Addams Family set to go through Revisions

“Revisions” for ‘Addams Family’ before Broadway run

The producers of Addams Family, set for a spring Broadway opening, have hired the Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks as a consultant for the $16.5 million production, attempting to revive the musical from its less-than-glowing reviews.

perhaps we were taking a little too much for granted assuming that the audience walks in with the relationship with the Addams family fully intact, and we didn’t appropriately reconnect the audience to the family members,” said producer Stuart Oken.

No one on the creative team has left the show or been fired, Mr. Oken said, with Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch still listed as the directors and production designers, and Mr. Zaks billed as creative consultant.

Mr. Zaks is close to Mr. Lane, having directed him in the long-running Broadway musical revivals of Guys and Dolls in 1992 and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1996, for which Mr. Lane won the Tony Award for best actor in a musical.

The musical’s lead producers, Stuart Oken and Roy Furman have admitted that the plot needed to focus more tightly on the Addams family members and that all roles, starting with Gomez (Nathan Lane) and Morticia (Bebe Neuwirth), needed their eccentric and subversive personalities clearly established in dialogue and song before the main action of the plot begins.

CREATIVE TEAM

book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice
music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa
Choreography by Sergio Trujillo
Directed and designed by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch
Lighting: Natasha Katz
Sound: Acme Sound Partners
Puppetry: Basil Twist (puppetry)
Special Effects: Gregory Meeh
Hair and Wig Design: Tom Watson
Angelina Avallone (Make-up Designer) Music direction: Mary-Mitchell Campbell
Orchestration: Larry Hochman
Special Effects: Greg Meeh
Fight direction: Rick Sordelet
Ford Center for the Performing Arts Oriental Theatre, 24 W. Randolph

CAST

Cast: Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth as Gomez and Morticia Adams; Terrence Mann and Carolee Carmello as Mal and Alice Beineke, Kevin Chamberlin (Uncle Fester), Jackie Hoffman (Grandmama), Zachary James (Lurch), Adam Riegler (Pugsley), Krysta Rodriguez (Wednesday), Wesley Taylor (Lucas Beineke).
Ensemble: Merwin Foard, Jim Borstelmann, Erick Buckley, Colin Cunliffe, Rachel de Benedet, Valerie Fagan, Matthew Gumley, Fred Inkley, Morgan James, Clark Johnsen, Barrett Martin, Jessica Lea Patty, Liz Ramos, Samantha Sturm, Charlie Sutton, and Alena Watters.

Tags: Adam Riegler, Addams Family, Addams Family musical, Addams Family reviews, Alena Watters, Andrew Lippa, Angelina Avallone, Barrett Martin, Basil Twist, Bebe Neuwirth, Carolee Carmello, Charlie Sutton, Clark Johnsen, Colin Cunliffe, Erick Buckley, Fred Inkley, Gregory Meeh, Jackie Hoffman, Jerry Zaks, Jessica Lea Patty, Jim Borstelmann, Julian Crouch, Kevin Chamberlin, Krysta Rodriguez, Larry Hochman, Liz Ramos, Marshall Brickman, Mary-Mitchell Campbell, Matthew Gumley, Merwin Foard, Morgan James, Natasha Katz, Nathan Lane, Phelim McDermott, Rachel de Benedet, Rick Elice, Samantha Sturm, Sergio Trujillo, Stuart Oken, Terrence Mann, Tom Watson, Valerie Fagan, Wesley Taylor, Zachary James

Category: Broadway-bound, Oriental Theatre (Ford), Personnel Changes, Producing | Production, Theater News