All Entries Tagged With: "Morticia"

Brooke Shields IS Morticia

On Tuesday, June 28, THE ADDAMS FAMILY welcomed stage and screen star Brooke Shields in the role of Morticia.  Ms. Shields joined current Broadway cast members Roger Rees as Gomez, Brad Oscar as Fester, Rachel Potter as Wednesday, Jackie Hoffman as Grandma, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Heidi Blickenstaff as Alice Beineke, Adam Grupper as Mal Beineke and Jesse Swenson as Lucas Beineke.  Here is a first look at Shields and the cast!

The Addams Family’s Rachel Potter chats with Broadway.com

Brooke is Morticia

In an inspired bit of casting, Brooke Shields becomes Morticia on June 28. Read about it in this excerpt from a Patrick Healy piece—

Brooke Shields -- Morticia to be. (photo: AP)

Brooke Shields Will Be the New Morticia in ‘Addams Family’

By PATRICK HEALY
New York Times
March 31, 2011

Brooke Shields will continue her run as high-profile replacement actress on Broadway this summer when she takes over the role of Morticia in “The Addams Family” musical from Bebe Neuwirth, who will depart the show after 15 months.

The producers announced on Thursday that Ms. Shields will begin performances on June 28, on the cusp of the high summer season when many Broadway musicals have strong earnings thanks to tourists. Ms. Neuwirth will give her last performance on June 26; she is now playing opposite Roger Rees, who took over the leading man role of Gomez from Nathan Lane in mid-March.

New “FAMILY” Members to Arrive in March

from the BWW News Desk, Friday, February 4, 2011:

Blickenstaff, Grupper, Oscar, Potter & Swenson Join THE ADDAMS FAMILY

Heidi Blickenstaff

Adam Grupper

Brad Oscar

 THE ADDAMS FAMILY welcomes five new principal cast members beginning Tuesday, March 8 at the Lunt Fontanne Theatre (205 West 46th Street) when Heidi Blickenstaff ([title of show]) assumes the role of Alice Beineke, Adam Grupper (Brighton Beach Memoirs) as Mal Beineke, Brad Oscar
(Tony-nominated for The Producers) as Fester, Rachel Potter (Wicked nat’l. tour) as Wednesday Addams and Jesse Swenson (Spring Awakening) as Lucas Beineke. Original cast members Nathan Lane, Kevin Chamberlin, Terrence Mann, Carolee Carmello, Krysta Rodriguez and Wesley Taylor will give their final performances on Sunday, March 6.

Rachel Potter

Jesse Swenson

click here to read BWW article

The Addams Family Musical An Entertaining Afternoon of Theatre

Catherine (me) and Rick Elice

Last weekend was a whirlwind of friends, parties, and great Broadway entertainment!  AND I was able to spend some time with my favorite Broadway writer, Rick Elice.  Rick is that rare breed of celebrity who is unassuming, humble and completely genuine.  He is such a pleasure to know – one would never guess he has two of the top 10 shows currently running on Broadway.

While Saturday was all about Jersey Boys, Sunday was reserved for The Addams Family.  I had second row center seats for the matinee – up close and personal - and I was a little bit nervous.  There have been mixed reviews, not only from the critics, but from a few of the readers here on the blog, and I didn’t want to go in with any preconceptions about the show.  So, I went in with an open mind, and I had a blast!

From the opening number “When You’re An Addams”, to the final curtain, I had a smile on my face and a laugh in my throat.  I don’t want to get into a scene by scene analysis – that’s been done to death.  I just want to share my thoughts.

Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth were wonderful as Gomez and Morticia, two parents facing what all parents face when they realize that their baby is all grown up and about to leave the nest.  Of course, not all parents face it in quite the same way!  Bebe was gorgeous!  Her flawless skin and deadpan expression were classic Morticia.  She danced beautifully, and her “Just Around The Corner” was one of my favorite numbers.  Nathan definitely lived up to the hype.  His comedic timing is impeccable, and he had the audience in stitches.

