[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Addams Family" at PlayhouseSquare

[Bob Abelman]

'The Addams Family' is death warmed over, and in a good way

 

Bob Abelman

 

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

The Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier

Member, American Theatre Critics Association 

 

This review appeared in the News-Herald on 4/13/12

 

Expectations for the national tour of the musical "The Addams Family" were not high. In fact, they were six feet under.  

 

The production currently on stage at PlayhouseSquare is the latest installment of a well-worn franchise that started with Charles Addams' brilliantly demonic single-panel cartoons for The New Yorker in the 1930s.  "The Addams Family" became a popular television sitcom in the mid-1960s and was turned into a series of feature films (and a forgettable animated TV show) in the 1990s.

 

Two-dimensionality works well on the printed page, but it is not what one looks for in live theatre.  Still, Al Capp's "Li'l Abner" became a musical in 1956.  Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts" went from page to stage as "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" in 1971, while Harold Gray's redheaded ragamuffin "Little Orphan Annie" hit Broadway in 1977.  Even Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" made the transition from black and white print to Great White Way entertainment in 1983.  And, while some of these cartoon-based stage creations were successful, each was as woefully flat and simplistic as their pen and paper comic strip counterparts.

 

As for the eccentric "The Addams Family," the half-hour installments of its television rendition were edgy for 1960's TV, but lacked the wit and much of the macabre that Charles Addams envisioned.  By the time the two movies came out, the films risked being charmless parodies of the work they served to revive.  

 

It is not a surprise, then, that the resurrected "The Addams Family" in the form of a musical by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice was significantly underwhelming when it hit the New York stage in 2010.  "It's true that the show has moments that quote directly from Addams' original captions," noted the New York Times critic Ben Brantley, "but those captions were for a limited number of single-panel cartoons. So what to do for the rest of the evening?"  He goes on to suggest that the work has "shamefully squandered" the talents of its stars Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, who played Gomez and Morticia Addams, and is a "collapsing tomb" of a musical.

 

Not so for the version that traveled to Cleveland, which has been significantly reworked into a consistently witty and, under the direction of veteran Jerry Zaks, a charmingly staged production worthy of its source material.    

 

Yes, the storyline is contrived.  The musical revolves around princess of darkness Wednesday Addams, who has grown up, fallen in love with, and wishes to marry an adoring, "normal" young man who her parents have never met.  She confides in her father about their plans but begs him not to tell her less-forgiving mother.  Gomez must do something he's never done before - keep a secret from his beloved Morticia-as Wednesday's boyfriend and his parents come to the house for dinner. 

 

Its saving grace is the sense of humor that permeates every pore of this production.  

 

Each line spoken by Gomez (Douglas Sills), Morticia (Sara Gettelfinger), Uncle Fester (Blake Hammond), Grandma (Pippa Pearthree), Wednesday (Courtney Wolfson) and Pugsley (Patrick Kennedy) is as smart as it is funny.  The comic timing built into the dialogue and embellished in the stage direction milks every amusing morsel so that the audience doesn't just hear a funny line; it is given the opportunity to relish it and reflect on its cleverness. 

 

The lyrics of each song are also cleverly conceived.  Although few of Andrew Lippa's tunes are hummable or memorable affairs, they are all intriguing and, in some cases, purposefully out of place in the context of this mock-morose musical comedy.  Case in point is Uncle Fester's absolutely charming, old fashioned love song "The Moon and Me" and Morticia's oddly upbeat "[Death Is] Just Around the Corner" sung with an ensemble of phenomenally talented long-dead relatives that includes a soft-shoe with the Grim Reaper. 

 

The imaginative staging and costuming in these wonderful musical numbers, courtesy of Julian Crouch, and Phelim McDermott, reflects the wit and whimsy that runs rampant throughout the production.  Everything-from the front curtain serving as a featured player, to the ever-shifting mosaic of creepy set pieces, to the clever costuming of the dead Addams' ancestors-is thoroughly entertaining. 

 

The show's greatest asset is its top-tier talent.  Mr. Sills' Gomez adopts the rich Spanish accent introduced by Raul Julia in the films, has the playfulness of TV's John Astin, and possesses an irresistible passion and stellar singing voice all his own. Mr. Hammond as Fester is an absolute delight, and Martin Vidnovic, Crista Moore and Brian Justin Crum as the normal Beineke family turn secondary characters into so much more.

 

Oh, sure, the show is kitschy and can't escape its mainstream heritage.  But if the audience does what the Addams' do-embrace their heritage with open arms and dance a carefree tango on its grave-then a thoroughly fun evening is in store.

 

"The Addams Family" continues through April 22 at PlayhouseSquare's Palace Theatre.  For tickets, which range from $10 to $87.50, visit www.playhousesquare.com.
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