New And Improved Addams Family Musical Hits Broadway Running
photo by Matt Hoyle
“Charles Addams New York” Exhibit Opens at the MCNY
Last night was opening night for the new Charles Addams exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. And I happened upon this fantastic post on the EditouristNYC blog, which I have copied here verbatim – right down to the pictures. I hope you enjoy it - I know I did!
The Addams Family (image © the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation)
Andrew and I were lucky enough to score an invite to the Charles Addams’ show opening tonight, and I couldn’t be happier that we went. The exhibit is well-designed, interesting, pertinent, and extremely entertaining. I suspect I’ll be back before it ends in May.
The macabre comedic genius that is Charles Addams will never, in my opinion, be topped in the world of the print cartoon. It may seem strange to place the words “macabre” and “comedic” in such close proximity to each other, but if you have any awareness of the
Addams Family, you know what I’m saying. The exhibit places the Addams Family into a surprising context. Addams used these characters and their relations to each other to comment on the ideal nuclear family of the time. His work comments on other societal and political norms as well, from the “battle of the sexes,” to pop culture and media, to technology, to the economy, and so on.
Addams’ cartoons can easily be taken for granted: a timely joke here, an ironic, postcard-worthy cartoon there. Of course, the creation of the Addams Family was no small task. However, it wasn’t until tonight, seeing so many of his creations in one place, that I truly felt I understood the overwhelming impact of his work: It forces New Yorkers to stand back and look at themselves, for better or for worse.
And stand back and look at themselves they did. Almost as intriguing as viewing Addams’ cartoons was watching the others guests’ reactions and listening in on their discussions. It seemed that every person found something of themselves in one image or another. My favorite reactions of the night revolved around Addams’ depiction of a harried man carrying his jewelry-drenched wife into a pawn shop: “Oh, that’s horrible,” one older woman said to another, passing quickly by. Less than two minutes later, two men stopped in front of the cartoon and let out full-on belly laughs. Like it or not, Addams strikes a chord.
(image © the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation)
What I find truly amazing is how his pieces take on such contrasting tones. As Andrew and I walked around the room tonight, we found ourselves continually surprised. One image made us laugh, while the next on the wall caused us to think, “Yeah, I can relate to that,” in a sad sort of way. Specifically, Addams’ series of wind-up men, roboting around the city until winding out of energy, comes to mind. He depicts them big and small, alone on the side of the street or shuttling around in huge masses. Sure, the comparison between people and machines has been made before—who hasn’t suffered the rat-race rush through Penn Station in the morning? I know I have—but the idea of people as wind-up toys is something different, and deflating. So much of his work that was relevant during his time remains relevant today and, I suspect, will remain relevant for ages to come.
(And speaking of relevant, this night has absolutely upped my anticipation level for the new Addams Family musical.)
BroadwayWorld.com Giving Away Tickets to The First Preview of The Addams Family Musical!
BroadwayWorld.com will be giving away TWO pairs of FREE tickets to the The Addams Family Musical’s eagerly anticipated first preview on Monday night, March 8th at 8:00 pm!
Each day this week (Monday, March 1 - Friday, March 5) they’ll be asking a new trivia question.
Answer each question correctly and you could win!
The first question is:
Which magazine notably published cartoons of Charles Addams’ famous family?
a. New York Magazine
b. The New Yorker
c. The Saturday Evening Post
d. TIME
Click here to visit the site and play!
Wondering What To Wear To The Show?
While we wait for the Addams Family Musical previews to begin on broadway, I thought it would be fun to share some of the more off-the-wall items floating around cyberspace that pertain, in one way or another, to the Addams Family.
I came across this post on thefancyladygourmet.com, which is apparently the blog of a fashion designer turned baker. She says that this “set” is inspired by the new Addams Family musical, and that this would be her choice outfit to wear to the show. “It’s kinda inspired by Morticia, who i love,” she says. What a great outfit! We’d love to see her there, in this outfit!
To visit the website, click here.
Charles Addams Artwork To Be Featured In NY Museum Exhibit
Whether you live in the New York area, or will be in town to see the new Addams Family musical, you may want to drop by the Museum of the City of New York and check out the Charles Addams’s New York exhibit, which will be on display from March 4 to May 16.