Kevin Chamberlin was hilarious as the “moonstruck” Uncle Fester.  He really got into his oddball personae, and the audience loved him.

Jackie Hoffman as Grandma was as hysterical as everyone says.  Although her role was small, she made the most of each and every line, leaving the audience doubled over in laughter.  At one point during “dinner”, she was obviously ad-libbing, talking about running the mara…mara…mara..thon (NY marathon was run that day), and the cast was laughing so hard, Bebe actually had to lay her head on the table so the audience wouldn’t see.  Of course, being in the second row, I could see her head shaking!

As the tormented young couple, Wednesday Addams and Lucas Beineke, Krysta Rodriguez and Wesley Taylor were fantastic.  They portrayed just the right amount of teenage angst, mixed with a craziness that comes with young love.  Krysta’s voice was crystal clear, with a bit of a rock edge to it, and Wesley was a perfect accompaniment.  Their “Crazier Than You” was another of my favorites.  I’ll be keeping an eye on their careers, I’m betting they go far.

Carollee Carmello and Terrence Mann played Alice and Mal Beineke, Lucas’s “normal” parents from Ohio.  If that’s normal, I’d hate to see odd.  She with her bright yellow dress and rhyming speech, and he with his tough-guy “I won’t be pushed around” act (until I meet the right squid), were very entertaining, and they played the roles to perfection.

As Lurch, the mostly silent butler, Zachary James was brilliant.  And Adam Riegler was terrific as Pugsley.   He had a fantastic voice for such a young age, and was very enjoyable to watch.  His sadness at realizing his sister was growing up and wouldn’t be around to “play” with him much longer was very touching.

And last, but certainly by no means least, the Ancestors were all superb.  Each one had his/her own personality, they danced beautifully, and the way they were utilized onstage was ingenious.

On the top of my list of ”high points” has to be the set design.  Congratulations to Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott for a tremendous job!  Basil Twist’s puppetry was also spectacular, adding a layer of creativity not seen in many shows.  And, as usual, Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman wrote a great story, with a perfect mix of humor, seriousness, and Charles Addams absurdity.

“Just Around The Corner” and  ”Crazier Than You” were my favorite musical numbers, with “When You’re An Addams” and the tango scene following close behind.   Gomez had two ballady numbers that dragged a bit (for me), but Nathan performed them beautifully.  And Uncle Fester and the moon, and Mal Beineke and the squid were a bit over the top, but hey, this is the Addams Family - they are over the top!

Please bear with me while I vent….I know this is a family friendly show, and yes, they sell candy at the concession stand, but people, this is a high dollar Broadway show, not a movie theater.  Please have the courtesy to NOT open loud candy wrappers, slurp noisily on lollipops, or rifle through your shopping bags in the middle of the performance (yes, I experienced all of this within two rows of me, and the perpetrators were all adults.)  This is not only rude to your fellow audience members, but most especially to the cast.

I would like to say a huge thank you to the entire Addams Family ‘family’ for an exciting and entertaining afternoon of theatre!

Who Would Be YOUR Picks For Gomez and Morticia Replacements?

According to several news sources, producers of The Addams Family are actively searching for replacements for Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, whose contracts expire in March, 2011.    Although (according to the NY Times) star actors were deliberately played down in the show’s advertising – emphasizing instead the famous Addams brand – which would make it easier for actors to “slide” into the lead roles, after the recent hit the box office took when Lane was out on vacation,  it would seem they are searching for recognizable names to fill the Gomez and Morticia costumes.

It is rumored that John Leguizamo and Minnie Driver, who  would have fit the bill quite nicely, both turned down  offers, with no specific reasons given.  So the search continues.

Who would YOU pick to replace Bebe and Nathan?  Let’s hear it from the fans!

