the action on those seven characters (although Jackie Hoffman's Grandma and, especially, Zachary James' Lurch are underused), it's also about sticking more to those characters well-known traits. At this juncture, this show (book by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa) pulls itself in new narrative directions so fast and so far, you don't get enough of a chance to enjoy the Addamses being the Addamses.
Perhaps the best moment of the show features Nathan Lane's genuinely likeable but still underwritten Gomez, sitting alone on a swing outside his mansion, which has been moved in this show to the middle of Central Park. He hears a squeal and then a gunshot. And his face crumples into the kind of benevolent smile that most of us get when we hear the song of a lark. That's Gomez Addams, writ theatrical by a great American comedic actor born to play the role. Whenever the show sticks to those original Addams rules, those endlessly repeatable gags of simple subversion, you find yourself relaxing into the material. Elice and Brickman can write such gags in their sleep. So put them to bed, already. Such charming little moments are all too few. The show is hijacked by Addams behaving weirdly (i.e. normally) and characters who aren't part of the family.
Since the musical is based on the cartoons, Elice and Brickman were able to concoct their own story. That's a good thing. And it's clear that all involved here, including the creative, new-to-Broadway director/designer team of Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch, are at pains to create a weighty, original and iconoclastic show, as distinct from campy, self-aware, derivative schlock. Very laudable. Nobody could accuse this ambitious, visually rich piece of taking the cheap way out. So the workable conceit goes that Wednesday (the passionate Krysta Rodriguez) is now an 18-year-old ingenue (we see her pigtails ceremoniously removed during the first scene) and is dating one Lucas Beineke (Wesley Taylor). The Addamses of New York City have the Beinekes of Ohio over to dinner.
You'd think that would allow for much "La Cage"-esque comedy wherein the normal-but-conservative B's are shocked at the ghoulish-but-weirdly loving behavior of the A's. But the A's repress themselves too much. And the B's quickly (far too quickly) drop all opposition to torture racks in the bedroom and get involved in their own emotional crises. Their rediscovery of their sexuality eclipses anything going on with the Addamses. Carolee Carmello, who throws herself into Alice with flourish, has a hugely emotional number called "Waiting" that dominates the end of Act One. That would be fine if this were called "The Beineke Family." But it's not. The line where Gomez says to his imploding guests "that's too dark even for us" should be a wake-up call. It's fine for the stiffs to learn a thing or three, but for the show to work, the Addamses must hold the patent on dark.
Gomez spends most of the show worrying about nothing darker than Wednesday growing up. But Morticia has a crisis of confidence about getting old (she sings about becoming a "Second Banana"). That is a very uneasy narrative twist, because the Morticia in our heads is perfectly poised and agelessly sexual. One has a resistance to seeing her melt down. And thus one wishes she solidified more quickly and more humorously.
I suspect that's why the inestimably elegant Neuwirth looks like she's not having much fun. She needs some direction and, above all, material that gives her authority. One sweet, maternal bit where she chats with son Pugsley (Adam Riegler) could be so much more.
Elsewhere, there are some deliciously amusing moments, many from Lane, who enhances all he performs. His narrator role remains half-baked, but Kevin Chamberlin's very droll and juicy Fester has splendid physical set-pieces, including one that literally sends him to the moon. It's the bigger comics - Lane, Hoffman, Chamberlin - who are most able to emerge from all the atmosphere. The Beinekes work fine when the material is funny - Terrence Mann's Mal has a droll number wherein he discovers his essence in the intimate company of one of the Addams' pets.
That number, "In the Arms" (of a squid) works nicely, as do some of Lippa's multi-layered songs, including a hummable Wednesday/Lucas rival-duet called "Crazier Than You" and Fester's "Let's Not Talk About Anything Else But Love." But the uneven score desperately needs at least one lighter comic ditty, and (more problematic yet) it lacks a real tour-de-force number for Gomez ("Happy/Sad" is too mild, just as "Second Banana" works against Morticia). The famous snap theme is in there, if you're wondering, but just for a few seconds.
The 11-strong chorus remains a dramaturgical mystery. They're billed as The Addams Ancestors and they dance Sergio Trujillo's mysterious choreography (which could also use far more focus). But this crowd of vampish refugees - apparently all ancestors from the same era - make little narrative sense. And they're so darn serious, your heart sags whenever they come out. They need to be funnier. If they are to be needed.
The whole show needs to be funnier and more visually spontaneous. There is integrity and originality aplenty. And bonafide beloved characters. Now bring on the torture and the cruelty to animals!
These are the kind of reviews that producers listen too. Tryouts in the UK really are a thing of the past. Most big shows opening here from the States are tried and tested anyway, months or years before hitting the West End full on. Any new British musicals get a good run at great places like the Theatre Royal Plymouth etc, etc before coming into town but as I said a lot of new British work that opens in London opens cold these days. Take a look back at 'Too Close To The Sun' to see how this can go horribly, horribly wrong.
I hope to take a day out of my next trip to New York and pop up to Chicago to catch this show- just in case!!!!!
They have no option but to read the reviews as I am sure there New York counterparts will be reading them too, luckily reviews are less important these days, than the old days when Clive Barnes or Frank Rich could make or break a show.
I think British shows could benefit from try outs, recent shows that have come over such as Legally Blonde and Priscilla do not need to try out, as they should be about ready, there should be only minor issues to resolve, such as sound, lighting, audience sighting, tweaking last minute acting techniques and critically see how audiences react to humour in the show, which all can be done in previews.
A show to start cold in the West End and get it right in three weeks is not long, as major revisions might have to be made to the scripts, lyrics, scenes and acting. Major British shows that could benefit from try outs could of been Sister Act and agree Too Close to the Sun is a perfect candidate for a try out, even Love Never Dies probably could benefit before it opens.
The down side to try outs is they are very expensive to do and if get panned by local critics, can halt the project before it is even realised.
Good to see many shows in London have long try out periods in New York before they cross.
Also, as someone on the Broadway forum commented, it does look as if the show is actually taking the comments given by the critics to heart and actually willing to work with them and use them to help out the show. Rather then just opening out of town for the hell of it and not taking any of those comments to heart and opening it on Broadway as an unfinished product.
"If you try to shag my husband while I am still alive, I will shove the art of motorcycle maintenance up your rancid little Cu**. That's a good dear"
Tom Stoppard's Rock N Roll
Renowned Broadway director Jerry Zaks has been brought in to help the production find a new 'direction. The producers were hoping to keep the appointment quiet but it has now leaked out after there were some heated scenes backstage with the struggling production. He is a great director and this far from the first time he's been brought in to help a production in need.