Charles Addams’s New York is an exhibition of original artworks by the legendary New Yorkercartoonist that capture Addams’s quintessentially idiosyncratic and slyly subversive view of the city, depicting his signature macabre characters, twisted situations, and distorted reimaginings of the cityscape. The works in the exhibition include watercolors, preliminary pencil sketches, completed cartoons, and examples of published work from the cover of the New Yorker. The subjects are gleefully varied, ranging from charming to creepy; they include depictions of life on New York’s subways and buses, in offices, department stores, museums, parks, streets, and homes. A special section will look at the evolution of the creepy assemblage of characters who were dubbed “the Addams Family” as they developed as mainstays of Addams’s cartoons, moving through the streets of his New York and adding to the sense of mischief and deviancy that characterized the world as he saw it. (from The Daily Cartoonist)
Addams’ work is the direct inspiration for the new Broadway musical, The Addams Family, which begins preview performances on March 8 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. Click here for ticket information.
For more information on the Museum of the City of New York, click here.
Seth Rudetsky Lunches With The Ladies of “The Addams Family”
On a recent Thursday, actor, writer, music director and Chatterbox host Seth Rudetsky had the pleasure (so it seems) of lunching with the ladies of The Addams Family. He shares that experience in his February 1 Playbill.com article ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE: Here’s to the Ladies Who Lunched:
“…On Thursday I had lunch at delicious 44×10 with Bebe Neuwirth, Krysta Rodriguez, Carolee Carmello and Jackie Hoffman, who are the four leading ladies from the The Addams Family musical. I’m writing a feature on them for the March Playbill, and we had a great/delicious time. If you’ve seen Jackie’s Joe’s Pub shows, you’d know that she’s always complaining about not getting gigs. One of her biggest laments is about not even being able to get an audition for Fiddler on the Roof. Well, true to form, as soon as we sat down, she noticed that her bread plate was empty and she quipped, “Look! It’s just like Broadway. I didn’t get a roll.” Brava on the double meaning. I bit into my delicious roll and asked her what the audition was like for the role of Grandma. She remembered that she looked at the scene and noticed there was a little salty language in it, so she figured she could do one of her original songs. The language in her act is more than a little salty, and this particular song is about her resenting being asked to do non-stop benefits. It begins with: “F*** you for asking me to do a show for free!” and then repeats that theme many times. When the song was over, she received a sea of blank faces… and no call back. However, that was for the initial workshop, and later on she was asked to go in again…this time for the Chicago-to-Broadway production. She was slated to do the Doug Cohen/Douglas Carter Beane musical Big Time, which would mean that she’d have to choose between the two if she got cast as Grandma. She knew she couldn’t sing the same song she sang before (non-stop cursing = blank British faces), so she decided to sing one of her songs from Big Time because it was fabulous and always brought down the house. She told me that she “had the chutzpah” to call the composer and ask for a copy of the music…but not tell him she was using it to audition for a show that would prevent her doing his show! He got the sheet music to her, she auditioned and got Addams Family and subsequently chose to leave Big Time. Doug Cohen, the composer, called her a few days later and warily asked, “Jackie, did you use my song for your Addams Family audition?” Jackie admitted she did. She told me that she then literally heard a wail emanate from the phone. The good news is Big Time was postponed, so hopefully she can eventually do both shows!
Speaking of auditions, Carolee was starring in Mamma Mia! when she was asked to come in for the reading of Addams Family. She looked over the monologue and was surprised that there were all of these great Broadway ladies at the audition. S he then found out that the audition wasn’t for the reading, it was for the Broadway production! She frantically took out the monologue and this time gave it more than a once over. Apparently, she sassed her audition because she got the role of Alice Beineke. She and Terrence Mann (the original Rum Tum Tugger in Cats) play a couple who are visiting the Addams family manse. She told me that she and “Terry” have a completely different style of acting in a show eight times a week. Carolee loves to figure out how something should be played and then lock it in. Terry, who plays Mal Beineke, likes to make different choices each night. And, I mean different. Bebe said that there’s one entrance he does that has a totally new take each night. At one performance it was sultry and seductive, and Bebe whispered to Nathan (Lane), “Here comes Barry White.” The next night it was high energy and rock n’ roll-ish, and Nathan whispered, “Look. It’s Rum Tum Mal.”