Bebe Neuwirth will show off ‘Morticia’s Nails’ on July 15

Bebe Neuwirth to Unveil The Addams Family Themed Nail Polish, With Proceeds to Benefit the Actors Fund

Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth will host the launch of Morticia’s Nails, a nail polish collection inspired by her character in The Addams Family, on July 15 at the Eventi Hotel. Neuwirth and her husband, Chris Calkins, have teamed with Essie Cosmetics to design and release the line, which will include three colors: Midnight Tango, Bone Chilling White and Blood Curdling Red. All proceeds will benefit The Actors Fund. Neuwirth will be joined by her female Addams co-stars at the event.

Morticia’s Nails will have a limited release of 5,000 pieces retailing at $30 per three-color set. Neuwirth expects the collection to raise more than $100,000 for charity.

Later on July 15, the actress will appear with Addams castmates Carolee Carmello, Jackie Hoffman, Zachary James, Wesley Taylor, Adam Riegler and Krysta Rodriguez, and composer Andrew Lippa at an album signing for the show’s cast recording at the Lincoln Square Barnes and Noble.

The Addams Family Heads to the Recording Studio

The cast of Broadway’s The Addams Family (which stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia, and includes Terrence Mann as Mal Beineke, Carolee Carmello as Alice Beineke, Kevin Chamberlin as Uncle Fester, Jackie Hoffman as Grandmama, Zachary James as Lurch, Adam Riegler as Pugsley, Wesley Taylor as Lucas Beineke and Krysta Rodriguez as Wednesday) will head to a Manhattan sound studio on April 19 to record the cast album of the new musical, with an expected release date of June 8.

According to Composer/Lyricist Andrew Lippa, the cast recording will include bonus tracks (yet to be revealed) that will be available digitally.

The opening night Playbill reveals the following list of musical numbers for The Addams Family:

ACT ONE

Overture
“When You’re an Addams”
“Pulled”
“Where Did We Go Wrong?”
“One Normal Night”
“Morticia”
“What If”
Full Disclosure”
“Waiting”
“Full Disclosure” – Part 2

ACT TWO

Entr’acte
“Just Around the Corner”
“The Moon and Me”
“Happy/Sad”
“Crazier Than You”
“Let’s Not Talk About Anything Else But Love”
“In the Arms”
“Live Before We Die”
“Tango de Amor”
“Move Toward the Darkness”

“The Addams Family” – WORD OF MOUTH

The Addams Family can’t rely on the critics, so it’s up to the fans of the show to show their support through WORD OF MOUTH. 

CLICK HERE to visit the WORD OF MOUTH post.  Scroll to the bottom and click “Comments” to share your thoughts or experiences of “The Addams Family” on Broadway, and to read others’ experiences.

Opening Night of “The Addams Family” Musical

Opening Night … in pictures, courtesy of broadwayworld.com

Wanna Know How Nathan Lane Refers to Michael Riedel?

New York magazine chats with Bebe Neuwirth about her thoughts on The Addams Family experience; and reveals co-star Nathan Lane’s “pet” name for Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel:

Her Kooky Destiny

As Morticia Addams, Bebe Neuwirth is hoping for a perfect fit

I gave a lousy show last night,” Bebe Neuwirth says about fifteen minutes into a chat in her dressing room at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.  It seems she fell victim to the storied theater curse that is the “second show,” in which, as Neuwirth explains it, the relief of nailing a part in the first performance before a paying audience leads to a deceptively difficult following night.  “It’s a trade secret,” she says.  When I note that the cheering audience didn’t seem to notice, Neuwirth immediately regrets her candor:  Leaning into the digital recorder at her knee, and with a pointed look in my direction, she says, “I don’t want anyone to tell them I had a bad show!”

