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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">‘The Addams Family’
is death warmed over, and in a good way<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Bob
Abelman<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">News-Herald,
Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The
Morning Journal, Geauga Times Courier<o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Member,
American Theatre Critics Association <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"
class=MsoNormal align=center><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This
review appeared in the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">News-Herald
</I></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">on
4/13/12<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Expectations for the
national tour of the musical “The Addams Family” were not high. In fact, they
were six feet under.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">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 <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">The New Yorker</I> in the
1930s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Two-dimensionality works
well on the printed page, but it is not what one looks for in live theatre.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Still, Al Capp’s “Li’l Abner” became a
musical in 1956.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even Garry
Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” made the transition from black and white print to Great
White Way entertainment in 1983.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>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.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>By the time the two
movies came out, the films risked being charmless parodies of the work they
served to revive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">It is not a surprise, then, that the
resurrected “The Addams Family” in the form of a musical by </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Marshall Brickman</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang=EN> &
<SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Rick Elice was significantly
underwhelming when it hit the New York stage in 2010.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">It’s true that the show
has moments that quote directly from Addams’ original captions,” noted the <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">New York Times</I> 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?”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Georgia','serif'; COLOR: black"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">Not so for the version
that traveled to Cleveland, which has been significantly reworked into a
consistently witty and, under the direction of </SPAN><SPAN
class=apple-style-span><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333333">veteran Jerry
Zaks</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black">, a charmingly staged
production worthy of its source material.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>Yes, the storyline is contrived.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The musical revolves around princess of darkness</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN> 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. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She confides in her father about their
plans but begs him not to tell her less-forgiving mother.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Its saving grace is
the sense of humor that permeates every pore of this production.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">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.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The lyrics of each
song are also cleverly conceived.</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN">
<SPAN lang=EN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Although few of
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">Andrew
Lippa’s</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN> 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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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 r</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">elatives that
includes a soft-shoe with the Grim Reaper</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>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’ </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-ansi-language: EN"
lang=EN>ancestors</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">—is thoroughly
entertaining. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The show’s greatest
asset is its top-tier talent.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Oh, sure, the show is
kitschy and can’t escape its mainstream heritage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">“The Addams
Family”</SPAN></I><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">continues through April 22 at
PlayhouseSquare’s Palace Theatre.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>For tickets, which range from $10 to $87.50, visit <A href=""><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
color=#004276>www.playhousesquare.com</FONT></SPAN></A>.<o:p></o:p></I></SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>