The ladies were all telling me that Jackie has a section of the show where she gets to improv, and I asked for an example. Bebe told her to tell me about the Dec. 31 line. Apparently, on that night, Grandma croaked out, “It’s New Year’s Eve. I’m going to go up to my room for some Dick. (long pause). Clark.”
We were all talking about Jerry Zaks, who is coming in to oversee the production, and Bebe mentioned that he was in the original cast of Fiddler on the Roof. I nodded, but then said I thought it was the national tour. She was adamant that it was the Broadway production because he knew a family friend of hers who played the Constable. I then said that the Grease tour was his first big credit, and that happened in the 70’s and Fiddler was more of a 60’s show. I mentioned that maybe the Constable did the tour as well. I could tell the whole table was annoyed at my obsession with minutiae, so I decided to get to the bottom of it. I whipped out my cell phone and texted Jerry. Of course Jackie yelled, “You have his cell phone number? I don’t have his cell phone number!” I ignored her and typed away. I wrote that I needed to know whether he did Fiddler on Broadway or on tour. Lunch ended before I heard back from him, but as I walked up Ninth Avenue I got his text: ”Alas. Only on tour.” HA! I don’t want to say, “I told you so, Bebe,”…so I’ll write it: I told you so, Bebe…”
Michael Riedel Can’t Get Enough of “The Addams Family”
It’s only been a month since New York Post gossip columnist Michael Riedel drew the ire of The Addams Family’s Nathan Lane and Rick Elice (see Lane and Elice react to Riedel’s Comments), but he’s at it again. In his latest article, Fast Lane to a better play, Riedel admits to being one of the vultures circling overhead the musical. And once again he relies on ”sources close to the show” to provide accusations such as “ Broadway’s top musical star (Lane) is, I’m told, pretty much calling the shots on this $15 million musical…”
While drawing attention to Riedel feels like reacting to a child throwing a temper tantrum, I just can’t help it. It’s so darned entertaining.
A Look At What’s “Troubling” The Addams Family
Hiring Jerry Zaks as a “creative consultant” to the Addams Family team (see Tony Award Winner Jerry Zaks Joins Addams Family Creative Team) has left the door open for speculation that the bound for Broadway show is in trouble. And while the producers emphasize that the show is not in trouble, they do acknowledge that the musical needs changes to improve its hopes for a long run and a potentially lucrative life as a touring production. That makes perfect sense to me, and I feel confident that the hugely talented creative team of the Addams Family Musical will happily make the changes necessary to bring a smash hit show to Broadway on April 8.
But it does make one wonder….what causes what many believed to be a sure-fire hit not so sure-fire? Many have jumped at the opportunity to answer that question, and an article earlier this month by Patrick Healy of the NY Times, in my opinion, does a great job of getting to the meat of the issue: “What works brilliantly in morbidly hilarious cartoons …is a tougher trick to translate to live theater…” And he doesnt’ stop there. Healy did his research and put together an article that takes an in depth look into the challenges of transforming “… a series of darkly witty moments — some even without captions…” into a successful Broadway musical.
That Old Black Magic, So Hard to Recapture
By PATRICK HEALY
Published: January 5, 2010, NY Times
CHICAGO — Among the dozens of cartoons that Charles Addams drew of his devilishly subversive Addams family is one in which Gomez and Morticia; their daughter, Wednesday; son, Pugsley; and manservant, Lurch, are admiring the view from their new picture window. The view is of a cemetery crowded with tombstones.
A cemetery is also the setting of the first scene of the new “Addams Family” musical, now finishing a tryout here before its scheduled arrival on Broadway in March. In that opening number, “Clandango,” the family dances and sings about loyalty to the Addams way of life; a chorus rollicks around the stage carrying gravestones; and Morticia and Wednesday team up for a mother-daughter tap dance atop a coffin.