Sorry, but what might in another context serve as a cheap gotcha provides a humanizing moment for Neuwirth, who, in her 25 years in show business, has excelled at the stylized and remote.  As shrink Lilith Sternin on Cheers, she etched pop culture’s platonic ideal of an ice queen.  Her 1996 Tony-winning turn in Chicago as Velma—little black minidress, big red lips, blinding white skin—was an equally iconic take on a brassy Broadway siren.  Her current role, as Morticia, in the new, $16.5 million musical adaptation of The Addams Family (opening April 8), finds Neuwirth back in signature pallor and basic black.  Although the production is based on Charles Addams’s macabre drawings for The New Yorker, the 51-year-old Neuwirth took the part because of a childhood infatuation.  “Marshall Brickman called me up to say he’d written this musical, The Addams Family, and I just about screamed because I loved Carolyn Jones. Her Morticia [on the mid-sixties ABC sitcom] was really an archetypal character. As a child, I wanted to embody her qualities.”  Wry, stoic, and smarter than her hot-blooded mate (John Astin’s Gomez), TV’s Morticia was a dark prefeminist outlier in a TV landscape known more for the va-va-voom vacuity of Ginger, Mary Ann, and Jeannie.  “She wasn’t even part of that competition,” says Neuwirth.  “She was doing her own thing.  Who knows what that inner life of hers was, but she was hip.  You know, I think Rhea Perlman’s character on Cheers once referred to me as Morticia.”

There is a certain Shelley Duvall–playing–Olive Oyl inevitability to Neuwirth’s latest role.  “From the very top of the show, the audience sees Bebe and they go, ‘That’s Morticia,’ ” notes composer Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party).  “It’s like that feeling you get watching Barry Bonds at the plate; this fantastic moment where it looks like it’s going to be great … and then it is great.  And boy is that satisfying.”

This being Broadway, there’s the usual tabloid gossip of backstage bickering between Neuwirth and her Gomez, Nathan Lane.  “I was told Cindy Adams reported that we had a frosty relationship,” says Lane.  “And then [Post theater columnist] Michael Riedel—or as I like to call him, Rosemary’s Baby—picked up on that.  The most shocking thing about that is that Cindy Adams is still alive.  God bless her, still trying to stir it up, and I wish her well.  But it couldn’t be further from the truth.”  As Neuwirth puts it, “I think we both have a nice, healthy dose of diva.  But we also do really go together.  You’ve got the little clown running around, and you have a very still, dry person.  That’s a fun pairing.”

Neuwirth’s last extended appearance on Broadway was a second go-round with Chicago in 2006, that time as Roxie.  Since then, she’s mostly been offered TV roles.  But she finds regular series work, like her two short-lived Dick Wolf dramas Deadline (2000) and Law & Order:  Trial by Jury (2005), too ponderous.  “It’s the waiting around and the long hours on set,” says Neuwirth.  “I’m a dancer first, and a very physical person.  Even Cheers was difficult for me, and that’s one of the best shows ever.”  On the other hand, scripts were not “piling up outside my door … and being middle-aged makes it exponentially harder to find a role.  I don’t fit into the wives, mothers, and housewives stereotype.”

Unless it’s the sort of wife and mother who wears black gowns slit to here and dominatrix boots up to there.  (The boots were Neuwirth’s contribution to Morticia’s costume, revealed to thunderous audience approval.)  It’s been nearly two years since the actress did her first Addams Family table read.  After a commercially boffo but critically so-so holiday-season tryout on the road, the production has been, depending on whom you ask or read, tweaked, reshaped, or overhauled.  And that’s especially true of Morticia.  The show’s plot has a smitten Wednesday (Krysta Rodriguez) rejecting her parents’ eccentricity in the hope of marrying a milquetoast small-town boy, spurring a conflict that leaves Morticia feeling old and irrelevant.  In the harshest of the out-of-town reviews, the Chicago Tribune critic Chris Jones noted that Neuwirth “looks like she’s not having much fun.”  Neuwirth was stung by the comment but doesn’t necessarily disagree:  “In that production, Morticia was deeply, deeply unhappy from the middle of the first act through the end of the show.”

“That’s not a fun thing to play,” says Lane, “and it kind of undermined the character.”  The creative team, he adds, “had to find a wittier way of dealing with it and not make it her main story line.”  That, presumably, is part of the job of multi-Tony-winning director Jerry Zaks, who was brought in at the end of last year to consult with the show’s designer-director team, Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott (Shockheaded Peter).  Songs have been cut, others are still coming; Neuwirth is getting an upbeat number that will help tip Morticia away from concerned mom and back toward vamp.  “My forte is restrained sarcasm and a certain kind of bearing, which is what Morticia has also, so it’s a good match.  But the character wasn’t served as well as she could have been—the part stressed panic,” says Neuwirth, pointing out that Morticia doesn’t do panic.  “The show’s getting better all the time, but I don’t think it’s quite right yet.  I’m awaiting more wisecracks.”