What works brilliantly in morbidly hilarious cartoons, however, is a tougher trick to translate to live theater, as the producers of “The Addams Family” have learned.While the musical has drawn huge audiences here, it has received mixed reviews from critics and raised enough concerns for the producers that last week they took the unusual step of hiring the Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks to take over and work with the creative team to make 11th-hour fixes to the production, which stars Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.
Unlike most musical adaptations for Broadway, which come from movies or books, the producers of “The Addams Family” musical chose to base their show on Addams’s cartoons, mainly published in The New Yorker magazine in the 1940s and ’50s. Preferring to eschew the slapstick humor of the popular “Addams Family” television show of the 1960s and three movies in the ’90s, the producers have said their goal was to create a musical that reflected the mordant wit of the cartoons, like the famous one of Gomez, Morticia and Lurch preparing to pour a cauldron of boiling oil on a group of Christmas carolers.
The Tee and Charles Addams Foundation, which holds the copyrights to all of Addams’s works, granted the rights for a Broadway musical to one of the show’s lead producers, Stuart Oken, because he shared the foundation’s desire “to ignore all previous interpretations of the characters known as the Addams family and to create a new story based solely upon the cartoons by Charles Addams,” H. Kevin Miserocchi, the executive director of the foundation and one of its two trustees, said in an e-mail message.
The challenge is undoubtedly steep, given Addams’s ingenuity. Read Entire Post
Auction Includes Addams Family Opening Night Ticket Package
On Monday, February 8, 2010, the Drama League will hold its annual all-star gala, “A MUSICAL CELEBRATION OF BROADWAY.” This year’s black-tie event, to be held at Pierre New York (2 East 61st Street at 5th Avenue), will honor five-time Tony Award winner and entertainment icon Angela Lansbury.
Among the highlights of The Drama League’s annual benefit gala is the remarkable Gala Auction, which has once again been made open to the general public. Among the items being auctioned this year:
~ THE ADDAMS FAMILY OPENING NIGHT
Two opening night tickets to The Addams Family, starring Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Thursday, April 8, 2010. Plus two passes to the Opening Night party.
For a complete list of items and packages, or to access the auction, visit www.biddingforgood.com/thedramaleague.
Brickman and Elice’s Jersey Boys Chicago Run Comes To An End
Sunday was a sad day for the Chicago theater community, not to mention to Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman. Not only did they say goodbye to The Addams Family Musical, which finished up its eight week pre-Broadway try-out, but they also bid farewell to the Chicago run of Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theatre. At its closing, the show had played 27 months – a total of 951 performances – and been seen by 1.3 million patrons.
Chris Jones, of the Chicago Tribune, Theater Loop Blog had this to say about the Jersey Boys closing: “…while all closings are emotional, there’s no question that Jersey Boys, which has been kept in top form and looked as good Sunday as on its opening night, exceeded all reasonable expectations in Chicago and proved that shows other than Wicked could sit down here and thrive.
Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, the authors of (conveniently) both Jersey Boys and The Addams Family, took the stage at the Jersey Boyscurtain call, with Elice noting that ‘what we thought was going to be a 10-week stint’ had, in fact, turned into a run seen by 1.3 million people. ‘This has to be the most spectacular opening night I have ever experienced,’ Brickman joked, clearly moved by the emotion of the occasion.”
Congratulations to Rick and Marshall on the successful run of Jersey Boys in Chicago. May all their endeavors be so blessed!
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Hits The Century Mark
Today, January 10, 2010, The Addams Family Musical will play its final show in Chicago. And while the Chicago theater community laments that fact, the Broadway community celebrates. More specifically, the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre celebrates. And what a celebration it is. For not only is it a celebration of the anticipated arrival of Addams Family, but a celebration of a century of Broadway Theater.
Lunt-Fontanne current marquee, photo by Matthew Blank
Lunt-Fontanne Theatre Turns 100
by Robert Viaga, playbill.com
Happy 100th birthday Jan. 10 to a grand old lady of Broadway, the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
According to Louis Botto’s “At This Theatre,” “This beautiful theatre opened on January 10, 1910, as the Globe, named after Shakespeare’s theatre in England. It was built by the illustrious producer Charles B. Dillingham and originally had its entrance on Broadway between Forty-sixth and Forty-seventh streets. Dillingham, who spared no expense on his projects, hired the famed architects Carrère and Hastings to design his theatre. According to a report in the New York Dramatic Mirror on January 22, 1910, the new theatre had a large stage, a compact auditorium, Italian Renaissance decor with draperies of Rose du Barry and walls of old gold, blue, and ivory white. One feature of the theatre that attracted much attention was a large oval panel in the ceiling that could be opened when the weather permitted. The Mirror called this ‘a complete novelty in American theatrical design.’”
The inaugural production was the musical The Old Town, starring Dave Montgomery and Fred Stone (who had played the Tin Man and the Scarecrow in the original 1903 The Wizard of Oz).
Among the great stars and shows that followed: Montgomery and Stone in Chin-Chin (1914), George White’s Scandals (1920 and 1921) with a score by George Gershwin that introduced “I’ll Build a Stairway to Paradise,” the Ziegfeld Follies of 1921 with Fanny Brice and W.C. Fields, No, No, Nanette (1925) and Jerome Kern’s The Cat and the Fiddle (1931).
The Globe spent the years 1932 to 1957 as a cinema, but it was refurbished as a legitimate house and reopened May 5, 1958 as the Lunt-Fontanne, named after the acting couple Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The ceiling opening was sealed and the entrance relocated to 46th Street. Lunt and Fontanne rechristened the stage with the original Broadway production of Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s The Visit.
Among hits that played at the theatre after its renaming: the original The Sound of Music with Mary Martin (1959), Sid Caesar in Little Me (1962), the Duke Ellington musical revue, Sophisticated Ladies(1981), Maury Yeston and Peter Stone’s Titanic (1997) and the theatre’s record-holder, Beauty and the Beast, which moved from the Palace in 1999 and ran here for eight years. Disney’s Little Mermaid played more than a year, and the Lunt-Fontanne is currently being prepared for its next big musical, The Addams Family with Nathan Lane as Gomez and Bebe Neuwirth as Morticia.
Addams Family In Its Final Days In Chicago
Only a few days left to see The Addams Family Musical in Chicago! The Broadway-bound show, starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, will blow OUT of the windy city on January 10th. Visit the show’s official website for ticket information.
Broadway previews begin on Monday, March 8th at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with opening night scheduled for Thursday, April 8th. Tickets are on sale now.
Rachel de Benedet Takes The Stage as Morticia
Rachel de Benedet, understudy for Morticia
Some Broadway shows go an entire run without ever having to make use of the understudies. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for the Addams Family Musical in Chicago. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Nathan Lane took ill and was replaced (superbly, I hear) by his understudy Merwin Foard (Nathan Lane Out Sick Thanksgiving Weekend). On the weekend of the new year, Bebe Neuwirth apparently suffered from tendonitis, giving her understudy, Rachel de Benedet, the chance to show off her Morticia. And show off she did … a few comments I’ve seen floating around …
…”Rachel de Benedet was a terrific Morticia. (She) and Nathan Lane had really good chemistry, for her being an understudy…”
…”(de Benedet) was absolutely stunning as Morticia and her voice was clear and gorgeous…”
…”I can’t believe Bebe Neuwirth was sick. The understudy was great though.”
Ms. de Benedet is no stranger to Chicago. In September of ‘08 she could be seen performing with Rachel York and Jeff Daniels in the Goodman Theatre’s world premiere musical Turn of the Century, which was directed by Tommy Tune, with the book penned by none other than Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice.
Most recently, Rachel co-starred with Norbert Leo Butz, Aaron Tveit, Tom Wopat, Kerry Butler and many more in the world premiere of Catch Me If You Can in Seattle last summer. It will be interesting to see what happens when/if that show comes to Broadway in the Fall.
Congratulations to Rachel on her most successful “fill-in”. And we wish Ms. Neuwirth a very speedy recovery!
Happy Birthday to Bebe Neuwirth
The Addams Family blog would like to wish Bebe Neuwirth a Happy New Year AND a very Happy Birthday! What a great birth date – people throw great parties for you every year!