Addams Family Musical Stars Chat with USA Today

by Todd Plitt, USA Today

‘Addams Family’ stars: Kooky, spooky, in no way spoofy

By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth may be dressed in black — a color also favored by Gomez and Morticia Addams, whom they play in the new Broadway musical The Addams Family— but there’s not a whiff of the macabre in the stars’ relaxed conversation.

And perhaps that’s fitting. Based on the Charles Addams cartoons that inspired the hit TV series of the 1960s, this new adaptation — with a book by Jersey Boys librettists Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and a score by Andrew Lippa— presents a happy, loving family. “It’s just that everything they like happens to be the opposite of what ‘normal’ people like,” Lane says.

Chatting hours before a recent preview at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where The Addams Family opens April 8, Lane and Neuwirth discuss the pressures and pleasures of bringing their iconic characters to the stage.

Q: When did you first become familiar with the Addams Family?

Neuwirth: I watched the show on television as a little girl, then discovered the cartoons when I got a bit older.

Lane: I watched the show first, too, and loved it.

Neuwirth: Did you want to be Gomez?

Lane: Nah, I didn’t project myself into it. I just thought it was really fun and different. It only ran for a couple of seasons, but they were obviously memorable.

Q: How about Morticia, Bebe? She’s the first character you’re creating for a new Broadway musical.

Neuwirth: I loved Morticia so much as a girl. I think many women love her; she’s really archetypal. So it’s very important to me that she’s represented properly — that she doesn’t have anything dopey to do or say, or anything that isn’t honest. I feel I have to take care of her.

Q: Word is that this show takes its spirit from Charles Addams’ cartoons. Is there anything that will surprise people who are only familiar with the TV series?

Neuwirth: Its depth.

Lane: Yes, I think we win them over with humor and then …

Neuwirth: Then we sock ‘em in the solar plexus!

Lane: People will expect to laugh and have a good time, but maybe not to be moved by it. But there are some very touching moments.

Neuwirth: The big musical theater moments are there, but they happen in a way that’s true to the Addams Family. There are no sequins on this stage. Nobody wears anything shiny.

Q: Gomez and Morticia are a pretty hot couple. How do you get that chemistry across?

Neuwirth (coyly): You’ll see. Look, these people love each other, they love their family. They love their pets. The boy (the Addams’ son, Pugsley, played by Adam Riegler) has a big lizard, but he loves it like a puppy dog.

Lane: It’s just great fun to be them, you know? For me, it’s been joyous to play someone who is so positive about everything. That’s the opposite of me.

Q: After the show’s run in Chicago last year, (veteran director) Jerry Zaks was brought in as a creative consultant. There was speculation that the darker, more sophisticated humor of the cartoons didn’t translate for audiences expecting to see the TV show replicated. Any truth to that?

Neuwirth: That had nothing to do with it. The show was very good in Chicago; we packed the house every night, and they stood up and cheered. But a good show can get better.

Lane: The producers felt we needed a fresh pair of eyes, and fortunately, Jerry agreed to work with us. And he’s been able to come in like a Jewish Ty Pennington and give us an extreme makeover. But that’s how shows have been created for years — friends give advice, people help.

Neuwirth: You go out of town, you make changes and it keeps evolving.

Lane: Of course, this is a high-profile show, so everyone’s got an opinion. People say (affects a lofty tone), “It’s the most highly anticipated musical of the season.” It’s like you’re being set up for a fall. We’ve done a tremendous amount of work, and there’s more to come. A lot of fun, but a lot of work, too.

New And Improved Addams Family Musical Hits Broadway Running

photo by Matt Hoyle